pruning and buckets Re: [tomato] getting ready to order seed. Need
DannoMusic@aol.com (Tomato@GlobalGarden.com)
Tue, 26 Oct 1999 15:37:06 EDT
Greg,
Have you considered just putting regular tomato cages around the buckets
instead of staking them? I experimented with pruning tomatoes this year. I
pruned some plants severely, some a lot, some a little, and some not at all
and took notes. All the plants produced tomatoes that tasted the same and
were the same size. Quantity was determined exactly by the amount of pruning
though. In the most extreme example, the unpruned Sweet 100 had produced over
500 cherry tomatoes and the most pruned one had produced only 137.
The cages wouldn't make you lose a lot of square footage and seem like
much less of a headache than all that staking. If the tomatoes outgrow the
cage, I just wire another one on top.
I can send you photos if you like.
Michael
Summerville SC
In a message dated 10/22/99 2:24:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
park.steel@worldnet.att.net writes:
<< None of the varieties I grew are suitable for containers unless you prune
the HEAVILY, as they are all vigorous indeterminate varieties. Most of them
broke the bamboo supports I tied them to! When I grow these next year I
will space them out much more and use a much sturdier support. Many of the
vines were more than an inch thick and the plants really spread out. If you
want to use containers, I would imagine 10-20 gallon size minimum per plant!
>>
Greg,
Have you considered just putting regular tomato cages around the buckets
instead of staking them?