pruning determinates

[Itoero]

How do you prune your determinate tomatoes?
I have the Castle Rock (2-3ft) and Ace 55 VF(3-4ft).

Should I prune some leaves so the side shoots can grow freely?

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by Itoero

How do you prune your determinate tomatoes?
I have the Castle Rock (2-3ft) and Ace 55 VF(3-4ft).

You should not prune determinate tomatoes.

[dustdevil]

As Feldon said...don't prune.

[b54red]

I only prune by determinate tomatoes because of severe disease issues. In a more normal climate they don't need any pruning except some of the lower leaves before the first fruit cluster to prevent splash back.

Bill

[Itoero]

I don't understand.
If I don't prune leaves, the side shoots have no space to grow.

[Labradors2]

They will figure it out!

Nice looking plants BTW.

Linda

[KarenO]

Prune only diseased or damaged foliage on determinates. The branches will grow, don't worry. :
Karen

[gturmindright]

You gonna support those plants somehow?

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[travis]

Within current tomato breeding methodology, parental breeding lines input diverse growth characteristics into hybrid determinate varieties. As a result, some determinate varieties benefit from varying degrees of pruning which helps develop healthier plants, and to yield larger individual fruit.

An example of a determinate variety that requires pruning is Amelia, and the breeders and seed vendors advise pruning Amelia.

Other determinate varieties do not require any pruning, and often are referred to as "self-pruning" varieties.

The grower should try to familiarize him or herself with the recommendations for pruning or not pruning individual varieties rather than depend upon a universal rule such as "don't prune determinate tomatoes," because that rule is not universally applicable.

However, the grower also should be very careful when pruning determinates so as not to remove the side shoots, because that is where the better part of the fruit yield is obtained.

On the other hand, removing excess foliage that does not produce fruit generally is not detrimental except when removing so much that the fruit load is exposed to sun scald, or when so much foliage is removed that little is left to produce sugar to the fruit.

Balance is the key, not hard and fast rules.

[luigiwu]

What about semi-determinate plants? I am growing Heidi this year and some other that might be listed as semi... do I remove suckers on those or not? Is pruning the same thing as removing suckers - sorry... I just assumed it was.

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by luigiwu

What about semi-determinate plants? I am growing Heidi this year and some other that might be listed as semi... do I remove suckers on those or not? Is pruning the same thing as removing suckers - sorry... I just assumed it was.

There are degrees of pruning.

I trim off the bottom 12" of foliage once the plant reaches about 3 feet just for disease control, and I do sometimes pull out the earliest suckers which appear. But that's not really what I think of as pruning.

[travis]

Originally Posted by luigiwu

What about semi-determinate plants? I am growing Heidi this year and some other that might be listed as semi... do I remove suckers on those or not? Is pruning the same thing as removing suckers - sorry... I just assumed it was.

I prefer to think of "suckers" as side shoots. Suckers imply they are sapping energy from the plant without producing fruit. In fact, 90% of the shoots that emerge in the crotches of leaf nodes and grow at an acute angle to the main stem are side shoots that will produce fruit ... in both indeterminate and determinate tomato varieties. In fact, the side shoots will mimic almost exactly the flower spacing and fruit production of the main stem.

When people prune off the side shoots and grow only one or two main leaders on indeterminate vines, they do so in order to produce larger, more perfectly shaped tomatoes such as beefsteaks and large, round market type tomatoes.

You don't want to prune the side shoots on most determinate (bush) type tomatoes, because as said before, that is where the mass of production takes place. This would be especially true when growing determinate or semi-determinate canning tomatoes, where you really don't care so much how large the individual tomatoes grow as opposed to shear volume of tomato harvest.

Semi-determinates generally differ from what folks may consider "true" determinates by how many leaf nodes there are between each efflorescence (flower cluster).

With "true" fully determinate types, the first blossom cluster will appear between the fourth and fifth leaf node (true leaf frond) off the ground, and then every other internode thereafter. Sometimes more frequently. This happens on the main stem and all of the side shoots until each shoot terminates with a flower cluster rather than continuing to grow indefinitely as would an indeterminate. So, don't prune off the side shoots on your determinates unless you absolutely have to for disease or other control purposes.

Semi-determinates essentially are determinates, but the efflorescences may appear every other internode or sometimes every third internode, or even occasionally directly opposite a leaf node (so you might say every one and a half or two and a half internode spacing).

I treat semi-determinates the same as fully determinates with regard to pruning.

With regard to side shoots on indeterminate varieties, they mimic exactly the main stem. Whatever the internode at which the initial flowers emerge on the main stem, the same will occur on a side shoot. And whatever the internode spacing for flowering occurs on the main stem following the first efflorescence, same will occur on a side shoot.

[Itoero]

I've caged them: