Pruning tomato plants?

I have seen some of you refer to pruning or thinning your tomato plants. I am heading over to the EWA house next week and would appreciate any advice you can give me as to how to take care of the dozen plants I have over there. They grow so big and bushy because of the heat and the watering system. (Really, I'm not REALLY bragging.)

We prune lightly... just the bottom branches so there is no soil splash from watering, sometimes up to the first flowers. We also prune suckers 1/3 at the top. We leave enough leaves to cover fruit to prevent scald but trim enough to allow good airflow.

I'd love to know more about your watering system and what types of plants you're growing. We have 58 plants this year, 12 hybrid, 46 heirloom, just starting to see tomatoes now. All were started from seed either saved, traded or purchased. I have a feeling Alex will want help to install a watering system next year instead of hand watering... lots to do at 12, not much time for watering.

LBfan, thanks for the input. As far as watering goes, I use nothing but soaker hoses on this side of the mountains, and move my tomato bed around in the garden from year to year so wouldn't install anything more permanent.. In EWA, the tomato bed is always in the same place, along a chain link fence which helps for support. The bed is just on the edge of the yard watering sprinklers and between the heat and the frequent winds over there, I haven't worried about the plants staying wet.

On this side of the hill, I focus on early varieties like Oregon Spring, Early Girl and Sielitz. If I plant the others, I am always disappointed at the large quantites of green tomatos that never seem to ripen. I will always have Sweet 100's, my very favorite cherry.

On the other side, I go for the large, highly acid types that resemble the heirlooms in taste. Better Boy, Guerney Girl, Big Beef and New Girl are my favotires. I have been less than successful with Brandywine, so have given up on it. I do start all of my plants in my greenhouse by seed also.

I will be in EWA Monday and Tuesday of next week and will probably bore you with a picture or two when I get back.

Sharon, I prune fairly severely, because I grow my tomatoes on bamboo tripods, one plant per pole. I take off all leaves below the first flowers, and then prune the suckers off all season. Sometimes I root the suckers to fill in a gap where I've lost a plant of that type, but usually I don't do anything with them. Here's the plan I follow; I use the simple pruning method, not the Missouri:


http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/pruning-tomatoes.aspx

GG, thanks for the links. It was very informative and I was surprised (and happy to now know) to see that Oregon Spring is determinate. I will give the pruning a try on plants that I have duplicates of. I haven't been unhappy with the quantity of my harvest in the past, and over there pests and disease are not quite so prevalant. I'm going to have to see the results of my own efforts before going whole-hog on this, of course.

Sharon, glad it helped. That site used to have more diagrams but either I just can't find them or they removed them. I know that Carolyn Male, who is the Tomato Queen, doesn't prune at all; she just allows her plants to sprawl. I don't have the room and I also don't like the look, so mine get tied up and thinned out. It really is a matter of preference, though.

I only grow 5 tomatoes, but I plant them very close together - 1' apart, staggered. I plant indeterminate varieties and train them each up a spiral support, pinching out the crotch suckers on a regular basis. Some do better than others and I am slowly figuring out what grows best in my location, which is a narrow garden up against a south facing rock wall. This small patch is surrounded by either rock or concrete, so gets lots of heat, and the water faucet is also in close proximity so I remember to water it frequently. I fertilize when I plant, and sometimes remember to give them another snack, but not always.

Here's another great article I ran across the other day:

http://www.grow-tomato-sauce.com/pruning.html

Thanks, Kathy. I'm thinking that, because the plants are at the house in EWA and I see them only every couple of weeks, that I might just "go with the flow" after all. It was a good idea, but I guess not practical for me there. They did really well last year withoug a lot of attention.

Since our climate is dubious at best for tomatoes I prune off all new growth around the middle of August since any pollinated flowers do not have enough time to produce fruit anyways. Then about the first of September I stress the plants by withholding water forcing them to ripen their fruit. I am not a fan of green tomatoes and many years am able to ripen the whole lot.

That's an interesting technique. What's your typical frost date there, and how much longer would your plants normally have to ripen if you didn't do that?

I would have few ripe tomatoes by the first frost which is usually around October 15th. Our summers are relatively cool here.

Thanks, Azorina!

So.... we were over to the EWA house last weekend to check on tomatoes and peaches. I had given up the idea of trying to prune the tomatoes because we only get there every two or three weeks and it sounded too much like a project that would take more attention than that. At any rate, we were very happy to not have pruned. Our tomato bed is on the outside of our chain link fence, in the driveway, and when we got there it looked like we had just a few ripening. Upon closer inspection, we found quite a few hidden in the interior of the vines. I think they were not so obvious to passers-by and neighbors who we have allowed to pick them in years past. We had said we wouldn't have enough to share this year, but who could resist ripe tomatoes glowing in the sun?

I would be pretty frustrated if I asked people to leave them alone this year and they didn't. Nice that the plants hid their bounty so you could have it!

Of course, it is impossible to tell if they were left alone or not. I am pretty sure I was not raided, but am happy for the large amount of foliage.

Good fruit set but not many ripe....

