This is the first year of my vegetable garden & everything is growing great
(all organic, no chemicals at all). But one issue I'm having is that I
decided to use cages for my tomatoes, I had no idea that these things would
grow so large. I staked them a couple of weeks ago but I'm afraid it was too
late. The plants are beginning to hang & droop, I'm worried that the plants
are going to break as they are so loaded with fruit. Now I hate to prune
branches w/fruit but I had rather have some thna none at all abe cause the
plant breaks @ the "trunk". Should I trim the branches that are hanging ?

-thanks

Reply-To: "James Bass"
From: "James Bass"
Newsgroups: rec.gardens

The plants are beginning to hang & droop, I'm worried that the plants
are going to break as they are so loaded with fruit. Now I hate to prune
branches w/fruit but I had rather have some thna none at all abe cause the
plant breaks @ the "trunk". Should I trim the branches that are hanging ?

-
Tomatoes can go up and they can go down--no problem--you could take some twine
and tie the drooping branch near a fruit clusterto the cage for added support.
Tomatoes are sprawlers and are happy going every which way--take advantage of
your eager plants desire to grow and producem forget this pruning nonsense.

James Bass wrote:
This is the first year of my vegetable garden & everything is growing great
(all organic, no chemicals at all). But one issue I'm having is that I
decided to use cages for my tomatoes, I had no idea that these things would
grow so large. I staked them a couple of weeks ago but I'm afraid it was too
late. The plants are beginning to hang & droop, I'm worried that the plants
are going to break as they are so loaded with fruit. Now I hate to prune
branches w/fruit but I had rather have some than none at all and cause the
plant breaks @ the "trunk". Should I trim the branches that are hanging ?

-thanks



James,

I have been growing tomatoes for over 40 years and I have
found that it is better to just let them grow. If you prune
them now you will not get many late season tomatoes. Prop
them up the best you can.

There is one other rule that you must follow when growing
tomatoes. It is: share your tomatoes with your friends and
neighbors.
--
Bill R. (Ohio Valley, U.S.A)

Digital Camera: HP PhotoSmart 850

For pictures of my garden visit http://members.iglou.com/brosen

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

Thanks for the feedback.
I actually did that a couple of weeks ago & figured I would be allright, I
even have bungee cords on the stakes to try & keep them upright, but they
just keep spreading out. I think that next year I will try some of the
tomato ladders from gardeners.com.

-thanks again
James


"Frankhartx" wrote in message
...
Reply-To: "James Bass"
From: "James Bass"
Newsgroups: rec.gardens

The plants are beginning to hang & droop, I'm worried that the plants
are going to break as they are so loaded with fruit. Now I hate to prune
branches w/fruit but I had rather have some thna none at all abe cause
the
plant breaks @ the "trunk". Should I trim the branches that are hanging ?

-
Tomatoes can go up and they can go down--no problem--you could take some
twine
and tie the drooping branch near a fruit clusterto the cage for added
support.
Tomatoes are sprawlers and are happy going every which way--take advantage
of
your eager plants desire to grow and producem forget this pruning
nonsense.

In article says...
Tomatoes can go up and they can go down--no problem--you could take some twine
and tie the drooping branch near a fruit clusterto the cage for added support.
Tomatoes are sprawlers and are happy going every which way--take advantage of
your eager plants desire to grow and producem forget this pruning nonsense.

I read up on pruning and pruned once very early in the year when the
plants were just starting to grow funny. I followed the instructions and
pruned the suckers. Now they're huge and I'm getting big tomatoes this
year. Last year all my tomatoes were small and I had a lot of yellow
leaves. I grow my tomatoes out of big containers BTW. After the plants
got big, it was very difficult to figure out what to prune and what not
to prune so I just let nature take it's course. I do think, based upon
my anecdotal evidence, that my early pruning did help the plants grow
decent sized tomatoes this year. YMMV.


This was the size of the tomatoes on June 13 and I pruned them a week
later...

http://www.brandylion.com/images/tomatos-061303.jpg