I have some Celebrity tomatoes growing, They are starting suckers.
Celebrities are supposedly semi-determinate. What experience do people on
this group have comparing removal to non-removal of the suckers on
Celebrities?

Bill
-- Ferme le Bush

Actually Celebrities are determinate. Personally I do not prune any
tomato plant, but cage the big indeterminates like Brandywine. It is
pretty detrimental to yield on determinates, which are supposed to be
short bushy plants.

On 3/3/06 6:02 PM, in article
,
" wrote:

Actually Celebrities are determinate. Personally I do not prune any
tomato plant, but cage the big indeterminates like Brandywine. It is
pretty detrimental to yield on determinates, which are supposed to be
short bushy plants.

I am not quite sure that I understand. Is the pruning detrimental? Or are
the suckers detrimental?

Bill
-- Ferme le Bush

Determinates have short vines, Usually two to three feet in lenght.
They make up for the lack of fruiting space by growing side shoots (
what you are calling suckers) which will approach the lenght of the
main leader, giving the plant a bushy look. Each of these side shoots
bear tomatoes approaching the rate of the main leader. If you cut them
off you only get tomatoes off the main leader. It is not as critical
with an indeterminate as the main leader keeps on going and setting
fruits further up the vine. Some of them when trimmed to a single vine
will reach 25 feet in lenght. One of the reasons determinates are the
choice of commercial growers is that that they give you a tremendous
yield over a short period of time. The side shoots are what makes it
possible.

On 3/4/06 10:57 AM, in article
,
" wrote:

Determinates have short vines, Usually two to three feet in lenght.
They make up for the lack of fruiting space by growing side shoots (
what you are calling suckers) which will approach the lenght of the
main leader, giving the plant a bushy look. Each of these side shoots
bear tomatoes approaching the rate of the main leader. If you cut them
off you only get tomatoes off the main leader. It is not as critical
with an indeterminate as the main leader keeps on going and setting
fruits further up the vine. Some of them when trimmed to a single vine
will reach 25 feet in lenght. One of the reasons determinates are the
choice of commercial growers is that that they give you a tremendous
yield over a short period of time. The side shoots are what makes it
possible.

Thanks.

I guess that is why they are also called bush tomatoes. I will experiment
with letting all, but one, grow with the side shoots and trim them on the
remaining one. I guess that it is also possible to root side shoots into new
plants.

At one hydroponic grower, they used indeterminate plants and clipped the
main leader to a string. Then, as the vine grew, they trimmed the side
leaves and dropped the string. That way, they were able to get about 30 feet
of growth within ten feet of the floor.

Bill
-- Ferme le Bush