Pruning technique

[Anthony_Toronto]

Great looking setup Vlad. I'm trying to bring myself to fiddle around with different pruning options. For the last few years I haven't pruned at all, lots of work with bamboo steaks and ties. Even so I've thought about upping the number of plants, planting at least one row a foot apart, pruning to one or two stems each, and having a solid wall of green. I find that with non-pruned plants and regular staking the further a stem is from the root the more difficult it is to stake without having a risk that the weight of a stem will collapse it right down the stake.

[MrBig46]

Anthony,
I understand your problems with pruning. I think the most important thing for pruning is the way how to hold the stem in order to not break.
I use a spiral that significantly reduce the need for labor. I pruned and " binding" tomatoes once a week. All work with two hundred indeterminant tomato plants takes me about two hours.
The springs are strong, yet flexible (tomatoes okay outlive the storm with wind speeds up to 100 kilometers per hour). Stems in a spiral firmly holds even if one one inflorescence hangs tomatoes weighing well over two unces.
Vladimír

[Anthony_Toronto]

Exactly, sooooo many hours of work to tend to our babies, and I run out of patience too early in the season, with the result that some stems with developing fruit don't get proper support and come crashing down. I am cutting down the number of plants this year, so I will have plenty of spare stakes to support them, but I may try some experiements with my spare seedlings, test out some different support methods with some pruned plants.

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by Anthony_Toronto

Exactly, sooooo many hours of work to tend to our babies, and I run out of patience too early in the season, with the result that some stems with developing fruit don't get proper support and come crashing down. I am cutting down the number of plants this year, so I will have plenty of spare stakes to support them, but I may try some experiements with my spare seedlings, test out some different support methods with some pruned plants.

Number One: You cannot possibly support a huge plant with a single stake. Sometimes you might need 3 of them, extending about 5-6 ft above the ground.

Number Two: If they come down crashing then the reasons could be :
====a--- The stake was too weak ?
===b--- Was not tied properly
===c -- The stake was too short
=== d-- One stake was not enough

The sure way is to have sturdy 6ft cage of about 24" in diameter.This way you can have all the fun and very little work.

[Worth1]

Actually you can support one huge plant with one good stake.

You just have to know how to do it and I have done it before.
The darn things were 8 feet tall and not one branch hit the ground, I didn't prune and the plants had plenty of air movement.
I used 3/4 inch EMT conduit drove in the ground two feet.

As each branch would start to droop I would use tie wire loop it on the branch and loop it on the center pole.
I also used string.
Wildest looking things you ever saw.
I think I had 24 of them like this, it is a lot of work, now I use 24"X6' tall Texas tomato cages.
Sometimes I will stack another cage on and end up with 8 foot tall cages and the plants still come over the side and back down.

Worth

[Gardeneer]

Yeah, sure Worth. 3/4" EMT driven in the ground 2 ft should be quite a sturdy stake. But tying so many branche to a single stake is quite challenging. So by attaching a wire loop to it you can altering it to something cage like. God idea.
Another alteration that I make (sometimes) with cedar stakes, is to add some cross like horizontal bars to it. This way you can tie many branches to it.

All these methods require a lot of work.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

Yeah, sure Worth. 3/4" EMT driven in the ground 2 ft should be quite a sturdy stake. But tying so many branche to a single stake is quite challenging. So by attaching a wire loop to it you can altering it to something cage like. God idea.
Another alteration that I make (sometimes) with cedar stakes, is to add some cross like horizontal bars to it. This way you can tie many branches to it.

All these methods require a lot of work.

And sometimes we just have to use what we have and hope for the best. Because it is either free, you scraped and found it or what ever because many folks are strapped for money.

Growing up we used the strips from the sawmill across the road, everyone did, they were free.

Worth

[Anthony_Toronto]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

Number One: You cannot possibly support a huge plant with a single stake. Sometimes you might need 3 of them, extending about 5-6 ft above the ground.

Number Two: If they come down crashing then the reasons could be :
====a--- The stake was too weak ?
===b--- Was not tied properly
===c -- The stake was too short
=== d-- One stake was not enough

The sure way is to have sturdy 6ft cage of about 24" in diameter.This way you can have all the fun and very little work.

Well, who said anything about using one stake? Most of my plants have 6 to 8 stakes, usually a combination or 8-foot bamboo and plastic coated metal stakes. And my point was they crashed down because I ran out of patience with them (if I didn't run out of patience then I would have continued to tie them properly!!). But even when I did that sometimes didn't help, always have a few plants that get so large and heavy that after a good wind storm I'll come out to find a plant or two leaning over, having snapped all of the bamboo and bent the metal stakes in half just above ground level, though that typically only happens with one of my mutant cherry/mini beefsteak varieties that tend to be a heavy jungle of branches and fruit. Probably should have invested in giant concrete reinforcing wire cages to supplement the stakes.

[EBCIII]

I did not know you even had to prune? Thanks for all the info! Beale.

[charline]

no, you dont have to prune, give them a cage and they are happy

[b54red]

Anthony it seems that you would be much better off with a trellis to support your tomatoes. It gives you many more support pieces to tie off your plants and if you forget to prune it should still support the plant even if it is messy. Of course you have to make sure your trellis is well braced against the wind and strong enough to hold up hundreds of pounds of vegetation. I used them for years but with our extremely long season even they were a problem by late summer so I went to a drop line method and keep my plants pruned to just two stems.

Not pruning here in the deep south with our relentless high humidity and heat will usually result in massive disease problems. I used Texas tomato cages for a few years but abandoned them for a trellis system many years ago. If however you only need the plants to remain healthy for a short season then cages and regular spraying with Daconil works great and it is less work.

Bill

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by EBCIII

I did not know you even had to prune? Thanks for all the info! Beale.

You don't have to prune.

You don't have to NOT to prune, either.

Pruning is a style in growing tomatoes and many other plants. The grower/ gardener takes a more pro active role by pruning, rather than leaving it all up to the mother nature. It is similar to supporting the plants. One can just let it sprawl. Why bother with stakes, cages ..etc ?. So when I stake, tie , trellis ..etc I also like to give my plants a shape, form that is more suitable to my support system. I also do it to increase productivity on SQUARE FOOT BASIS OF LAND. Instead of planting one plant in 3' by 3' (= 9 sq-ft) I plan 3 plants (and do prune) in the same area. I tend to believe that I get more combined production out of those 3 plants than just one growing wild.

So to prune or not to prune are two schools of growing tomatoes.

[Dewayne mater]

Mr Big - I think I see a metal coil in your picture. Is this the Spiral and Springs you are using? What is that and what is your source? Also, are you pruning to one stem? Thanks.

Dewayne Mater

[MrBig46]

Dewayne Mater
Yes, I am pruning to one stem and I am growing plants of tomatoes on the metal spirals (they are not springs! ). I make spirals myself.
More information on the tread:
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...hlight=MrBig46
A nice day Vladimír

[Anthony_Toronto]

Originally Posted by b54red

Anthony it seems that you would be much better off with a trellis to support your tomatoes. It gives you many more support pieces to tie off your plants and if you forget to prune it should still support the plant even if it is messy. Of course you have to make sure your trellis is well braced against the wind and strong enough to hold up hundreds of pounds of vegetation. I used them for years but with our extremely long season even they were a problem by late summer so I went to a drop line method and keep my plants pruned to just two stems.
Bill

I agree Bill, I actually have several pieces of 4 x 8 wood lattice that, in combination with some sturdy poles, might allow me to have a nice solid wall of green, with enhanced support and maximized photosynthesis, and probably decreased disease due to increased ability of leaves to dry out. Will fiddle around and see what I can set up.