cutting back tomatoes

 

I've read that "... about a month before frost, cut back the growing
tips of [indeterminate?] tomatoes ...", so as not to waste the plants'
energy on fruits that won't have time to mature.  We have Cherokee
Purples, and it's getting close to that time.

But, simply put, I'm not clear on where to cut.  The tip of every
stem/stalk/vine?  What about flowers?  What about leaves - are all
leaves an asset at the end of the season, or just those on fruit-bearing
stems?

Any insight/experience would be appreciated.  Thanks.

G-

 



I just can't imagine cutting back a tomato. The night before frost is
predicted I pick everything. The ones that will ripen sit on a shelf where
they can be watched. The others go into pickles, relish or just fried. This
time of year my plants start dying from the bottom up, so, if you must cut
something just cut the blossoms, leave the leaves and growing tips to
sustain the plant.
Just my $.02 worth,
Steve

 



I ->think he's talking about a situation where you have some tomatoes
which will probably be ripe before the first frost and a number of
tomatoes and blossoms that don't have any chance, and the suggestion is
to cut off the ones that you know won't make it to force the plant to
put its resources into the ones you expect to survive.

This suggestion would appear to apply only to cases where you have no
use for tomatoes that aren't completely ripe, although without knowing
what [indeterminate?] means, I can't be sure.


Bert Hyman    St. Paul, MN    bert@iphouse.com

 



Indeterminate means they just keep growing.  As opposed to
'determinate', where the fruits more-or-less mature at the same time.  

These URLs describe determinate/indeterminate, and advise re pruning,
including the '30 days before frost' thing:

 http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/pruning-tomatoes.aspx


http://www.howtodothings.com/home-and-garden/a2947-how-to-prune-tomatoes.html

But, in the forest of our tomato tops, I'm still confused.

G

 



I'm growing both, and I'm confused. Determinate are suppose to restrict
tomato ripening to a short period. It is going to be a bell curve with
some ripening early, and some ripening late, but most will ripen about
the same time. It would appear that most of my determinate's (Glacier)
are ripe now. I have no worry about frost yet, so I'll just let it keep
on, keepin' on.
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/2/maude
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2010/07/201072816515308172.html