Yet Another Silly Tomato Idea!

[Bigmallly]

Not sure how this is gonna work so as always, I value your input. I'm thinking of growing some Cordon Toms in my SFG "but" treating them as Bush. The squares will have a cane on each corner with chicken wire wrapped round to make a cage, the armpits will be left on the plants & when it gets to around 3ft tall I will nip out the growing tip...............Any pitfalls?

[Scarlet]

Yes, it will be bigger than a foot wide.

[Thelma Sanders]

I've often grown cordons and allowed one bottom side shoot to grow up its own cane and that works well, with 2 equally strong stems.
BUT if you let them all grow I think you'll get 4 or 5 armpits none of which will be very strong to produce decent fruit.

Just my opinion - you can always prove me wrong

[Bigmallly]

Yes, it will be bigger than a foot wide.

Not if I tie them to the cage....................

[snakeshack]

could work OK ,I've left toms to just get on with it in the past and committed both sins, leaving cordon toms to go wild gives a reasonable harvest of small tomatoes and removing armpits from bush tomatoes just seems to reduce your crop YMMV

[Snoop Puss]

Might work very well with Marmandes. But they will tend to fill more than just a square foot to the sides. Maybe you could 'underplant' with something low-lying like lettuce, rocket, radishes and the like?

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

BM! Will not tying armpits in inhibit fruit production and air flow! Not wanting to dampen your concept! ......

[mothhawk]

Cordon toms bear trusses on the main stem, so at 3ft you'll have one, maybe two trusses. How many armpits (leaves) will you have in 3ft of stem to grow on and how will you tie them in? Then they will each have a truss and you'll have to let their armpits grow, but they will need to be taller as they are not starting from ground level. Does that make sense?

I let a "Black Cherry" do its own thing in the garden last year, armpits and all. It grew massive, with a main stem over an inch diameter. It leaned on and through the runner beans, and I shoved in a cane whenever an armpit needed support. I think though, I'd have got the same amount of toms and less of a tangle if I'd shoved the armpits into the ground to grow as single stem cordons.

[Bigmallly]

BM! Will not tying armpits in inhibit fruit production and air flow! Not wanting to dampen your concept! ......

From what I have read the only downside is the possibility of smaller fruits.

[Bigmallly]

Cordon toms bear trusses on the main stem, so at 3ft you'll have one, maybe two trusses. How many armpits (leaves) will you have in 3ft of stem to grow on and how will you tie them in? Then they will each have a truss and you'll have to let their armpits grow, but they will need to be taller as they are not starting from ground level. Does that make sense?

I may have to reassess the height...................

[AkionTotocha]

Can't you do the four posts and then spiral the vine around the outside of the posts like a slinky?

Is the point of the experiment to increase yield/flavour or reduce effort pruning/training?

Or have you grown so many tomatoes over the years that you're looking for a little adventure this time round?

[MarkPelican]

Growing them in a cage is exactly how many US commercial growers do it. The question is how long is your growing season because the early fruit will be shaded by the increased amount of growth and so take longer to ripen and the later fruit will (of course) ripen later. So what you may end up with is a large amount of green fruit.

[vixylix]

I tried (and failed) to de-armpit mine last year so they did their own thing - and got enormous!

I had Pomodoro and some of the free Heinz seeds - I have nothing to compare against but I did get plenty of tomatoes - they were everywhere!

[Bigmallly]

Well, you've given me food for thought. I have a few determinates which I will grow in cages. I still may experiment at growing an indeterminate & tying 4 armpits up canes to a height of around 4 foot. I notice in some pics that they start sprouting from the seed leaves which is good as I can plant them deep so the armpits look as though they are coming out of the soil.

[veggiechicken]

Not sure if this helps or confuses http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...oes_65737.html Gives you some idea of the problems that multiple stems may cause!