Seedling progress (and advice?) - Page 2

dice · June 8, 2012

If you let the stems get a couple of feet long, they can be
bent gently around and tucked back into your weave, trellis,
cage or whatever. They can also be pruned off altogether.
You may lose some fruit that would have set, but you get
better airflow through the plants and less fungal disease
on the leaves.

The plants look good, they seem to like the dirt and fertilizer.

Salaam · June 13, 2012

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

Well, it's now June 13, and the tomato plants are getting big. I think the biggest one is around four feet above the container.

All of the plants have flowers and fruit set, but to this novice tomato grower, it seems there is a lot of green but not enough flowers. But I may be wrong. This may be normal. Plus, it's been a rainy spring so far. That might have something to do with it.

Another observation is the tangled web the plants are making. I'm wondering if I should not prune more. See the attached photos. In the large 'earthtainers' (40 gallon), I have three plants, and in the smaller ones (30 gallon), I have two plants. But the vines from one plant are getting mixed in with the others. It's becoming a big mess. But then again, this might be normal. Last night, I went in and pruned a bit. When I prune, I'm cutting off stem just after the sucker, if there is a sucker. Am I doing right?

I've also attached a photo of one plant with brown spotted leaves. Ironically, this plant has the most flowers!

Overall, I must say that I'm very happy with the progress so far. I think we've been lucky to avoid any catastrophes so far. I'll try and get better looking photos in a few days.

Salaam

dice · June 14, 2012

I would cut off the leaves with the spots and trash them.

Tomatoes have a "compound leaf":
http://www-plb.ucdavis.edu/labs/rost.../leafanat.html

What look like stems to you are actually the leaves, and
the "suckers" are the actual stems starting from the petioles
(I call them "side shoots"; a sucker is something that grows out
of the ground from the roots of an established plant).

How tomatoes grow:
http://www-plb.ucdavis.edu/labs/rost...Branching.html

French pruning of indeterminates:
http://www.tomodori.com/3culture/taill_sur_2-tiges.htm
(In French, but the pictures tell the story.)

June 8, 2012	#16
dice Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: PNW Posts: 4,743	If you let the stems get a couple of feet long, they can be bent gently around and tucked back into your weave, trellis, cage or whatever. They can also be pruned off altogether. You may lose some fruit that would have set, but you get better airflow through the plants and less fungal disease on the leaves. The plants look good, they seem to like the dirt and fertilizer. __________________ -- alias Last edited by dice; June 8, 2012 at 01:06 PM. Reason: various

June 14, 2012	#18
dice Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: PNW Posts: 4,743	I would cut off the leaves with the spots and trash them. Tomatoes have a "compound leaf": http://www-plb.ucdavis.edu/labs/rost.../leafanat.html What look like stems to you are actually the leaves, and the "suckers" are the actual stems starting from the petioles (I call them "side shoots"; a sucker is something that grows out of the ground from the roots of an established plant). How tomatoes grow: http://www-plb.ucdavis.edu/labs/rost...Branching.html French pruning of indeterminates: http://www.tomodori.com/3culture/taill_sur_2-tiges.htm (In French, but the pictures tell the story.) __________________ -- alias