I would fold it: untie it and hold it with only one hand at the height you want, and slowly lower the top part down. It will then hopefully bend at that point. The top is now near the ground, and you can stake it with a new stake and it will start growing up again. This year I have many folded tomatoes, I decided not to make my trellis that high. One broke instead of folded, so there is a risk. But if you were going to cut it off there anyway, may as well try folding first. The plants seem to get plenty of nutrients through the folded stem. Scott

I did look on the hybridizing forum to find nothing, but you answered it nicely, thanks &&&&& At this point I'm a bit confused as to what kind of information you're after. First, you want to deliberately cross two varieties, regardless of plant habit, to form an F1 hyhbrid. Fine, but then what? You must be doing that to create a new variety and saved seeds from those hybrid F1 fruits, are called the F2 seeds and in another thread here I went through what one needs to do to get an OP (open pollinated) selection from that, which can take up to 5-6 years growing out each season. I can give you agreat link on how to do crosses if that would help. And are you also looking for methods used to save seeds, not having anything to do, really, with any crosses? There are several methods and there are threads here about that.. I prefer fermentation to other methods, So please help unconfuse me. ( smile) Carolyn

"Bottom line". - So now we're back to pruning huh? Yet another tangent. reason I brought up this subject b'c you keep saying a single root system can support 4 or unlimited number of fruit bearing branches And you keep referring MANY studies but have not referenced ONE yet. You keep saying "10000s of tomatoes are grown this way' or that way '!! Don't need a link to any study to prove that. Anyone who has ever grown a tomato plant without pruning it or pruned it to 4 or 5 or 6 branches knows that is true. Any commercial grower knows it is true. Do you really think they prune acres of tomatoes? But just for you the link below - hundreds of pics of of 1000's of acres of fields of unpruned of tomatoes growing. You can click on each photo and go to the page that tells you all about it. And here are hundreds of pics of home garden unpruned tomato beds. Clicking on these photos takes you all kinds of personal blogs where the growers discuss why they do or don't prune their tomatoes. So I said in that case 4 plants (each pruned to single stem) should do better even in a confined area(Soil Volume). And that follows how? The discussion was about pruning not number of plants i a hole. So how is it even relevant to a discussion on pruning? But you want to argue that 4 plants in a hole of a specific size will do better than 1 plant planted alone in that same hole? Ignoring the question of why anyone would even plant 4 plants in the same hole in the first place, you claim that overcrowded plants, even pruned to a single stem overcrowded plants, will do better, produce more, than normally spaced plants, pruned or unpruned? That defies logic and common sense! It totally disregards what is common knowledge about how plants grow, what they need in terms of nutrients, water, air circulation, soil O2, root development, sun exposure, etc. You going to find a way to quadruple all those things in that single whole too? The only way your claim could make any sense at all is if you thought those 4 root balls were feeding all four plants when you said The fallacy lies in your conclusion: that one root system is better than four. And concluding without any back up evidence that ONE root system can provide more nutrients than FOUR.. Roots in a hole feed the plant they originate from period. Nothing else. The only way 4 rootballs in the same hole - which would be silly to do to begin with - could even come close to matching the performance of a single root ball in that same hole is if you quadruple the available nutrients, water, available room for root development, available soil O2 levels and maximum air circ and sun exposure above ground. How the Closeness of Plants Affect Growth The Effect of Growing Tomato Varieties Too Closely Spaced The minimal spacing for trellised tomatoes is two feet apart in a hedgerow. Research has demonstrated that crowding plants will not increase yields, but will increase disease problems. Colorado State University Extension. Planting Density in Field Production of Organic Tomatoes Effects on Plants of Growing in Overcrowded Contitions Want more - Physical Effects of Overcrowding on Plants Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Fields of tomatoes pics

Dear Don don't despair We are still growing tomatoes here. I need all your help to win the biggest tomato competition another year. Keep logging on and talking to me, max in Australia as our season is just starting. I've been planting into soil only in the last week. Planted BW, Giant Belgium, Giant Syrian, Delicious, seeds from last years winner plus many of the yummy ones talked about on this forum. Keep logging, We all want your expertise. Cheers max