more tomato obsession...katherine weighs in...

thank god!

k-win asked for it so here it is...katherine's take on tomatoes...

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Just read your blog. As I seem to visit many gardens with unpruned tomato plants, perhaps a little explanation of tomato pruning is necessary. However I am no expert, I just geek out on garden research the way some people geek out on ps3 or bike research.

Here's the deal. When you plant one tomato plant, your goal is to grow one strong healthy stalk with leaves and flowers. (This stalk will probably near one inch diameter) This is especially true of indeterminate varieties, the kind that just keep growing and growing, which are the kind that mostly get planted. Determinant varieties, like bush tomatoes and most smaller grape tomatoes don't get so out of hand and you don't have to be as vigilant.

The problem is that the tomato plant is a persistent and willful being. Every time the plant grows a leaf arm it also tries to shoot out a "sucker" stalk in the crotch of the main stalk and the leaf arm. This sucker looks innocuous at first, but if left unchecked will grow to compete with the main stalk of the plant, complete with leaves and flowers and perhaps some small green tomatoes. The tomato plant is so keen to grow healthy stalks and leaves that it will produce these at the expense of fruit production. The gardener needs to trick the plant by eliminating these competing stalks and keeping all plant food flowing up the main stalk to encourage the development of the juicy red tomatoes.

So throughout the growth of your tomato plants, from the time you put them in the ground, you need to be checking your plants weekly (at a minimum) for the little sucker shoots between the main stalk and every leaf arm. Pinch them off before they get big with your thumb and forefinger and you will spare yourself the dilemma when they grow big and sprout flowers later on. When you get lots of flower arms you can even prune the leaf arms below the lowest flowers, so that you aren't wasting food and water down low.

Also, water your tomatoes like crazy, they need a ton of it. Some people taper the watering after there is lots of green fruit on the tree - I haven't yet got so sophisticated.

kf.

some illustrations...awesome. i needed these a long time ago. thanks katherine1 nice work.