"stopping" Tomato plants

[wadsleyowl]

I have six shirley plants all with 5-6 sets of flowers & in some cases small ish tomatoes formed. I have read various reports about cutting the tops off the plants in order to encourage the ones that are set to ripe further.

Should i "stop" them now or continue to let them grow?

When does everyone else stop theirs?

[rana]

I've got Shirley and they are presently 5' tall greenhouse grown cordons. I will be stopping them by pinching out the top growing point at 4 or 5 trusses of fruit, probably within the next couple of weeks by which time they will be hard up against the roof.

While I have persisted in pinching out side shoots, from now on I will allow one or two shoots to grow from near the soil level in the hope of extra trusses lower down the plants. (Oh for an eight foot high greenhouse!). In the past I have gone beyond 6 trusses but supporting the plants so high up becomes problematic because the weight of fruit tends to bend and break the stems despite a good deal of tying in at roof height.

[Aberdeenplotter]

It's not so much a case of stopping a tomato plant to allow existing tomatoes to ripen but to prevent production of more trusses which have no chance of ripening. I personally never exceed 5 trusses and even at that, last year I had a huge amount of green fruit with which I made green tomato chutney for the first time.

[Two_Sheds]

I stop mine just before they reach the gh roof - which will be in about a week's time

[Flummery]

Yep - you will end up with loads of titchy toms that will never grow or ripen in an English autumn. Might as well get rid. I stop at 6 if the roof allows!

[rustylady]

As the others have said, stop before it reaches the greenhouse roof.

[Lotsaveg]

I always stop when the 6th truss is in flower. This provides a lovely crop for making green tomato chutney in the autumn... yum!

[Aberdeenplotter]

Yep - you will end up with loads of titchy toms that will never grow or ripen in an English autumn. Might as well get rid. I stop at 6 if the roof allows!

And if you think an English autumn is bad, you should try it up here

[Chef_uk]

Good thread, was wondering about this myself as my first lot are hitting 7ft tall now with 5 trusses on them and on some of the lower trusses where the fruit has really set, a second truss has sprouted off the end of it with further smaller tomatoes. Is that normal?

[kingkano]

Everyone making me sad now. I knew my greenhouse toms were bad and way behind, but they are only just flowering the first truss. Further behind than I ever thought!! Do you all have heated greenhouses or something???

[Chef_uk]

Nope, in fact i overdone the shade paint so its quite cool in mine. Nearly gone through a litre of tomato feed already mind, maybe that's caused your slowdown?

[Creemteez]

It is normal for tomatoes to produce those extra growths, Chef UK. I'm currently nipping off similar mini trusses which I doubt would ever come to much if left on. I don't know why they do that, but my personal theory is it's a reaction to "armpitting". Deprived of the extra trusses that not armpitting would produce, the plant tries to make extra seed in any way it can. Sad really....

[Chef_uk]

ahh i see, that would make sense as it started not long after i culled the sideshoots that i let grow on by mistake.

[Florence Fennel]

This all sounds wonderful, I'm just hoping mine will set fruit at all after the drowning they've had!

[wadsleyowl]

Mine are growing outdoors in Tomato houses outdoors, but by the sound of things after listening to other folks growing in greenhouses, it sounds as if I should cut my losses & lob the tops off them now. The last thing I want is toms that stay green & do not ripen up.

Am I right in understanding that loads of flowers does not guarantee decent toms & that as such less is more?