What happens when you prune all the tops off tomatoes

[zeroma]

If your plants are growing way too much before the plant out time, what happens with you top them all off? Deter. and Indet.

My friend did that with her peppers and they are doing great, but it is my understand that you only top indeter at the end of the season to make them stop producing and put their energy into ripening the fruits that are still growing.

[beeman]

Originally Posted by zeroma

If your plants are growing way too much before the plant out time, what happens with you top them all off? Deter. and Indet.
My friend did that with her peppers and they are doing great, but it is my understand that you only top indeter at the end of the season to make them stop producing and put their energy into ripening the fruits that are still growing.

I would assume, provided you haven't damaged the growing point too badly, you'll get secondary growth, leading to two leaders. The overall growth will slow down, but the two or more leaders will produce fruit in due course.

[amideutch]

Check out the below links. This is how our French tomato growing friends do it.

http://tomodori.com/3culture/taille_sur_une_tige.htm

http://tomodori.com/3culture/taill_sur_2-tiges.htm

Ami

[Zana]

Originally Posted by amideutch

Check out the below links. This is how our French tomato growing friends do it.

http://tomodori.com/3culture/taille_sur_une_tige.htm

http://tomodori.com/3culture/taill_sur_2-tiges.htm

Ami

Great drawings. (not having had my coffee yet, I didn't even try translating the text, just stuck with the photos. NEED caffiene this morning.) It reminds me of the espalier method.

Thanks Ami

[bower]

For indeterminates, bear in mind that using new branches or suckers as leaders will add to the wait for fruit. Just like the primary leader, every branch or sucker will produce, typically, five sets of leaves before the first flower cluster, with three sets of leaves between clusters after that. If you prune the primary leader early, you will have to wait the full five sets of leaves again before a flower.

I have to top my plants when the get too tall, but I let some suckers grow and set fruit to compensate. I find that the lowest and also the highest suckers are weakest - rather thin vines compared to the mother stem - while those in the middle tend to be sturdiest and most productive.

[MrsJustice]

Originally Posted by zeroma

If your plants are growing way too much before the plant out time, what happens with you top them all off? Deter. and Indet.

My friend did that with her peppers and they are doing great, but it is my understand that you only top indeter at the end of the season to make them stop producing and put their energy into ripening the fruits that are still growing.

I have found in my own research here at Angel Field Heirloom Tomatoes.
In dealing with pure historical tomato plants: cutting the top of the plant, cuts down the seasonal production around about 50%.

[NarnianGarden]

Wow Amideutch, merci for those great images! Never seen that system before. Both creative and systematic.
If my season was longer, I would experiment with those methods - but it would take too long here in the North.

[Winemaker]

A key item in the French pictures and text is that late in their season they remove suckers and flowers that will not be able to produce ripe fruit so that energy goes into finishing the fruit that is already on the plant.

[Winemaker]

For those not familiar with Google Translate, You can easily copy and paste entire sections of the French text on those drawings into Google Translate and get a very good translation into English.
ie:
e troisième et dernier prolongement subit le même traitement : on enlève les gourmands. En plus on coupe la tige principale au dessus de la feuille situé juste après le sixième et dernier bouquet floral. En effet, les fleurs suivantes n'auraient pas le temps de donner des tomates mûres sous nos climats.

e third and final extension undergoes the same treatment: removing suckers. In addition to the main stem above the leaf is cut located just after the sixth and final floral bouquet. Indeed, following the flowers do not have the time to give ripe tomatoes in our climate.

[beeman]

Originally Posted by Winemaker

A key item in the French pictures and text is that late in their season they remove suckers and flowers that will not be able to produce ripe fruit so that energy goes into finishing the fruit that is already on the plant.

Go one step further and start removing lower foliage as that lower fruit matures. We do remove lower foliage to stop 'splash up'. I'm talking even higher up the plant, those older leaves add little photosynthesis to the overall plant, concentrating more for the fruit.
We generally go up to 5 trusses in my area, otherwise with our short season we end up with lots of 'greenies'.

[NarnianGarden]

Here it's generally 3 to 4 trusses, unless in a greenhouse. Cutting the growing tip is common practice in Finland, but the method displayed in that French site is... innovative

[Uncle Dunkel]

I try to grow giant tomatoes for competition. It is customary to prune the tomato vines to concentrate the growth toward fruit. So I cut off all suckers like the french drawing. once the fruit is set I want to keep. I cut the growing tip. Pruning doesn't hurt the plant at all also the tomatoes will be bigger as well. After about two weeks the plants try and grow more by putting out new suckers so you have to prune again.

[crmauch]

Actually if you just place the web address into google translate (on the left side - set to French and the Right side set to english and click the translate button, it will bring up the web site with the text translated.

[Winemaker]

That is a new one for me.
Thanks for the additional translation tip.

..Doyle

[taboule]

An even easier method to translate a web page is to use Chrome instead of IE. The application will automatically detect non-English text and offer you a choice (a button on top of the page) to get it translated. Then you get exactly the same page translated and formatted (with pictures) as the English.