Tomato pruning question?

[dipchip2000]

I have read much about the advantages of heavy pruning of the large plants. I have always pruned the lower branches to keep them from coming in contact with the ground or mulch or whatever for help in disease control. Many here are saying that more pruning will increase both size and production of the plant. My question is--Do you just arbitrarily prune for better air flow and is there a way to determine which branches will flower and produce tomatoes so that you prune only the non=flowering branches?? It is probably a stupid question to many of you but will help me greatly in my pursuit of the best tomatoes I can successfully grow.
Can it be done?

ron

[alamo5000]

I am not a pruner. But I am pretty sure that someone will chime in that loves pruning and swears it makes more tomatoes.

If you have junk soil, in bad locations, with no light, no nutrients, irregular watering, and so on and so forth... no amount of pruning will make up the difference.

People who take care of their plants get more tomatoes than the guy who doesn't but occassionally prunes.

[dipchip2000]

Alamo

You totally misunderstand the question. I do spend a minimum of three hours daily with my plants. I fertilize, water, take care of disease or pest. I grow many beautiful tomatoes but if I can do more and increase production then that is what I want to do. I am not looking for the easy way or want something for nothing. I just want to add to my current skills and increase my knowledge in this wonderful addiction I have for growing tomatoes.

ron

[BigdaddyJ]

It's well documented that by select pruning you can grow some monster sized fruit. As for increasing production I doubt it but I'm not an expert, just a guy growing tomatoes for 20 years. I only prune ground contacted branches early in the season for reasons you already noted. I grow huge monster sized plants. It has been my experience that the larger the plant the more fruit you can harvest. That's why I doubt it increases yield. In fact, I'd say it decreases production. The reasons I've heard for severe pruning is for better air circulation to prevent foliar diseases, ease of picking, better stink bug control and space limitations. Many years ago I tried the Johnny's recommended pruning method by growing only two main stems and after the first cluster pruning all suckers from there but I was not happy with production. My monster plants killed that method! Me...non pruner here....

[Stepheninky]

There are a few different approaches (methods) to pruning indeterminate tomatoes. The most basic method is to prune any branches under your first flower set. This is done to allow air circulation and since the branches under the first flower set will not produce tomatoes, or offer shade to fruit it is not needed and any energy used to grow them is not productive and could go to other parts of the plant. Also as you stated it also helps keep the leaves from contacting soil to reduce soil born disease. Also prevents bugs from using them to climb up your plant to a degree. After that you mainly just want to remove suckers. Suckers grow out of where the branches meet the main stem.

The ideal of pruning is not necessarily to get more tomatoes as suckers can bloom as well. The ideal is to concentrate the plants growth energy to get more high quality growth and fruit.

What I posted is just the basic method. There are several ways though to prune tomatoes. Productivity is kinda relative by pruning you may get less tomatoes but the tomatoes you get should be a bit bigger. If you were to go by Lbs per plant I really do not think it would be much difference.

I do not really limit the plant to two trusses. For me The way I describe just helps open the plant up for more air and light.

If the plant is determinate then pruning is not needed though you still could probably remove the bottom branches to prevent soil contacting them and to allow some air circulation.

[b54red]

My reasons for pruning are air circulation and quicker drying of the leaves so diseases are a little slower to get started in our steam bath of a summer. Usually by May we are getting many days with humidity over 90 % and by mid summer it is a rare day when we don't see higher humidity with temps in the high 90s to 100. I try to keep the center of the plant a little open so air and sunlight can get in even on determinates. If I don't I won't have to worry about production because I don't usually get much because diseases just wipe out the plants. I find that usually the pruned plants live much longer and so produce more in the long run for me.
I rarely keep a plant to two stems but usually try not to let it develop more than 4. I don't have any set rule about pruning but prune according to each individual plant and it's growth pattern. If I have a single goal in mind it is to not let any area of the plant become so bushy that no light or decent air flow can get to it. I use trellises to support my plants so my method probably wouldn't work with cages or simple staking.
I did an experiment with a couple of plants last season. The pruned plants made uniformly larger tomatoes with less disease than the same variety planted a few feet away that was unpruned. As to numbers of tomatoes I got a mixed result with only one of my unpruned tomatoes making more fruit and that was NAR; but the average of pounds per plant was lower probably because they succumbed to disease much earlier.
Pruning is a pain and I would use it very little if I didn't have to; so if you don't have constant high humidity and want to grow in cages or staked it is much easier to prune very little and spend more time fishing.

