I have some tomatoes growing like crazy - including putting out healthy
suckers. Is there any generally agreed on "best" way to grow tomatoes? Pinch
suckers? Tie to trellis? Let sprawl? Any voices of experience here that
would like to comment?

On 2006-06-11 23:52:46 -0400, "Matthew Reed" nospam at zootal dot com
nospam said:

I have some tomatoes growing like crazy - including putting out healthy
suckers. Is there any generally agreed on "best" way to grow tomatoes?
Pinch suckers? Tie to trellis? Let sprawl? Any voices of experience
here that would like to comment?


Personal choice. I pinch mine mosto of the time.

I always pinch out the suckers. They produce no fruit and take energy from
the rest
of the plant.. I made "cages" out of 4 ft wire fencing which they have just
out grown.
I used long pruned tree branches and stuck them inside the cage, used twine
to wrap
around the plant and fencing for extra support. Should have tomatoes ready
to pick
by next week unless I want green fried tomatoes....umm, that sounds yummy.
Elaine in Ga
Zone7
"Matthew Reed" nospam at zootal dot com nospam wrote in message
...
I have some tomatoes growing like crazy - including putting out healthy
suckers. Is there any generally agreed on "best" way to grow tomatoes?
Pinch suckers? Tie to trellis? Let sprawl? Any voices of experience here
that would like to comment?

highly individual. basically, pinch and stake for BIG tomatoes, dont sucker and
sprawl for LOTS of tomatoes. up and off the ground = less bugs. Ingrid (I let em
sprawl, is easier).

"Matthew Reed" nospam at zootal dot com nospam wrote:

I have some tomatoes growing like crazy - including putting out healthy
suckers. Is there any generally agreed on "best" way to grow tomatoes? Pinch
suckers? Tie to trellis? Let sprawl? Any voices of experience here that
would like to comment?




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Zone 5 next to Lake Michigan

I start seedlings and put one in a half-barrel beside the porch early
(using those walls of water to prevent freezing). I baby this plant,
weeding and watering it often, and pinch off the suckers.

The others I plant in the garden once the weather is warm. I don't baby
them, just water twice weekly, and don't pinch off the suckers.

Both methods produce equal crops, at the same time. I don't know why I
bother with the barrel, other than its too heavy to move and looks funny
empty.

Matthew Reed wrote:
I have some tomatoes growing like crazy - including putting out healthy
suckers. Is there any generally agreed on "best" way to grow tomatoes? Pinch
suckers? Tie to trellis? Let sprawl? Any voices of experience here that
would like to comment?

It's a trade-off between your time and your garden space. Pinching suckers
and tieing to a trellis will give you the most tomato for your space, but
will take up your time. Letting the plants sprawl will take less time and
give you more tomato per plant, but the large plants will take up more
garden area.

Variety of tomato matters too, but it's too late now for you to choose.
It's also too late for you to change the spacing in your garden. Bush
tomatoes are good sprawlers, the others are better tied.

"Mindful" wrote in message
...

"Matthew Reed" nospam at zootal dot com nospam wrote in message
...
I have some tomatoes growing like crazy - including putting out healthy
suckers. Is there any generally agreed on "best" way to grow tomatoes?
Pinch suckers? Tie to trellis? Let sprawl? Any voices of experience here
that would like to comment?

Mine are in cages made of old field fence. I don't pinch the suckers. The
whole plant is held upright by the cage.

"Matthew Reed" nospam at zootal dot com nospam wrote in message
...
I have some tomatoes growing like crazy - including putting out healthy
suckers. Is there any generally agreed on "best" way to grow tomatoes?
Pinch suckers? Tie to trellis? Let sprawl? Any voices of experience here
that would like to comment?


Generally we cut all the suckers, and last years cause of lot of rain we
leave only one or two branches the most, cause conditions for diseases and
it shows the most effective and we don't change it.

On Sun, 11 Jun 2006 20:52:46 -0700, Matthew Reed wrote:
I have some tomatoes growing like crazy - including putting out healthy
suckers. Is there any generally agreed on "best" way to grow tomatoes? Pinch
suckers? Tie to trellis? Let sprawl? Any voices of experience here that
would like to comment?

Sprawled on cardboard or other clean mulch... better yield per plant.

