What did you do in the garden today?

[CrealCritter]

I have read about pruning tomatoes. Never tried it myself. Seems you have an opportunity to learn!

You dont prune or sucker your tomatoes? I don't prune all of mine because there are to many but I like to keep several pruned and suckered. Sure if you don't prune and sucker you'll get more tomatoes off the plant but they will be smaller than if you keep the plant pruned and suckered. Opps maybe I just let out one of my secrets for huge tomatoes.

 

[CrealCritter]

Farming......yeah, plenty of farmers around who would love to use, lease, buy my farm. I don't want that. Simply a person/family who wants a LARGE veg garden. Just that. I am not having the crops and chemicals back on here so long as I have it.

Last year a couple people on CL wanted to "use" land. One wanted a couple acres to live in a teepee & have a garden, cow, chickens. That wasn't what I wanted, so didn't respond. Another wanted a garden spot. I contacted him thru CL only and said I'd want to meet him first -- get references, etc. That was that, he dropped it. You have to be careful nowdays! I'm not looking for trouble & I sure don't want to have to shoot anyone.

Yes you really do need be careful nowadays. The number of nut jobs seems to.be increasing every time i watch.thenews.

 

[tortoise]

You dont prune or sucker your tomatoes? I don't prune all of mine because there are to many but I like to keep several pruned and suckered. Sure if you don't prune and sucker you'll get more tomatoes off the plant but they will be smaller than if you keep the plant pruned and suckered. Opps maybe I just let out one of my secrets for huge tomatoes.

Is it normal to prune tomatoes? Do you get higher yield per plant? I don't care about size of tomatoes - larger a more of a PITA for canning, IMO. But more pounds of produce in smaller space sure sounds appealing.

Do your big tomatoes crack? I am not even planning large tomatoes this year because we lose probably 75% to cracking or rotting. I might plant one beefsteak up near the house, stake it up and baby it/

 

[NH Homesteader]

I do it because I was told it forces the plant to focus on tomatoes, not on growing itself. With our short growing season, tomatoes are hard!

 

[Beekissed]

We got another hay bale raised bed established in which I can plant my spuds...very late getting those out, so I'm anxious to get those in the mulch.

Also got gates secured against chicken going overs that's been happening this winter....they had scratched up the hay until it was too thin in spots, letting grass grow in those areas lately. A bale of hay busted up into flakes soon rectified those growths.

Tomato seedlings are up 2 in. now...they are very vigorous compared to the other things planted.

 

[CrealCritter]

Is it normal to prune tomatoes? Do you get higher yield per plant? I don't care about size of tomatoes - larger a more of a PITA for canning, IMO. But more pounds of produce in smaller space sure sounds appealing.

Do your big tomatoes crack? I am not even planning large tomatoes this year because we lose probably 75% to cracking or rotting. I might plant one beefsteak up near the house, stake it up and baby it/

The main reason I prune some (not all of my tomatoes) is because it helps the plant direct its energy toward producing fruit rather than producing more foliage. The excess foliage will eventually grow into new branches that will form fruit, but most old timers will advise that tomatoes should be pruned to not only produce larger fruit earlier in the season, but also to protect the plants against pests and diseases. When a tomato plant is pruned properly, all of the foliage receives adequate airflow, sunlight, and the plant is able to photosynthesize better which results in growing and producing bigger fruit more efficiently.

There are two types of tomatoes plants irregardless of the variety of tomato they produce. Determinate tomatoes you should not prune. Because determinate plants develop all of their fruit at one time, pruning may cause you low yields and for no good reason. Determinate tomato plants are commonly called a bush type

But if you're growing indeterminate tomato plants which produce fruit regularly over the course of a season, pruning is essential. Not only will it help keep the huge vines under control, but it will force energy into producing several really nice-sized tomatoes instead of lots of foliage and many more smaller tomatoes.

Another benefit to pruning is filling in skips (bare spot in the row that missing a tomato plant. Go out early in the morning when the stems are brittle find a 6 to 10" long sucker and snap it of from the main stem at it's base (where it's attached to the main steam) take the snapped and in firmly push.it into the soil abou 4 inches. Pack the soil around it tightly and keep it watered for about a week. Next thing to.know you'll have another Tomato.plant growing and it will go and produce fruit the same as the other will. It will just be several weeks behind the others.

I'll also off 2 more hints that you could try to gow healier tomato plants.

1) when you dig the hole to set your u tomato, dig it deep, add two bayer asprin and 1 or 2 spent shot gun shell to the bottom of the hole. set the roots on top of the asprins and spent shot gun shells. I can pretty much guarentee they will grow like crazy. They love the sulfer and asprin combo. But don't go overboard or the will.have stunted.growth.

2) the first time you spray them.for.bugs ( I use neen oil & Palmolive (original) and water mixed in a pump sprayer - also add in some epsome salt it doesn't take much epsome salt. It's something about the magnumsm on the leaves and steams that cause the leaves to grow large and the stream to grow thick. Repeat Epsom salt spary every 2 or 3 weeks But you should spary Palmolive (orginal) / need oil and water weekly. The key is to peat control is to discourage bugs before they find your unprotected plants and start munching. I like to think of it like cleaning.house. a house is easier to clean if it's cleaned regularly.

I guess I let out a few more secrets hu?

 

[tortoise]

This year I checked an picked out determinate varieties. But I might just use your propagation technique to lengthen my season if I plant some tomatoes for market. For home use, I'm canning and want them all at once. Last year I got about 800 pounds of tomatoes, which sounds amazing, but there was so much lost fruit and many plants produced poorly. A good chunk of my garden goes to tomatoes and I need to use my space more wisely. My garden is 1/5 acre, fenced with 8 foot tall electric fence to keep deer out. In other words, expanding my garden isn't going to happen. I haven't had any bug problems with tomatoes, knock on wood.

 

[tortoise]

I am planting seeds today. Tomatoes (probably too many!), cabbage, jalapeño, cayenne, herbs. Filled up the 3 trays I planned to plant and still have seed packets, so more planting coming this weekend!

I was worried about starting things too early because of our late snow accumulation and expecting later planting dates. But then I remembered DH made me a little makeshift greenhouse that will help me keep platns going if we do have late planting dates this year.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Tomatoes (probably too many!)

No such thing!!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I'm not doing anything in the garden except worrying about it. We're supposed to get pretty cold tonight...in the 40's. I don't think it'll kill the plants - but I might lose all my blooms. It just doesn't get cold in April around here...grrrr