This year I have tried to go more by-the-book with my tomatoes. The first year I snapped off the laterals but didn’t know what I was doing and stunted their growth, also didn’t have enough plants. The next year I just got self-seeders popping up all over the garden which gave us heaps and heaps of green tomatoes. Last year I planted seedlings and left the laterals to go wild. Got lots of tomatoes but more foliage.
So this year I have various plantings – two lots (15? plants) in the raised beds – (MacGregor’s) Beefsteak tomatoes. With these I tried to let them grow two(ish) main stems and broke off the rest of the laterals that I could find. Two plants in their own corner – cherry tomatoes (Weathersfield Organic Cherry Baby/Gardener’s Delight and Sun Cherry). The trusses on those are forming nicely now and they both have 2 or 3 main stems. Today I nipped off the tops to stop them growing any more. Also another set of the same beef tomatoes along the fence. These are smaller than the others because they were in pots for longer, but I have been really strict with these ones, breaking off all the laterals. Finally one or two self-seeders which have popped up around and about.
Anyway, I just did a massive prune of all the bushes, taking off a lot of the bottom leaves and any leaves that were shading trusses. Hope I didn’t overdo it.
