I can’t believe the season is almost over! 30 Sept first frost date for me... i topped off all my plants and took off all flowers without evidence of a tomato forming; my plants seem to take more than 6 week to develop a ripe tomato from flower to fruit. Great video! Thanks or advice!
Hi Chris, Yes, depending on where you are... but generally I believe it takes about 7-8 weeks from your first flowers showing to harvesting all your plants fruitage. It is this way for us here in the Pacific Northwest or Vancouver South Island. It will be at the right green stage if you have green ones so that they will self ripen in open box, lined with newspaper and stem side down, one layer only. Place in a cool, dark place with lots of air circulation. Your green tomatoes will ripen on their own if you do this. Check your box for ripeness ever 2 days and don't forget them. You are so right. I top mine off also about 2 weeks before harvest to concentrate the sugars into the tomatoes. Thank you for your kind words of support!
Hi Mark, Thank you for your question... I do remove my suckers, just not all of them and not the first ones usually... I wait to see what the plant is doing usually in the first 2 and a half to 3 feet to see what I want to remove. Suckers produce flowers... You have to make the decision on each individual plant as to what you want to keep and what you want to remove. If you remove every sucker you will get less yield and bigger tomatoes. If you keep suckers you will get more tomatoes but smaller ones. It is a year by year and plant by plant decision on how your plants look and the experience of how each variety grows. Some varieties tend to produce less... like San Marzano's. It's an individual choice each person makes in growing tomatoes. Hope this helps...
Just to clarify... there are no suckers on tomatoes.... a sucker is a part of a plant that doesn't produce flowers or fruit... People call these side stems or secondary branches "suckers" which is not accurate and in fact aren't. These "side stems or secondary branches" will in fact produce flowers and fruit... By trimming off some, you will produce bigger fruit. By keeping most of them on, you will get slightly smaller fruit but may get a bigger yield. What you want to do is trim when there are too many split branches from the main growing branch or vine initially. Keep it to one or two main branches... from there try and keep as many side branches as you can. This will make for an unruly plant with indeterminates and you will need a lot of support for this plant as well as you will need to prune into the plant to remove some leaves so allow the plant some air space for continued pollination. The determinates do not need to be pruned at all.... meaning do not take side branches off at all. Determinates are generally caged, although I stake them as well. I hate cages as they do not support very well and end up falling over when heavy. Hope this further explains and helps...
@@RascalandCrowFarm Thanks for your detailed response. I’ve been wondering about “side branches” and whether to trim or not. Tons of people subscribe to removing them and fewer say just to leave them. I’m planning on growing 14 tomato varieties next year. Some determinate, some indeterminate. I have 8’ cages for the indeterminate which hold up pretty well except in a heavy wind. I think that I will leave side branches on this year. My only concern is when side branches spawn into more side branches it would seem that you end up with a mess. That said, I’ve also been disappointed with yields being lower than expected. BTW... watched you TH-cam where you were hitting the stakes to pollinate the flowers which I thought was brilliant. I’ve been running around my tomatoes ever other day with an electric tooth brush to vibrate the flowers which is a pain. Thanks again for your great content on your channel!
I trim off some of the side branches but being choosy as to which ones when they start to over run or get way too bushy. Pay attention to how many flowers and bunches these side branches are producing when pruning them off. ... the ones that are scrawny or don't seem to have too many flowers on them, I cut off. I use a 6-8 foot stake and sometimes I use side stakes for a single plant so that I don't stress the branches to bending too much... sometimes you even get a crazy bend, just gotta go with it... I find with indeterminates the cages are just way too cumbersome for me as I find with mine that you need to support them with stakes because of the weight... I think it is great that you feel they work for you... I just find it easier to tie to a single stake and use supporting ones if need be, but that is just me.... there is no wrong way really.
@@RascalandCrowFarm Suckers produce flowers....nice one, no many people mention this, i am agree from my experience, but i just keep 2 branches from the beginning, next yield i will try one more.
Thank you for the video!
Hello, Ternika 100, Thank you for your kindness and support. We appreciate your visiting us here.
