Yet Another Silly Tomato Idea!

[Bren In Pots]

BM if you've got the space and plants to experiment with I think you should give it a go otherwise you'll never know what the results would be. Plus we like reading your threads

[Small pumpkin]

100% agree with Bren. Just do it BM.
Obviously we want a weekly progress report

Thanks for the link to forking tomatoes VC. My Ovi's Romanian Giant has done that.

[Bigmallly]

If I had the space & a load of straw I would try growing some horizontal cordons, just plant them in the ground at 45° and just let them grow along the ground...............

[Penellype]

I've let indeterminate tomatoes grow as bushes in a few ways and have the following observations.

1. Cherry tomatoes (varieties Sungold, Chocolate Cherry) allowed to do their own thing will make huge bushes with vast amounts of fruit. They are a nightmare to stake, but it works. These are Sungold (4 plants about a foot apart in the centre, one plant on the right):



2. Better behaved plants (Shirley in my experience) will grow quite well as 2, 3 or 4 stemmed plants. I routinely do this indoors at home, stopping the plant at 2 or 3 trusses and growing the sideshoots on. The indoor plants don't produce huge fruit anyway as they are only in 3 litre pots, but this method doesn't seem to reduce fruit size as far as I can tell. When tried in the greenhouse with Shirley plants in gro-beds, stopping at about 5 trusses, it worked well and the fruit was a decent size.

3. You will get a huge tangle of foliage. This can lead to problems with botrytis and blight in damp weather and can make finding some of the fruit quite tricky.

I don't see why you shouldn't be ok growing a central stem and about 4 sideshoots from the bottom of the plant, say one up each corner of your square. I'd advise removing the rest of the sideshoots.

[Bigmallly]

I don't see why you shouldn't be ok growing a central stem and about 4 sideshoots from the bottom of the plant, say one up each corner of your square. I'd advise removing the rest of the sideshoots.

Yes, that's my intention Pene plus I may also remove any leaf branches that grow in to the centre of the square.

[vixylix]

I think it sounds like a good plan - we like an experiment keep us informed!!

[veggiechicken]

I think someone steals your ideas, BM

Tomato Cage x 3 - Blooming Great Savings You Can Bank On - Reader Offers - Suttons Seeds and Plants

What would happen if you trained 4 armpits to the framework and cut out the main stem?

[Bigmallly]

I don't know, will let you know when I do it....................

[Snoop Puss]

Really like the cage, veggiechicken. And not that expensive, really. I might order some myself. But they definitely need some kind of stopper on the end of the rods... Corks would probably work.

[Bigmallly]

Really like the cage, veggiechicken. And not that expensive, really. I might order some myself. But they definitely need some kind of stopper on the end of the rods... Corks would probably work.

It'll be canes & string for me cos I'm a cheapskate................