On Mon, 04 Aug 2003 12:20:19 GMT, "Mike Stevenson"
wrote:



As to pruning I personally do not. I could see how some might for the sake
of controlling thier plants, particularly tomatoes. I am not speaking from
practise, but personally I'm not sure the logic holds up on the idea of
pruning allows more energy for fruit. While having less leaves could mean
more of the plants focus goes to the fruit, it could also mean the plant is
spending some of its energy on regrowing new leaves past a point where it
normally would. Also when we speak of the plant's energies it would seem to
me since that energy comes from the sun, and is taken in through the leaves,
the plant would have more energy to spend if its able to take in more energy
at once, i.e. more foilage. This is just me speculating, others with more
experience can always give more input, and you can decide for yourself which
is best. My own take is that nature knows what it is doing, and it's best to
allow the plant to follow whatever course has been instilled in it...


I don't always agree (think of pruning fruit trees), but in
the case of tomatoes, I've always thought that caging them
is much easier than pruning and tieing. If it results in a
bit less fruit - although I'm not sure of this - the ease
and convenience of not-pruning has always seemed worth it to
me.

BUT: next year, I'll probably be growing them in a
hoophouse and space will be at a premium, so I'll prune them
and grow them up strings or nets, or something vertical.

Pat