My Tomatoe plants have gone wild. They have taken over just about my entire
garden (8' x 16' elevated garden) and are crowding out everything else I have
planted.

Question: How far back can I prune them back before I do damage to the plant.

Jon

From: (TORENGI)

My Tomatoe plants have gone wild. They have taken over just about my entire
garden (8' x 16' elevated garden) and are crowding out everything else I have
planted.

Question: How far back can I prune them back before I do damage to the
plant.

Jon

The heck with the other stuff--forget it- tomatoes rule!!

TORENGI said:

My Tomatoe plants have gone wild. They have taken over just about my entire
garden (8' x 16' elevated garden) and are crowding out everything else I have
planted.

Question: How far back can I prune them back before I do damage to the plant.

Well, the rule of thumb with shrubs is that you can remove 1/3 of the stems in
any year...

You'd probably be safe cutting back whole shoots (including some of the green
tomatoes). Cut from the north and east side of the plants, to avoid suddenly
exposing green fruit to the sun during the hottest part of the day. Maybe put up
some temporary fencing to hold back the plants on the south and west sides,
or limit yourself to tipping the plants back on these sides.
--
Pat in Plymouth MI

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)

Just make sure to use something clean, you don't want to infect all the plants
with pahtogens.

Maybe you could wipe off a knife (I like to use on of those razors with the
retractable blade), I like to use some rubbing alcohol to kill a bunch of the
bacteria and fungi on it.

Probably just being paranoid, but a freind of mine wiped out his entire orchid
collection because he pruned his plants by just slicing them with his
thumbnail. All infected.

Tomatoes can withstand massive pruning, but Pat's 1/3 guideline sounds
about right.

Regarding infection: I never take any special precautions and have
never lost plant to infection. I also smoke and have never had tobacco
mosaic problems. That said, precaution is always prudent, but don't
lose your mind over it.

You can usually remove sufficient growth by removing suckers, but in
extremely vigorous hybrids like Early Girl, for example, you may need
to remove an occasional main vine.

It's not critical, just get them breathing again. You obviously want
to avoid removing vines to which major groups of fruits are attached,
which I've done many times by mistake.
DaveH


My Tomatoe plants have gone wild. They have taken over just about my entire
garden (8' x 16' elevated garden) and are crowding out everything else I have
planted.

Question: How far back can I prune them back before I do damage to the plant.

Jon