Late season pruning techniques

[MendozaMark]

I was curious to how all you tomato vets handle late season pruning to help finish off your crop. Do you prune trusses that you know will not finish in time. If you do take trusses off , when do you decide its time to start truss removal ? Do you do any other pruning as the finish line approaches ? Last Argentinian Fall (May to June) I draped those white fabric row covers in layers over my plants at night and found that any parts that stuck out were doomed to suffer from the cold. So i pruned the tomatoes to make a hedge like row and got better results, or at less cold damage until it was time pull the whole plant. I did remove trusses when it was obvious that they wouldn't have time. I think i could have perhaps been a little quicker. and gotten better quality fruit and less green tomatoes that were not worth box ripening.

Please share your experiences and techniques.

Thanks

Mark

[Gardeneer]

I thin the logic behind the end of season pruning/ topping is that if there isn't enough time left for the new buds/flowers/ new growth to produce ripe fruits, why to let them be ?

According to some studies tomatoes require anywhere from 35 day (cherry) to 45 days ( beefsteak) from flower to ripe fruits. And these time lines are for the main season with good clement weather. But late in the season often temps are colder and it would take longer for the fruits to grow and ripen

In my climate the FFD is sometime in mid November. But that is no good. Our October and even late September weather is often too cold for tomatoes.
So as of early September I keep nipping the new growth along with buds and flower, as I am sure they won't have a slight chance.
Even doing that I end up with a lot of green tomatoes to pickle and make salsa,

Gardeneer

[zipcode]

I don't remove trusses, but do top the plants (flowers etc). I'd say 4 weeks before expected frost is a good value. Trusses with green fruit can still be taken inside when they announce frost and if not too immature they can still ripe to decent tasting tomatoes (some varieties are better at this than others).

[swordy]

And what about if frost isn't a threat? I mean in hot climates where tomato plant die because of diseases and not frost is there a trick where you can extend their life with having a second crop of the same plants? I ask that question, because I have only one year of experience in growing vegetables under such conditions(no frost all year long) and I had several plants ehich survived and produced tomatoes in a second round.
I tried 3 different ways and all were successful!
1. Didn't prune at all (the plant continued growing and reached an impressing hight and produced a decent second crop.
2. Pruned the main stems, cut almost in middle (new sprouts from low in the stem grew and produced some tomatoes)
3. Planted cutting from other plants(grew as new plants and produced some tomatoes)
However, as I said above only some of the plants survived the summer heat. The ways I explained refer to the ones who survived.
First crop: June to August
Second crop: November to January

[Gerardo]

@Swordy

You can keep them going as long vines (4+ m). In my experience the fruit tend to get smaller as you curl the vine to keep it manageable. It can be countered by feeding them thoroughly.

You can prune them back all the way to a 30 cm stem and the new growth will supply decent tomatoes, as in your #2. A fresh start of sorts. They also require a good feeding.

Or you can pull 'em, refresh the mix, put in fresh seedlings and get some big tomatoes from the first couple of trusses all over again. An even fresher start. You grab some seeds from the 1st fruits (gel sacs and all) and toss 'em into some starter mix. They come up quickly and vigorous.

Mulch, mulch, mulch.

[swordy]

Thank you very much Gerardo! I will post results here ;-)