Singin' the late-September-Pacific-Northwest-My-Tomatoes-Won't-Ripen Blues . . .

Yup!! I tried a few new varieties this year and so far I'm fairly impressed with Oregon beaver lodge and silvery fir tree. The latter had a great fruit set ripened the fruit and then sorta disappeared. (It may have been a little neglected in the pot)

This is Oregon beaver lodge. Both varieties are from Territorial Seed and of good flavor

This message was edited Sep 16, 2010 4:11 PM

Linda, we will have to try that one next year! Although we are cooler than you, we should have SOME red showing on some of the big tomatoes at this point. Nothin but green here..................

You're very ambitious to grow full size tomatoes. I generally don't even try them anymore . . .

Rarejem forgot to mention that a few of the"almost ripe" cherry tomatoes came from my potted plants!

I have had all of 12 ripe cherry tomatoes, and no full size are ripe. I'd had unrealistic hopes for a long, warm September to ripen a few, but...I guess that's not to be. Oh well. Win some. lose some, you don't win ever if you don't try.

I planted 5 indeterminates this year: Sungold so far is my best tasting, sweet as can be, and fairly good producer, Sweet 100 is my best producer, but rather acidic, kind of makes me wince when I bite in. Yellow Pear is producing OK but the fruit is mushy. First Light has yielded two ripe tomatoes which were good - small red salad type, very tomato-ee taste, good texture. Carmello (another salad type, not sure of the color) hasn't ripened anything yet, but has more green fruit on it then First Light.

Last year I eliminated both Early Girl and Cherokee Purple, both cracked real bad and didn't produce well. Also nixed Christmas Grapes, which gave me lots of fruit, but as I recall the taste was insipid.

My organic farm buddies recommend Stupice, which I'll try next year. I did grow this one time and as I recall it did well. Likely couldn't find it this year (I buy plants).

Would they ripen if we made a tent of bubble wrap around them?

I had lots of cherry tomatoes and the Sungolds were great. I just pulled them out of the ground because they were finished. The regular tomatoes are starting to redden and I hope they continue. It is not very cold here but very rainy. The night before last a huge Cork tree in the backyard behind me lost a big limb, which fell into the next yard, demolishing a lot of plants and crashing into the garage. Two little boys (2 and 5) live there and are always playing in the yard so we are all thankful it happened at 3am. They are going to try to save the tree but it has a big gashing wound on the main trunk. I love that tree - it makes me sad. Another neighbor, the garden designer, has warned in the past that the tree needed to be "limbed up" to avoid damage from limbs made heavy with rain.

Does removing lots of foliage from the plants help the tomatoes to ripen?

I don't think it does. I think the tomatoes need consistent heat to ripen. The cracking occurs, I'm told, with large temperature fluctuations between day and night.

You can also ripen some fruit after picking by putting it in a bag with other fruit (bananas are commonly used). The natural accumulation of ethylene gas hastens ripening. It kind of ruins the texture, though.

http://www.catalyticgenerators.com/whatisethylene.html

I plan to make green enchilada sauce with the ones that don't turn red. Last year I heard that uneven watering caused tomatoes to split, then I heard it was something lacking in the soil. Who knows?

Inconsistent watering can do it, too, though it's not usually the kind of problem we have here this time of year when we're waiting for them to ripen.

So true Agent59

Hey, Judi. Meant to tell you to have fun this weekend. This is the first weekend of several - is that right?

I hope things go well!

Yes - tomorrow I start work in the prison, where I will be for about 10 weeks doing a preceptorship. I'm not sure "fun" is the right word, but it should be interesting! I'd much rather be at the RU. :(

Judi, We had sooo been looking forward to this chance to meet you since we had missed out on the Whidbey event. We'd much rather have you here as well, but there will always be another time, and your opportunity should be really interesting. We will take lots of pics to share and look forward to having your company in the future!

Yes, maybe not fun. I hope it's a good and not too frustrating learning experience . . . rewarding would even be great. :-)

What is it that you're preparing yourself to do, Judi? I think I must have missed it!

I think Judi's renewing her RN license in Oregon (she was a nurse before she was an architect - Machavellian woman!).

Mach·i·a·vel·li·an   
[mak-ee-uh-vel-ee-uhn] Show IPA
–adjective
1. of, like, or befitting Machiavelli.
2. being or acting in accordance with the principles of government analyzed in Machiavelli's The Prince, in which political expediency is placed above morality and the use of craft and deceit to maintain the authority and carry out the policies of a ruler is described.
3. characterized by subtle or unscrupulous cunning, deception, expediency, or dishonesty: He resorted to Machiavellian tactics in order to get ahead

Agent59, I hope that does not describe me!

GG - I was an RN for some years, returned to school and got a degree in architecture, practiced hospital/healthcare architecture for 15 years then retired form that, and now I want to work part time in a community health capacity for the medically under-served. I kept my California license (both arch and RN) so I'm now in the process of getting my Oregon RN license. It takes about a year and I am in the last phase and should be finished by the end of this year. I'm doing a preceptorship in a prison and it is wild, to say the least.