Might Have Overdone the Supersweet 100 Pruning...

[BigJohncn]

Hey All,

Almost a total newbie here.

A few years ago, I used this forum to help guide me with container gardening on our east-facing condo balcony in coastal Florida. Ginger2278 helped me source some native Florida tomatoes, and was really kind and helpful. I like forum threads so much better than social networking sites, and was excited to see Tomatoville still chugging away.

The "Everglades" variety Ginger sent worked out well, except for the sprawl of the greenery giving my wife fits (my fault), and some aphid / spider mite (I think) infestations. ;-) Got tons of tomatoes. We had to evacuate for a hurricane that fall, so that was the end of the experiment.

The last couple of years we have tended to be out camping on road trips much of the summer, so have not had any plants, but with the current situation, we are here all summer this year, so giving it another go! I tried to germinate the remaining four seeds Ginger had sent, but they were non-viable after all this time.

By the time I got to the local garden center, the only cherry-type tomatoes left were the fortunately SuperSweet 100s, which I had heard good things about for hot and humid conditions. There was literally only one four-pack of 3-inch or so seedlings. They had a big green caterpillar munching on them, and only two looked like they would live. That was 16 days ago, and oh, my, have they grown.

My question has to do with pruning. The last time I did not prune the container-based tomatoes much, and our narrow balcony became a bit of a jungle. This year, I decided to prune following the "below the first flower cluster method" I had read about online on various gardening sites.

I think I waited too long, however, and after pruning today, I feel like I may have injured my healthy plants. I FEEL like I've hacked them to bits, to be honest, particularly the middle one in this picture. The one on the right got away from me and branched into two main stems. The farthest one is actually the two "sickly" seedlings that I thought wouldn't live. They are now the healthiest and the tallest...so, go figure.




To give an idea of how fast they are growing, here they are three mornings ago (6/22/20), entirely un-pruned for comparison.





Here is a close up of the middle one I may have doomed. In my defense, I had not had coffee yet when I started.



So, give it to me straight, Doc. I can take it. Just how bad off are these guys? I know I can't undo the damage, but how can I help ensure the middle one recovers? Should I change my approach with the others? Any advice appreciated!

Regards,

Johncn