Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm pretty happy with the growth that my tomatoes are showing now that the system has cycled. They are starting to pop out one or two flowers.

There are 14 different types, black, zebra, green, beefsteak, pear etc

I have strings set up for them and we started cutting off the lower leaves when the plants were very young but they are around 1 1/2 to 2 foot tall now and we haven't kept up the leaf trimming at the bottom.

What do I do to get the best yeild? We're training them up the strings for strength because they are in a hot house and their stems aren't strengthened by winds.

Do we remove the growth coming out between leaves, keeping a leaf on each side of the plant?
Do we remove the bottom leaves?

I just don't know how to care for them in this situation... usually I let them go beserk in the dirt but this is a little different and I want to do it properly

Hi Imy,
what I do (and what was recommended by Raimo) was to remove all branches off the stem up to the latest lot of tomato fruit on the vine...I just go around once a week and tidy them up

Thanks
So do I leave them until I harvest the fruit from the bottom lot of leaves before I trim up to it?

I removed the branches as soon as the fruit has set from the flowers, it seems to tell the plant it needs to throw out some more flowers for survival

+1, treat them mean, keep them flowering, or something like that....

Elk/OBO are you removing both the branches and the leaves? Given that my tommies are in the sun, and it hasn't really heated up here yet, will the friut benefit from having some leaves left for a bit of shade in summer? I remember OBO that you've put a bit of shade cover up, but do think they would survive without it? Or will the fruit get sunburnt?

The top of the tom plants shades the stems sufficiently - the shadecloth is for the 'soft plants'. I dont know how the toms would go in the direct Kal sun, its pretty vicious.

I remove the lower leaves, but if there is room to spread out more I encourage the branches.

You can get a massive tree from one stem, with fruit everywhere.

I was pinching off the suckers (the third small branch that forms in the Vee between two older branches), trimming the lower branches, and also to get it really tidy I trimmed off any branches that were growing down rather than upwards. Use a trellis or twine to keep them well supported and plan ahead for them to use a lot of room.

Late in the season I was getting brown wrinkly patches on the tops of the tomatoes, which I think was sun scald from trimming too many leaves off?

There is lots of advice out there about how best to grow toms. Pinching off excess suckers seems to be pretty standard and removing leaves below the currently ripening lowest fruit is pretty standard too. The lower leaves tend to die off as the fruit finishes ripening up anyway (at least in my experience with cherry/grape tomatoes.)

What exactly you do will depend on your situation. Supporting the plants is good so that they aren't lying all over the place and resting the fruit on the ground/bed/other plants/etc. How much you prune will depend on your time. The more you prune, the fewer/larger fruit you will likely get. Some people only allow like one fruit to grow in a cluster to get the largest prize winning fruit they can. Other people will let the plants grow as they will and just hope they can find the fruit in the jungle. I mainly prune when stuff just get too untidy to deal with. I might pinch off suckers as I wander by or do a lot of pruning one week and then let things go for weeks before tending again. Spending time pruning gives you a chance to really check on the plants and notice disease, bug problems, progress of the plant, etc.
I usually train and prune to keep the tomato plants from smothering all my other stuff and taking over the grow beds. I will sometimes thin fruit bunches when it looks like the smaller fruit will rob too much from the ones that are starting to ripen.

I have some Cherry and grape tomato plants that have been growing since last spring (we are heading into winter here now) and since I have plastic over the system, they will probably survive as long as I let them.

And polination? We have ours in a hot house... we keep the door open occasionally but the only thing which flies in are teeny tiny sandfly like bugs. I see them sitting on the tomato plants but I doubt its enough.

Toothbrush Imy..... works a treat....

Or cotton tip/buds you know the cottonball on a stick that's in every first aid kit. Ppl call them so many different things.

The other option is to get some bees. There seems to be a large shortage of bees in many places around the world, plus, I just received my first kg of honey from my old man yummy stuff sh1ts all over the supermarket stuff.

We've considered bees in our greenhouse but apparently they need UV-B (no pun intended) to navigate and the greenhouse plastic filters UV-B so they fly off drunkenly in all directions (like South Africans) and forget all about pollen, so it's the little paint brush for us.

hehehe thats a funy thought

Like South Africans in a 20/20 cricket match. (sorry couldn't resist).

Another trick with tomatoes is, let the lateral growth get to a decent size then break it off and stick it in the grow bed. They will quite often trike a new plant.