In article ,
says...
I always pinch out the suckers. They produce no fruit and take energy from
the rest



Tomato suckers produce fruit.....
--
Lar

Yes Lar they do produce fruit. I stand corrected. I should have said the
suckers are the growth that occurs between the main stem and the leaf axil
of the flower stem. Eventually, if allowed to grow, they branch out into
their own plant. By leaving these on, the plant expends much of its energy
into the new growth rather than producing tomatoes. You end up with more
tomatoes over the long run, but sacrifice size and space.
So it is really up to the indidividual if they want more smaller fruit or
less larger fruit. I like mine on BLT's or a side dish so the bigger the
better
Elaine in Ga
Zone


"Lar" wrote in message
t...
In article ,
says...
I always pinch out the suckers. They produce no fruit and take energy
from
the rest



Tomato suckers produce fruit.....
--
Lar

If we let tomatoes sprawl, even over mulch, they always get diseased. Too
much humidity and heat all summer. Keeping them off the ground and in the
air helps. We rotate them from one area to another but sprawling doesn't
work.


"Andrew Ostrander" wrote in message
...
It's a trade-off between your time and your garden space. Pinching
suckers
and tieing to a trellis will give you the most tomato for your space, but
will take up your time. Letting the plants sprawl will take less time and
give you more tomato per plant, but the large plants will take up more
garden area.

Variety of tomato matters too, but it's too late now for you to choose.
It's also too late for you to change the spacing in your garden. Bush
tomatoes are good sprawlers, the others are better tied.

"Mindful" wrote in message
...

"Matthew Reed" nospam at zootal dot com nospam wrote in message
...
I have some tomatoes growing like crazy - including putting out healthy
suckers. Is there any generally agreed on "best" way to grow tomatoes?
Pinch suckers? Tie to trellis? Let sprawl? Any voices of experience here
that would like to comment?

Mine are in cages made of old field fence. I don't pinch the suckers. The
whole plant is held upright by the cage.

Matthew Reed wrote:

I have some tomatoes growing like crazy - including putting out healthy
suckers. Is there any generally agreed on "best" way to grow tomatoes? Pinch
suckers? Tie to trellis? Let sprawl? Any voices of experience here that
would like to comment?


Matt,

If you want bigger tomatoes you should pinch those suckers. If you let
the suckers grow you may or may not get tomatoes from them. Some
varieties do better that others when it comes to producing tomatoes from
sucker growth. I do know some people that cut off the suckers and stick
them (deeply) into the ground and grow additional tomato plants from
them. Once cut off the mother plant they seem to produce normal growth
and a normal crop of tomatoes.

I use tomato cages or stake my tomatoes. That keeps the tomatoes off
the ground and keeps the tomatoes cleaner. Staking also seems to
produce tomatoes that ripen more evenly than ones left on the ground to
ripen. This page from my web site (third picture),
http://members.iglou.com/brosen/page13.htm shows one row of my tomato
plants. I usually grow over 100 plants each year. All the extra
tomatoes we grow go to the neighbors.
--
Bill R. (Ohio Valley, U.S.A)

Gardening for over 40 years

To see pictures from my garden visit http://members.iglou.com/brosen

Digital Camera - Pentax *ist DL

Remove NO_WEEDS_ in e-mail address to reply by e-mail

yup.

Lar wrote:
Tomato suckers produce fruit.....



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List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List at
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www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I receive no compensation for running the Puregold list or Puregold website.
I do not run nor receive any money from the ads at the old Puregold site.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zone 5 next to Lake Michigan

This sounds quite likely for some areas. Where I live summer heat or
humidity is not a problem.

"Mindful" wrote in message
...
If we let tomatoes sprawl, even over mulch, they always get diseased. Too
much humidity and heat all summer. Keeping them off the ground and in the
air helps. We rotate them from one area to another but sprawling doesn't
work.


"Andrew Ostrander" wrote in message
...
It's a trade-off between your time and your garden space. Pinching
suckers
and tieing to a trellis will give you the most tomato for your space,
but
will take up your time. Letting the plants sprawl will take less time
and
give you more tomato per plant, but the large plants will take up more
garden area.

Variety of tomato matters too, but it's too late now for you to choose.
It's also too late for you to change the spacing in your garden. Bush
tomatoes are good sprawlers, the others are better tied.

"Mindful" wrote in message
...

"Matthew Reed" nospam at zootal dot com nospam wrote in message
...
I have some tomatoes growing like crazy - including putting out
healthy
suckers. Is there any generally agreed on "best" way to grow tomatoes?
Pinch suckers? Tie to trellis? Let sprawl? Any voices of experience
here
that would like to comment?

Mine are in cages made of old field fence. I don't pinch the suckers.
The
whole plant is held upright by the cage.

By "pinching suckers" do you mean cutting them? Can you safely do this even
when they have grown fairly big?


"Matthew Reed" nospam at zootal dot com nospam wrote in message
...
I have some tomatoes growing like crazy - including putting out healthy
suckers. Is there any generally agreed on "best" way to grow tomatoes?
Pinch suckers? Tie to trellis? Let sprawl? Any voices of experience here
that would like to comment?