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View Poll Results: DO YOU PRUNE OFF THE EXCESS BRANCHES TO A TOMATO PLANT BACK TO 2
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1.Yes
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10 |
11.63% |
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2.NO
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76 |
88.37% |
 12Likes
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Post By FarmboyBill
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Post By Wanda
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Post By FarmboyBill
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Post By MushCreek
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Post By ceresone
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Post By chickenista
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Post By ronbre
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03/28/14, 02:30 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Delaware
Posts: 2,249
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Tomato poll for Farmboybill
Do you prune off the excess branches to a tomato plant back to 2 thereabouts, or not.
1.Yes
2.No
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03/28/14, 02:42 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Ohio
Posts: 19,347
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I've got enough on my hands trying to keep the vines off the ground. I don't try pruning the things too.
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03/28/14, 02:44 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 16,312
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I do prune them to the last 2 branches.
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03/28/14, 03:17 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 1,754
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If you only keep the top 2 branches how much fruit do you get. Are you saying that you keep plant height at 1 foot and never let them grow from the top?
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03/29/14, 07:14 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 4,230
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Are you meaning suckering? sometimes I do, sometimes not. When I set them in the ground, I remove as many lower branches as I can, to get more roots on it--as they will root in everything below ground
__________________
In Life, We Weep at the thought of Death'
Who Knows, Perhaps in Death,
We Weep at the though of Life.
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03/29/14, 07:14 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 4,230
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Are you meaning suckering? sometimes I do, sometimes not. When I set them in the ground, I remove as many lower branches as I can, to get more roots on it--as they will root in everything below ground
__________________
In Life, We Weep at the thought of Death'
Who Knows, Perhaps in Death,
We Weep at the though of Life.
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03/29/14, 08:35 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: The Sunshine State!
Posts: 12,516
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I prune all the suckers off....except the ones at the very top.
That way the sun does not scald my fruit.
Otherwise, I prune 'hard'.
Suckers, just drain the plant of energy.
If it's not gonna produce fruit....get out of the way!!
My tomato plants hang heavy with fruit when I prune...it's amazing this little step makes.
((I use surgical gloves when I prune, otherwise your hands will turn black and smell to high heaven!!))
__________________
I am sure of two things: There is a God, and I am not Him.
The movie Rudy
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03/29/14, 12:35 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 16,312
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Wanda, the plants once pruned as I do, quickly regain their branches and leaves again. It would be interesting, IF I had the water, to re prune them again after thy grow out, so as to make an even denser root growth, to see what they would do. That could/should make for a staggered growth.
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03/29/14, 12:35 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 16,312
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Laura, My hands have NEVER turned any color but old in the over 30yrs ive pruned them
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03/29/14, 01:18 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 1,754
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Bill if you are just doing this before planting, try a couple planted on there side. If I have tall plants I pinch off all the branches except the cluster at the very top. Then I dig a trench as long as the root and bare stem. Lay the plant on its side and cover with dirt to about 1 1/2 inches from the top foliage. It will put out roots all along the length of the stem.
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03/29/14, 01:34 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 16,312
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Wanda, IF youll look in ST on my tomato posting youll see where I describe putting them on the side. I dont do that here unless im EARLY and/or the spring is late in being cold or wet. Here in NE Okla, its seldom either anymore. I don't want them too close to the surface, cause when it gets hot, and there near the surface, it hurts them. NOT SO MUCH, if there in a bush, but I trellis mine,.
EVERYTHING you said Wanda, I described on a post in ST. Good advice wherever its posted
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03/29/14, 02:43 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Ohio
Posts: 4,325
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Why not ask the White House? They can rig anything. 
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03/30/14, 06:23 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Florida and South Carolina
Posts: 2,167
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I plant my tomatoes, tend them carefully every day until they die, and then I go to a farm stand and BUY tomatoes!
__________________
"What one generation tolerates, the next generation embraces." -John Wesley
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03/30/14, 07:20 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 4,230
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I plant mine as deep as I can, instead of sideways. It seems to be they stand the heat better
__________________
In Life, We Weep at the thought of Death'
Who Knows, Perhaps in Death,
We Weep at the though of Life.
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03/30/14, 07:56 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: The Sunshine State!
Posts: 12,516
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FBB, maybe it's the type of tomatoes I grow? But after pruning 125 plants, my finger tips are black and it takes DAYS to get the smell out of my bare hands!!
__________________
I am sure of two things: There is a God, and I am not Him.
The movie Rudy
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03/31/14, 07:13 AM
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Original recipe!
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: NC foothills
Posts: 13,984
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The difference in pruning comes from whether it is a determinate or indeterminate variety.
You have to be careful pruning back determinate tomatoes as they only bloom and produce the one time(ish).
Indeterminate tomatoes will continue to grow, bloom and set fruit until they freeze to death and die. The new blooms and fruit come from the new growth on top and you have to prune hard. My vines get 10 ft or more some years. Egads. Those suckers will kill you and they gotta go. But, on indeterminate tomatoes, those suckers will also produce blooms and fruits.
I can't really describe how I choose which to prune and which to let grow, but I have some inner system of choosing.
And black! My fingers turn jet black within minutes and the smell lingers.
Luckily, I love the smell of the resin from tomato vines. 
Perhaps the resin is more on the indeterminate than the determinate?
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03/31/14, 11:49 AM
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Brenda Groth
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Michigan
Posts: 7,817
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do you know pruned branches can be rooted as a clone
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03/31/14, 11:04 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Vancouver Island, BC
Posts: 63
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I prune my indeterminates to ONE leader, and train them up a string, or one of those curly supports that is supported by a teepee of sticks. Otherwise they get chomped by whatever's on the ground, or hidden under leaves and it becomes a jungle. Try to do the same with tomatillos, but those things really go fractal-ly.....
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04/01/14, 01:25 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: SW Michigan
Posts: 16,408
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It all depends on where I have lived. In TN, we had no tomato blights...so I didn't have to do much to them. In Iowa, I pruned them to keep the leaves off the ground and hopefully prevent those nasty blight organisms from splashing up on the tomato leaves. In Michigan- I haven't had any trouble with blight either so I don't prune on purpose. Sometimes, I need to hack a path through them though. It's easier to cut something off than tie it up. When I do cut them off, I couldn't tell you if I left 2, 12, or 112 stems.
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