you have 25.. do one.. and see what happens ... undoubtedly.. it will reform a new leader.. or three.. and go back to height within a few years .. since there is no root disturbance... they were improperly planted in the wrong spot.... they have to go.. period ... if it were me.. i would think about taking every other one out.. and replanting new ones.. out 5 feet or so ... and since you really wont be planting anything else that close to the house.. i would just cut the trunk flush ... and forget about the roots ... they will rot in time ... and when the new ones start growing.. remove the other ones.. this will leave some privacy.. if that is the issue... while you start some new privacy .... etc ... you have trees that can easily go to 50 feet or more... planted ON YOUR HOUSE... i will blame the prior owner.. lol ... a picture would sure help us to understand what you are dealing with.. and where you might go with this .... because i am not sure that 25 new ones.. is worth the cost .... you do have so many other options in life ... good luck ken

Ok Rob, Heres what I'd do.... The side shoots that you mention are also called suckers. I would pinch the tips of those first. In the winter when they're dormant you can dig those out and pot them up with out damage to either the parent or the baby. Next, how do you want to shape your tree? I try to train my trees to be just that, trees. One single trunk and more tree like. Some people like their figs more bushy with little or no trunk and just multiple smaller trunks. If you want a tree pinch the lower branch tips and start shaping your trees to what ever shape you want. It does sound like your chances of getting figs on this year are minimal. Good luck and I hope this was helpful. -Little John

if you prune the vine early, you can get two subsidiary vines where that single vine was lopped off. That would have the desired effect, which is to put more growth closer to the ground. If that is your goal then it is true to a degree. But is "more growth closer to the ground" really the goal when growing tomatoes? Rather than say plant health, production, fruit quality, fruit size, etc.? And you also have to balance the effect on the plant of doing that. You now have secondary stems rather than primary. Smaller in size, potentially weaker, reduced circulatory systems in both means less nutrient and water transport, etc. And how many times could you do it without severely affecting the plant? Would the reduced circulation be exponential? 1 into 2, 2 into 4, 4 into 8, 16, 32, etc. It is a trade-off that just isn't worth IMO. But to each his own because what works for one may not work for another. but I've never had much success in doing that. I put them in distilled water, and wait and wait for roots to form. They usually don't. Yep lots of discussions on 'rooting cuttings' or 'clones' here and many with pictures included. I do some 30-50 of them each July for planting out in August to replace exhausted plants. Basically it boils down to 3-5" growth tip cuttings (not leaves, no leaf branches, etc. only suckers or growing tips), strip off any leaves except the cluster on the tip, insert the stem 2-3" deep in a small pot of moist potting soil (never water), and set it out of the sun. It will droop for about 2 days then begin to perk up. Keep it well moistened and within 8-10 days it will be rooted in place. Transplant tot he garden at the proper time. That hasn't been quite my experience with Sweet-100s. Can't really compare the growth patterns of the manic cherry varieties to standard tomato plants. Very different animals. They grow in such an explosive, unrestrained manner that many question if they are really tomato plants and suspect that Sweet 100, Sweet Million, and similar monsters are secretly conspiring to take over the world. Dave

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