[FILMNET]

Perfect answer Beg Red My biggest leaves PL came from a Brandywine plant. I had nice fruit in early July as the summer was going on, these never changed color. I saw huge leaves blocking fruit from the sun, so i just found a small branch with these leaves only, Cut off, didn't help ripping at all. Brandywine took another 30 days, but i was cutting like this all summer on other plants. i gave out a few plants to friends, same plants i had, as i saw the later in the summer. They never cut any thing off, and had no fruit at all, plants were 5ft with 3 or more stems coming out of the ground. Cut them off, they all go fruit soon and were so happy to get a black tomato Earl Faxxe, and Black Cherry. By then i had been leaving a few lbs of fruit for them each by there kitchen door.

[FILMNET]

No If someone has an ideal about Cherries let me know? I have a friend who owns a barn and small farm, he grow cherries on poles which are in the ground all year, he cemented them in. He ties up or cuts branches off, so the pole is 6ft tall 12inch wide or less, loaded with fruit, very clean tight i guess he must do this before flowers come out. So i do use an 8ft thick stick 2 ft in the ground, tie the plant up every 2 days to the pole only 1 stem is allowed to grow till fruit comes out. Then tie up as needed, goal is in a July thunder storm with wind and soaking rain the plant will hold up. forgot to mention he got me started on Sungold.

[Marko]

Originally Posted by dipchip2000

My question is--Do you just arbitrarily prune for better air flow and is there a way to determine which branches will flower and produce tomatoes so that you prune only the non=flowering branches??

Every branch that gets enough sun will produce tomatoes including those under first flower set. I prune only branches that have no fruits/flowers later in the season.

[FILMNET]

If I am correct, as a plant grows vertical the new branches have flowers, or some flowers come out of the center stem only. these are the first fruit, as the plant grows no more flowers below this set will come out.If my plants stop growing vertical? there must be a reason, wasted new stem or large branches with no flowers or fruit, here is Sweet Carneros pink the fruit came out of the center stem because this set gets heavy. so i never got any long branches from the 2 plants.

in commercial greenhouses like this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZwyWfqSck4
i think pruning has also to do with making it easier to lower the stem for easy harvesting.

i try to follow what they do in those greenhouses, so that there can be room for more varieties :-]. along the way i learned that another advantage to heavy pruning is less water consumption. in the middle of summer it can be a difference between 3-4 days versus 7-10 days to use up the water in the 40-litre reservoir.

what and how much to prune is also my question. i wonder if there's a required fruit-to-foliage ratio. roughly how much leaf surface needs to be exposed to light? would the top half of the plant be good enough? or does it have more to do with removing the leaves that are in the shade anyway?

thanks,

--meg

[vagardener434]

Originally Posted by akeimou

in commercial greenhouses like this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZwyWfqSck4
i think pruning has also to do with making it easier to lower the stem for easy harvesting.

thanks,

--meg

Thats one of the videos I saw concerning GH tomatoes that helped me decide to start pruning. My Rutgers maters had really started to bush out at the bottom, and I was losing control quickly. So I pruned a couple and waited a few days to see how they responded. I liked what I saw and proceeded to gradually prune all the plants.

This pic was taken on Jan 18, about 2 weeks ago.

[dipchip2000]

As I said in my original post I have always pruned all lower branches that might possibly come into contact with the ground. This year I will prune even more on some of the more vigorous varieties for air circulation and hopefully better disease control. I grow in CRW cages and in order to make the bottom pruning and mulching easier I do one thing different, I use T-post driven next to the cages and when securing to the post with plastic zip-ties I raise the cage up about 12inches and then secure to the post with 3 heavy duty ties. In addition to making it easier to prune and mulch and fertilize each plant it also makes a 6foot cage out of 5foot wire which is great for the plants that keep growing taller. I drive the T-post about 18 inches or more if necessary to make it sturdy. I have never had a cage fall over from weight or wind. Works good for me. YMMV

ron

Originally Posted by vagardener434

Thats one of the videos I saw concerning GH tomatoes that helped me decide to start pruning.

the first time i saw it was from a BBC show "Jimmy Doherty Farming Heroes" episode 1, showing 26 acres of glass house for growing tomatoes. it was amazing. each vine is wound up a string and can reach 36 ft. a quarter million of vines are individually hand-tended. CO2 from a nearby sugar factory is pumped into the greenhouse. also, bio control is used on pests.

and then there's another show "Jimmy Doherty Global Harvest" episode 3 where the tomatoes are left to sprawl on the ground and then processed with a monster machine that harvests and separates the fruits from the vines at the rate of a ton per 30 seconds. hmm, i wonder what kind of disease control they do on those ground-covering plants.

anyway, the only pruning i know is removal of suckers so the tips and pointers given here are much appreciated. very interesting styles i'm looking forward to giving a try this year.

--meg

[Worth1]

Prune grapes and fruit trees not tomatoes.

Worth