Tomato throwdown - rescuing leggy toms?

[westwiltspatio]

Anyone have any good tips for rescuing leggy tomatoes? We have a tomato growing competition going on at work, and unfortunately most people's tomatoes have got a bit leggy on the windowsills... wondering how best to rescue them so our team can win the best yield weigh-in.

I've been thinking of putting a couple out in a growbag, and taking all the lower leaves off and carefully threading them along inside the growbag horizontally. Does that make sense? I was thinking that would put the maximum amount of stem in contact with soil, and the remaining stem would probably start growing upwards happily enough.

Alternatively there's snapping off the tomatoes above the lowest pair of leaves and hoping they'll grow back bushier, but that seems a bit harsh to me.

[shirlthegirl43]

Either will work but they will have a setback if you cut them and replant.

[Florence Fennel]

I had leggy tomatoes. Was advised to sink into deeper pots burying stem well down (I do this now to where the "hairiness" on the stem is) and you'll be amazed at the sturdy growth and the thickening of the stem as more root grows. Good luck with your competition!

[Pies]

I'd plant into a 12" pot as its much deeper than a growbag,plant upto the first proper leaf

I generally get leggy toms and plant this way as it gives a better root system eventually

HTH

[westwiltspatio]

Thanks, Shirl, I thought snapping them off would set them back a bit - one person has done this already, so I'll try the growbag method with another two.

Given that cutting back will cause a setback, are we still likely to get better yields from that than from trying to grow on the leggier plants? (Not really had a prob with leggy tomatoes when growing at home, so haven't had much chance to experiment. I guess I'll get that chance this summer!)

[westwiltspatio]

Oops, missed the other two posts whilst replying. Reassured to hear that planting deep will work out. Will try to get some pots and replant this week if poss.

However not sure a 12" pot is deep enough for a couple of the toms - some were 3 foot before first flower truss! Hence the idea of effectively laying them down along a growbag & earthing over the stem so I can try to get rooting along about 3 foot of tomato stem.

[Duronal]

If you pop down to a nursary you may be able to pick up a rose pot from the recycle bin, The advatage in this is that you can pop your plant 10" down into soil and you'll have a monster root sytem. IF you wanted to carry on the trend you can then cut out the bottom and stick the pot into a growbag cut in half.

As long as you feed and look after it you'll be streets ahead. You can also use a large down pipe to do the same thing.

D

[SarzWix]

Get a grow bag, cut it in half, sit it on end, hey presto - really deep pot (Don't forget drainage holes)

[Pies]

sounds ok, you'll be surprised how well toms adapt

[teakdesk]

... some were 3 foot before first flower truss! ...

What variety ??? Many cordon varieties naturally grow this tall before the first flower cluster.

I've grown Gardeners Delight for years, both inside and out, and they will all be around 2 to 3 feet to the first flower cluster. I don't put them into final pots until this flower has appeared and then I plant as deep as possible.

Crops are very good.

[westwiltspatio]

Just to follow up on this, we did a bit of a mixture in the end. One horizontal growbag with the cherry tomato plants laid along it (in opposite directions), one growbag cut in half and propped on ends as per SarzWix's suggestion (beef tom & yellow tom), a few snapped off (stuck the tops into pots too, some took some didn't), and the rest in pots as deep as possible. The snapped off ones were set back a bit, but on the other hand we got two plants from some of those. Think I'd go for planting deeper in future rather than cutting back.

Oh, and the competition? Well... we never had a weighing in, as our competitors' plants did not produce a single fruit. Ours, on the other hand, produced plenty (despite office doom-mongers telling us they'd never do well, far too leggy, doomed you know, doomed!) - they're still going in fact, though they can't last much longer now. Have been leaving the harvest in the office for munching, and they disappear pretty fast.

Many thanks for all the advice folks!

[Two_Sheds]

I love to hear follow-ups, well done on the harvest