Tomato plants

[gardengeordie]

Do I remove all 45 degree shoots from tomato plants?

Also some of the plants have branches coming off the very bottom which seem to be longer than the plants themselves and some are snapping what is best to do with these?

Thanks very much

[Thelma Sanders]

All the 45 degree shoot growing from the 'armpits' are removed. You can usually just snap them off.

If you have a very long shoot from the bottom they are just big armpit shoots and many people just cut them off. But if you have the space you can give one its own cane and treat it just as you would a separate plant - I'd only allow one of these per plant.

[gardengeordie]

thanks very much i pulled off the smaller ones but there was a few large ones i wanted to double check on thanks again

[Bigmallly]

You only do this with Cordon (Indeterminate) varieties. Bush (Determinate) varieties, you leave them alone.

[MarkPelican]

I was going to make the same comment as BM. It depends what you're growing. It also depends where you're growing them. I tend to grow cordons in the greenhouse but I do grow two or three vines. Outdoors I tend to tie them to a frame and let all the growth grow. I get more ripe fruit in the greenhouse but the outdoor ones do quite well enough, especially the early fruited (like bloody butcher) and cherry varieties.

[Baldy]

Its nice to see Bloody Butcher mentioned rather than "******** Butcher" - to which I had become accustomed - decent tom. that one.
I've never put it to the test but I've a friend who tends to let his indeterminates 'do their own thing' - he claims to get a decent crop of generally smaller toms - but I'd have thought too much energy would go in to the foliage rather than the fruit?

[cariann88]

You can always take the side shoots off and stick them in a pot to grow more tomatoes