Alternative tomato pruning?

[AkionTotocha]

I've just found this video on gardeners world for pruning cordon tomatoes.

Rather than removing suckers, you leave them and remove the growing tip, then when the sucker produces a sucker of its own, you remove the tip of the first sucker (now main shoot) and leave the second sucker to grow, and so on.

The theory is; the main stem will produce a truss of flowers every third leaf, suckers produce a truss every second leaf

They never produced a follow-up video, so I was thinking of experimenting with one of my vines (maybe a Roma since I'm regretting sowing so many after reading reviews, I don't mind sacrificing one for an experiment)

It could be that by using this method you cut off the main tip before it produces a truss, maybe cut out the tip after a truss forms and leave the sucker underneath? I don't know, but I'm going to try this method on one of my vines this year, and anyone else that wants to please post a record of how it goes!

Though remember; you should have a vine of the same kind growing the normal way for a comparison of yield/flavour. Also, it could make the vine sickly or it could make the vine aggressively vigorous, so make sure it's a vine that you can "waste" potentially.

Here's the video link:

How to increase tomato yields - Projects: Video projects - gardenersworld.com

[Scarlet]

That's interesting...just watched the video. I might give that a shot

[Scoot]

I normally just allow 1 of the first sideshoots that grows to carry on growing, effectively then having 2 main stems. That's how I increase my yield.

[cariann88]

Keep us posted on how you get on. I am intrigued to know if it actually works.

I'd give it ago myself but can't at the moment.

[Scarlet]

I often train a second side shoot but the method on the video says a side shoot will flower after the second leaf instead of every third. If you have to top your plants at 6ft it should mean you get a couple more trusses per plant for the same space...... I know what I'm on about even if it's sounds gobbledygook!

[lolie]

I pretty much did this with my tomatoes this year.

I lopped off the main growing tip when the plants were about 4 foot high and got tons of fruit from the side shoots and the suckers which grew off other suckers.

It did become a bit of a tangle towards the end and I had to keep pruning as some of the original suckers became less productive but it's amazing how what look like dead stems will produce perfectly healthy trusses 3 feet away.

I was fortunate not to have any caterpillar invasions once the plants went Little Shop of Horrors.

I'd also been told in the past that you don't get new growth below where you've cut off side stems/suckers. Based on my experience this summer, that's simply not true. I still keep getting new suckers on the bottom of the main stem months after all the side branches have been lopped off and those trusses produce fruit.

The only thing I noticed was that I'd often get clusters of trusses with ridiculous numbers of flowers (40 or so) and the plants would abort some of those flowers, unlike the "normal" trusses with fewer flowers.

[maverick451]

Very interesting video, thanks the posting

The only thing I would worry about is that you may be slowing down vertical growth quite abit, when in the past I have accidently damaged the main stem and it had to regrow from a sideshoot it falls a week or so behind.

[Thelma Sanders]

I normally just allow 1 of the first sideshoots that grows to carry on growing, effectively then having 2 main stems. That's how I increase my yield.

That's what I do with mine - a double cordon tomato

[veggiechicken]

Interesting but I'd like to see what happened next!
I'm wondering about bush tomatoes and how many leaves they make before a fruiting truss. With an unnamed plant, I usually let the side shoots grow and turn them into bush toms (because I'm too lazy to nip out the sideshoots)' If sideshoots produce more trusses than the main stem, why not grow all bush toms?

[Thelma Sanders]

Bush tomatoes only grow one truss at the top of the stem, but they grow more stems.

Cordon plants keep growing trusses as they grow longer, but they still want to grow more sideshoots! It's crazy. I suppose in the end if you let all the suckers grow you'd have a crazy tall bush til it collapsed under it's own weight

I tried quite a few varieties last year and I remember a few of them were making a fruit truss after every leaf, so were shorter but with more fruit. Unfortunately they didn't have that 'perfect' tomato taste lol

[Bigmallly]

So on the plus side, not only do you increase the yield but also all the tips that are cut out can be rooted & grown on as you could do with armpits.

[AkionTotocha]

Some thoughts I've had then:

-I've left cordons to grow rampant before (I only learned about suckers and cordon/bush types this year - hence finding that video) and had lots of tomatoes from it, but none that ripened in time. I think tomatoes enjoy growing in bushes as perennials(sp?), but in the UK they're controlled because our seasons are shorter.

-I think suckers produce two leaves, truss, three leaves truss, three leaves truss etc. so only the first truss forms early

-I think it will only work on vigorous/aggressive toms, as it will take a lot of energy from the plant with this method

-stressing the plant in this way should make the toms taste better in theory: James Wong suggests spraying tomatoes in aspirin water as the chemical is a similar to the hormone released by tomatoes when stressed (thus making more fruits that are sweeter)

Tomatoes - James Wong | Official Site

If anyone has any Willow prunings they could experiment with making a tea from them and spray this onto some other of their tomatoes instead of pruning them this way. It's the same principal as the JW link but Willow contains natural salicylic acid (actually where it gets its name) so it would be organic (I'm not comfortable spraying aspirin on my toms..willow tea is more palatable, though I don't have any willow available to me)

You might be wasting tomato plants here, I might be wasting tomato plants here, but the potential results are exciting and I want to try it!!!