Growing tomatoes is a lot like some of the things we do in bonsai to balance energy in the plant. As a tomato grows, axillary shoots, or suckers, form in the crotches, or axils, between the leaves and the main stem. If left alone, these suckers will grow just like the main stem and produce flowers/fruit. Suckers appear sequentially, from the bottom of the plant up. The farther up on the plant a sucker develops, the weaker it is, because the sugar concentration gets lower as you move up the plant. On the other hand, side stems arising from below the first flower cluster, although stronger, compromise the strength of the main stem. For a multi-stemmed plant, your aim would be to have all stems roughly the same size, although the main stem should always be stronger, because it has to supply water & nutrients to the entire plant for the next several months. A 'how to': Keep tomatoes free of side stems below the first fruit cluster. When trained to one vine and left free-standing, tomato plants develop strong main stems. To encourage a strong stem, remove all suckers and don't tie plants to their supports until the first flowers appear. Determinate tomatoes need no pruning other than removing all suckers below the first flower cluster, because pruning won't affect their fruit size or plant vigor. If you do any pruning at all above the first flower cluster on determinate tomatoes, you'll only be throwing away potential fruit (until late in the year when you are sure frost will take the fruit before it can ripen on the stems you'll be pinching. I hope that made sense.). Indeterminate tomatoes can have many stems. The fewer the stems, the fewer but larger the fruits, and the less room the plant takes up in a container. For a multi-stemmed plant, let a second stem grow from the first node above the first fruit. Allow a third stem to develop from the second node above the first set fruit, and so forth. Keeping the branching as close to the first fruit as possible means those side stems will be vigorous but will not 'overpower' the main stem. Al

It sounds like your Pelargoniums are growing along a single main stem and putting off leaves only along this main stem. (I am going to call it the "trunk" like a tree trunk, although this is not its technical term). What you want to do, is get them to branch out, just like a bush. This is done by pinching them back. A lot of flowers will grow up like this and not put off any off shoots (branches) unless they are pinched. The leaf stems are not branches, they are only leaf stems that support one single leaf. If you cut off the leaf stem, most likely a new leaf and a new stem will grow from the base of the leaf stem, where it joins the "trunk" or main stem of the plant. So, you can very safely pinch off or cut off the large leaves you don't like the look of on your plants. I am not sure if it will put them back from flowering, but I really don't think so. However, you will likely see in a few days that a new leaf is forming. To get the plant to branch out though, you will need to cut off the growth node on the top of the plant. This is done by pinching the top off. The best place to do it so that it does not look odd, is right above the next set of leaves. Then you are not going to get an odd looking stump. The plant will then be forced to branch off to the sides if it wishes to continue growing, which it will. Because there are two growth nodes now (or meristems,) you will get two branches. Let them grow a bit more, and pinch back the branches again. After a few pinches, you will get a fairly bushy plant. Even if they are not flowering, I would still suggest selling them. Undercut the local nursery prices, and you should find buyers!

Dave I understand your analogy and your position that plants of the size I mentioned are beyond the stage at which they should be transplanted into their final growing place, and from my experience I don't doubt that plants would perform better in a longer season if they had been initially transplanted as smaller plants; my big transplants are pretty pooped out by the end of the season (if season was longer, I don't think they would last much longer), while their younger siblings tend to look better and fuller and like they would have a longer healthier lifespan than the bigger transplants had (but though healthier and fuller, the have also produced fewer and later fruits, as mentioned). Is there somewhere I could find more information what effects growth/what is the ideal stage at which to set out? I don't know if it makes a difference up here, if proper transplanting and setting out would still result in later, fewer fruits. Regarding transplanting in general, when I changed up a few things last year I seemed to have poorer root development than prior years. Plants still grew pretty large and produced ok given the weather conditions (maybe excess precipitation acutally helped bring more nutrients to the smaller root systems this summer). I was told by some people here last year that root growth could be improved by allowing plants to become somewhat (or more than somewhat) rootbound in smaller pots before potting up...may explain better performance in other years when I procrastinated before potting up. Did some research and came across the below link among other things. Not sure how old or accurate it is, but the article discusses root development, and seems to indicate the possibility that the more times a plant is transplanted, the less fruit it produces, due in part to damaging effects of translanting on the roots. Besides direct sowing, or planting seeds in 6-inch pots (instead of starters then cells then larger pots) I don't see a practical way to plant in a manner that would avoid all transplanting...and probably tough to plant one or a few seeds per 6-inch pot and have enough room/pots to set up for germination. Ignoring the transplant size issue, any comments on what this article says about transplanting and root development (and applicability to a non-commercial garden, if any)? http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010137veg.roots/010137ch26.html

I don't even use the sparklers unless it is on a birthday cake.... my father was against fireworks except if it was done by professionals. He and my mother shot off a couple of firecrackers when their first 4th of July after being married. The firecracker took off and ended up in the barn full of hay. They had to run into the barn and start pulling bales out to make sure that the barn did NOT catch of fire.... so when my brother and I came along he was ALREADY against having them.... plus when growing up we had lots of droughts and the pastures were EXTREMELY brown. We had several grass fires from people driving by and dropping cigarettes.... so anything that could cause a fire he was against.... Can't say that I blame him, and it made be think about what I might do .... would it .... could it cause problems for others.