An idea I had this year to test out some indeterminates in pots...what do you think?

[jdmfish]

Originally Posted by nctomatoman

Well, all I can say is that the small pot, extreme prune indeterminate project is working really, really well.

here is my blog post for today - some of the tomatoes in these pics are in the small pots (Green Giant, Coyote) - but they have all set fruit on two or more trusses and most are now top pruned at about 3-4 feet tall.

http://nctomatoman.weebly.com/1/post...today-wow.html

Awesome looking collection of plants! I am always looking forward to your updates.


After the sun is up for a little while, I'll snap a photo of my "Napa grape" (Burpee variety) indeterminate cherry growing in a .8gal container (yep, .8gal) . And I'll take a height measurement as well (edit - 42").

This little guy keeps going and going and I'm holding out on transplanting, because it's supposed to be a 4-5' variety, and if it isn't 4' already, it's real close. And I am only getting 4-5 hours of morning sun, plus 3 hours under a 10,000 lumen grow light. Water once a day, sometimes twice if it's going to be REAL hot in the morning.

I was under the assumption that if planting a large plant in a small pot, it would limit it's growth, but that hasn't been the outcome so far.



Interesting to say the least.


EDIT - Pictures:

[rsg2001]

I've been growing indeterminates in big pots for years. I use the 40-gallon self watering containers from Tomato Growers -- and put two to a pot, equivalent to what Craig is doing. Except I just let the fellas grow - no trimming down to two-four stems. By the end of the season they are pretty out of control, but often very productive. (Half my tomatoes are in pots like these; the rest are in the ground.)
I especially love a 3 foot by3 foot self watering container, in which I grow seven tomato plants. Usually it's three indeterminates in the middle (this year, it's Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Green and Cherokee Chocolate), and in the corners 4 smaller plants (this year it's two New Big Dwarfs, one Moravki Div and one Kimberly).

[nctomatoman]

I did a little video clip yesterday for my website on suckering and topping - may be helpful to some of you who are new to the terms/technique.

[arivaraci]

Thank You so much! I began extreme pruning after talking to and seeing your garden this last week. So the video is very helpful and shows me what I am doing wrong. I am having a hard time keeping/pruning all of the ones I let grow before I started pruning. I should have been doing this way earlier on my Brandywine-sudduth!

[Heritage]

Originally Posted by nctomatoman

I did a little video clip yesterday for my website on suckering and topping - may be helpful to some of you who are new to the terms/technique

Craig,

I'm on dial-up so I can't do 'You Tube' but I'm curious as to how many leaf nodes (if any) you left above the top truss of fruit. I raise all of my greenhouse tomatoes in pots pruned to a single stem, and occasionally I have accidentally pruned the growing tip, leaving no new points of growth. The tomatoes on these plants never seemed to develop to their potential in size and flavor. But I've only done it a few times so my results are not reliable. I'm very curious as to how your fruit mature (if the small fruit develop their full size) and how the flavor compares to traditionally pruned plants.

Great experiment!

Steve

[dice]

(From Wikipedia

The mechanism of apical dominance is based on the plant hormone auxin. It is produced in the apical meristem and transported towards the roots in the cambium. If apical dominance is complete, it prevents any branches from forming as long as apical meristem is active. If the dominance is incomplete, side branches will develop.

If you cut off *all* of the growing tips, main stem and side shoot, the
plant may suffer from an auxin deficiency (I do not know if auxin
is produced by meristems at the root tips and can be transported up
into the plant by transpiration). Spraying a plant where this has been
done accidentally with kelp extract or kelp tea might help it recover
(kelp contains auxin).

[nctomatoman]

So far so good on those that I've now limited to two topped main stems - foliage continues to grow, and tomatoes to enlarge - fruit on the plants are looking to be full sized. Will know within the next two weeks how this will work out!

[zipcode]

For 5 gal I think you're maybe limiting them a bit much. 5 flower levels for 1 stem is easily doable on any indeterminate (we don't have such hot climate as yours, true). In case you don't care about production, just a quick test, then it's fine of course, 2 clusters is sufficient to give a good idea of taste.

[nctomatoman]

If you look back at the very beginning, the idea is just to get fresh seed or do a quick check on fruit color/flavor for this group of plants. I have 23 indeterminates in large pots not being severely pruned that are for production.

[les matzek]

hi idm,
how do you like the superoots
air pots i have some but i have
not used them as yet,regards.

les

Originally Posted by nctomatoman

I did a little video clip yesterday for my website on suckering and topping - may be helpful to some of you who are new to the terms/technique.

snip

Nice and simple. Very well done Craig.

[nctomatoman]

My camera work is not great - my wife laughed at my apparent attempt to hide behind the dividers in that mirror! I need a cinematographer! (ha ha) (and a hair transplant!)....

[jdmfish]

Originally Posted by les matzek

hi idm,
how do you like the superoots
air pots i have some but i have
not used them as yet,regards.

les

Les -

Love em! And they most defiantly work. They are a little expensive, but do what they advertise, and of course can be reused year after year. While most overlook the importance of a good container - I see it that the quality of seed + quality soil + quality container = higher productivity, less diseases, smaller container footprint and less soil used.

IMO, they're all equally important - the container, soil and seed.


In fact I could probably get a 5' indeterminate plant in a .8gal container. I just transplanted the one pictured above. I thought it might be about time, and the roots would be overcrowded/root bound, in such a small container - however that's not the case.

I should have taken pictures of the root structure. My theory that a 5' plant in such a small container is achievable. However you must be on top of watering or a setup like drip. For the simple fact that it's getting hotter and hotter here in FL, I decided it was time to transplant, which by the way was done in a Plant Warrior 5gal pot.

[jdmfish]

Les - here's a photo of the roots on my ~3 month pepper plant.





Came out of a 6"x4" 'air cell' - the smallest ones they carry (.3gal) or about the size of a standard styrofoam cup.

[nctomatoman]

I can now honestly say that this method worked great - I've harvested full sized, delicious fruit on essentially everything that is in the small pots that was severely pruned and topped. This really opens things up for me in terms of expanding growouts of older seed just for a small sample evaluation and fresh seed harvest. And it hasn't really fallen over yet! I can still get down the rows on both sides of the double row of these!