I can’t believe the season is almost over! 30 Sept first frost date for me... i topped off all my plants and took off all flowers without evidence of a tomato forming; my plants seem to take more than 6 week to develop a ripe tomato from flower to fruit. Great video! Thanks or advice!
Hi Chris, Yes, depending on where you are... but generally I believe it takes about 7-8 weeks from your first flowers showing to harvesting all your plants fruitage. It is this way for us here in the Pacific Northwest or Vancouver South Island. It will be at the right green stage if you have green ones so that they will self ripen in open box, lined with newspaper and stem side down, one layer only. Place in a cool, dark place with lots of air circulation. Your green tomatoes will ripen on their own if you do this. Check your box for ripeness ever 2 days and don't forget them. You are so right. I top mine off also about 2 weeks before harvest to concentrate the sugars into the tomatoes. Thank you for your kind words of support!
Love the information! 🤗
Hi Debbie, thank you for your kind comment and support!
I was doing that to my black cherry tomato, Beautiful trusses 👍
Excellent!
I noticed that you don’t trim suckers off your tomatoes. Why is that?
Hi Mark, Thank you for your question... I do remove my suckers, just not all of them and not the first ones usually... I wait to see what the plant is doing usually in the first 2 and a half to 3 feet to see what I want to remove. Suckers produce flowers... You have to make the decision on each individual plant as to what you want to keep and what you want to remove. If you remove every sucker you will get less yield and bigger tomatoes. If you keep suckers you will get more tomatoes but smaller ones. It is a year by year and plant by plant decision on how your plants look and the experience of how each variety grows. Some varieties tend to produce less... like San Marzano's. It's an individual choice each person makes in growing tomatoes. Hope this helps...
Just to clarify... there are no suckers on tomatoes.... a sucker is a part of a plant that doesn't produce flowers or fruit... People call these side stems or secondary branches "suckers" which is not accurate and in fact aren't. These "side stems or secondary branches" will in fact produce flowers and fruit... By trimming off some, you will produce bigger fruit. By keeping most of them on, you will get slightly smaller fruit but may get a bigger yield. What you want to do is trim when there are too many split branches from the main growing branch or vine initially. Keep it to one or two main branches... from there try and keep as many side branches as you can. This will make for an unruly plant with indeterminates and you will need a lot of support for this plant as well as you will need to prune into the plant to remove some leaves so allow the plant some air space for continued pollination. The determinates do not need to be pruned at all.... meaning do not take side branches off at all. Determinates are generally caged, although I stake them as well. I hate cages as they do not support very well and end up falling over when heavy. Hope this further explains and helps...
@@RascalandCrowFarm Thanks for your detailed response. I’ve been wondering about “side branches” and whether to trim or not. Tons of people subscribe to removing them and fewer say just to leave them. I’m planning on growing 14 tomato varieties next year. Some determinate, some indeterminate. I have 8’ cages for the indeterminate which hold up pretty well except in a heavy wind. I think that I will leave side branches on this year. My only concern is when side branches spawn into more side branches it would seem that you end up with a mess. That said, I’ve also been disappointed with yields being lower than expected. BTW... watched you TH-cam where you were hitting the stakes to pollinate the flowers which I thought was brilliant. I’ve been running around my tomatoes ever other day with an electric tooth brush to vibrate the flowers which is a pain. Thanks again for your great content on your channel!
I trim off some of the side branches but being choosy as to which ones when they start to over run or get way too bushy. Pay attention to how many flowers and bunches these side branches are producing when pruning them off. ... the ones that are scrawny or don't seem to have too many flowers on them, I cut off. I use a 6-8 foot stake and sometimes I use side stakes for a single plant so that I don't stress the branches to bending too much... sometimes you even get a crazy bend, just gotta go with it... I find with indeterminates the cages are just way too cumbersome for me as I find with mine that you need to support them with stakes because of the weight... I think it is great that you feel they work for you... I just find it easier to tie to a single stake and use supporting ones if need be, but that is just me.... there is no wrong way really.
@@RascalandCrowFarm Suckers produce flowers....nice one, no many people mention this, i am agree from my experience, but i just keep 2 branches from the beginning, next yield i will try one more.