Re: pruning and buckets Re: [tomato] getting ready to order seed. Needopinions.

Greg Park (Tomato@GlobalGarden.com)
Tue, 26 Oct 1999 15:47:56 -0700 

Hey Michael,

I read your reply to the original poster with great interest.  For the past
3 years, I have tried growing tomatoes (all hybrid) in 5 gallon containers
with very limited success.  This past year is the first time I got decent
tomatoes (perhaps I'm actually learning??), but they still weren't as good
as I've had from other folks gardens.

At any rate, in May of this year, I got the opportunity to plant 40 heirloom
tomatoes at a friends yard.  All of these plants were indeterminates and
grew like mad!  I couldn't even imagine growing them in a 5 gallon pot.  I
don't know anyone who has tried to grow big indeterminates in a pot that
small that has had much success.  Please keep us informed as to how your
plants do next year!  I'd be very interested to see if they do as well as
your determinates did this year.

Greg


-----Original Message-----
From: DannoMusic@aol.com <DannoMusic@aol.com>
To: Tomato@GlobalGarden.com <Tomato@GlobalGarden.com>
Date: Tuesday, October 26, 1999 12:46 PM
Subject: pruning and buckets Re: [tomato] getting ready to order seed.
Needopinions.


>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?
>