Someone please help me with my tomatoes!!!

[Ladyhawke1]

I found a great book by Miracle-Gro, Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs. Sometimes you can get it at Home Depot for $17.

It is a very good book and has many organic solutions. Yes, I know some people do not like to read. Personally, I try to do as much research as I can before I jump in. Sometimes I have to read things more than once.

To answer this question according to the book...there are two types of tomatoes. Indeterminate and determinate. Indeterminate fruit at different times. Determinate fruit all at once.

Quote: How to pinch a sucker.Indeterminate tomatoes - but not determinate or dwarf kinds -- need pruning. Both kinds produce suckers, side branches that form in the joints where the leaves meet the stems. These suckers will eventually grow, flower and fruit. If you have a small-space garden or live in a northern climate, indeterminate plants may become too large or they may not mature the fruits before fall frost. To concentrate more energy into the rest of the fruits and plant, pinch out the suckers just beyond the first two leaves.

I hope this helps.

 

[ducks4you]

mener6896, I did a search on TEG for you and found the following threads:
http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=27423

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=27425

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=27383

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=27155

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=26793

I also found this picture to help you.
Tomato Staking#1

Tomato Staking#2 (I think it's easier to see.)

Here's another site with some interesting ideas.
http://www.hightunnels.org/ForGrowers/WarmSeasonVegetables/warmseasonvegtomprod.htm

Happy WINTER reading!!

 

[msbear]

What great info everyone

Daddy always pruned therefore I was destined to be a pruner. I still don't get those astronormous beefy mators like him (He uses dried blood, lime and other soil remedies that I haven't tried yet... just do chicky poo and a little aged horse manure) Anyway, he pinches the first set of suckers then lets them go. If they are wacky in some way and have too many suckers in the first months, he will pinch them too.

I pinched mostly all of them this past year as I wasn't getting large tomatoes and never did get any really big ones. I was rather bummed. Im going with the dried blood this year and pruning just the first suckers.

 

[cwhit590]

I must confess...I'm a tomato-pruner! Well...sort of....

We always do a single cherry tomato on our deck each year. I prune any side branches that start growing too far outward (and outside of the tomato cage). That way the plant can focus on growing upward, and it keeps things a little tidier around the deck area. I pinch off the shoots but leave the flower cluster...that way the tomatoes can still develop.

Any tomatoes in the garden are free to do as they please...no pruning needed!

 

[desertgirl]

I pinch the suckers early in the season so that the plant doesn't waste its energy. I must confess that by mid summer I don't really pinch at all, but I have pruned them back to keep them in the cages in my containers (like you cwhit).

This year I am thinking of pruning them "down" too. In my raised bed garden (which has a cover), they get way too tall and I can't shut the cover. One of the great things about doing my gardening this way is that is cuts down on the water loss (always a consideration here in the desert). Last year I had to leave it open by about August, which kind of defeats the purpose...

I think I read that trimming down their height a little will not hurt them in any way (she types hopefully....)