trimming sun gold and black cherry

[bobarillo]

ive noticed my cherry's are takeing off there close to 5' with flowers and fruit . i dident trin alot of the sucker and i have like 5 to 6 stems per plant .but i do trim the suc's on them . does anybody let them just grow out ..never grew theses kinds before .thanks

[feldon30]

Sungold can reach 10 feet in the right climate. Probably 6-8 feet in your area. They will produce like crazy (1,000+ per plant) regardless of whether you prune/trim or not.

Black Cherry doesn't grow quite as tall or produce quite as many, but still good.

My Black Cherries grew to the top of my eight foot trellis this year while my Sungold plants only grew to about six feet up the same trellis. I didn't prune either while simply weaving the new growth into the horizontal support ropes as they grew up.

Ted

[zabby17]

bobarillo,

I grow both and I don't trim except for branches that are turning brown or are really in the way when I am tying them up to a stake.

Both these varieties can get very tall, with LOTS of branches.

Both produce lots of tomatoes. If you trim some branches you will get fewer, but still quite a lot, as you can see!

So whether to prune or not is really a question of what is convenient for your space.

Enjoy!

Z

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by tedln

My Black Cherries grew to the top of my eight foot trellis this year while my Sungold plants only grew to about six feet up the same trellis. I didn't prune either while simply weaving the new growth into the horizontal support ropes as they grew up.

Ted

Funny how that works out.

For me, Black Cherry has always sooner or later fallen to botrytis while Sungold laughs at all disease. But that's over 3 years. Maybe the next time the opposite will be true.

[koshki]

I have grown Black Cherry for a couple years now...in a container due to my wheelchair. Every year, it has grown over the top of 7' of cage and back down a few more feet, making a very precarious plant that tends to blow over in a storm. Plus I think it was more prone to disease because I couldn't get much air flow in through the plants.

This year I topped it when it reached the top of the cage (almost two weeks ago already). I'm hoping that by removing the growing tips it will sprout more suckers that will fruit inside the cage. It was very, very hard for me to cut off future tomatoes, but I tried to do it when only leaves were showing, lol!

Originally Posted by feldon30

Funny how that works out.

For me, Black Cherry has always sooner or later fallen to botrytis while Sungold laughs at all disease. But that's over 3 years. Maybe the next time the opposite will be true.

Feldon,

Yep! My Black Cherry is basically dead from the same fungus. It is also loaded with ripening tomatoes from top to bottom. It doesn't matter because I had a long, productive season. I'm kinda tired of the cherry varieties now and am ready to get rid of them for the season. My Sungold did die before my Black Cherry.

Ted