Question:
Have any of you south Texas gardeners ever tried trimming back your summer indeterminates and leaving them in place as your fall tomato crop? FWIW, I'm in far west Houston.
I've had good luck with these and they are healthy with massive bases and main stems. So, I'm thinking about not pulling everything and tilling and starting over this fall.
Anybody ever have any luck doing this?
Thanks in advance.
Trimming back summer tomatoes for fall Garden?
Yes, I have known folks that have been successful doing this. Also, you can lay the vine on ground cover with soil and it will root creating a new plant.
I would surely experiment with a few and then, you can share your results. Good luck.
One of the farmers at the Rice Farmers Market (Tuesday afternoons), gave me some of his super compost and told me to cut off the best looking tomato vine tops about a foot tall and plant them in the mixture.
These are in 5 gal buckets, not the garden this time.
Looking forward to fruit in a couple of months.
Spirit and Bubba - I did that with 3 Black Cherry starts - gave one to Knolan, one to Gymgirl at the Houston swap. I'm hoping we'll be picking them in a couple of months. I put mine in the ground as an experiment.
I also have a Cherokee Purple in an Earthbox that started itself over after I cut off the ugly unproductive late summer growth. I'm really looking forward to some of those!
Podster - I haven't yanked a Better Boy from the ground or cut it back so it may be using your "lay it on the ground" method" - or the ignore it a while longer and see what happens method!
I wish I'd have seen this before I pulled up all my tomato plants. I had some handsome 444's this year - nice big fruits on them too. My Cherry tomatoes are still going strong - they are indistructable.
Veggie - in New Braunfels do you get freezes very early? I'm hoping to beat the freeze/real cold weather, and I'm one zone warmer than you.
How were those 444's in taste? I'm trying to decide which ones for next spring. I'd read they did well in our heat/humidity.
I've only lived here three years, but we've never frozen before Thanksgiving since I've been here.
I like, love, adore the 444's because it's the only tomato that grows well for me. Zero big issues and it's stocky and healthy and keeps low to the ground. The only negative could possibly be that it makes all the tomatoes at once pretty much. I like the way they taste, but I'm not a tomato expert. The flesh is firm not grainy like some - and the tomatoes get really big.
This is why I started the "ZONE 9a Veggie Growers Planting Schedule for NEWBIES..." thread!!!!
So local info like this could be passed on to those in the Houston area!!! and So this newbie would know what to do next. Move your posts over there, please, huh?
Bubba, we need to talk.....
Gymgirl - not only talk - we need some 444 cuttings. I have potted ine each of whatever I bought the kept the snails and slugs well fed earlier this year. I'm going to build some screen cages - maybe then we can get more than a handful for ourselves.
Thanks for the replies. I've done cuttings and starts before. This time I'm talking about trimming them back to the 2-3 main branches maybe a couple inches long beyond where they come off from the base. IOW, there won't be any leaf growth after I cut them back.
Anybody ever done that?
Thanks again in advance.
Gymgirl, I'm far from a newbie. Been growing tomatoes in Houston for nearly 30 years now.
Sorry if my post upset you.
I've never tried this and was simply wondering if anyone else had done something similar.
I've done all sorts of propagation before with the exception of severely cutting them back like this for the fall garden.
This message was edited Aug 20, 2007 2:02 AM
Spirit ~ I will be interested to see if you will be successful pruning that hard. Please keep us posted... pod
Spirit - I cut my cherokee Purple back to about 5" - no leaves or anything left. I was just lazy and didn't pull it up right away. It surprised me by not dying. It is producing branching new growth on the stem! It's in an EB all by itself, right now and about 10" tall so far. It will be an experiment :)
444 is now on my list for next year! Oh with about 15 other varieties! I only have room for about 6 or 8 plants. Decisions, decisions.