No. Pruning is personal preference. I seldom prune. I may take off yellowed lower branches but that's it.

Agree. It is optional and IMO depends a great deal on what kind of support you use for the plants. I use 5 and 6 foot tall CRW-type cages and lower branches that touch the ground is all I worry about.

Dave

Count me as the third voice that says pruning is not necessary. I do, almost religiously, cut off any branches that start to turn the least bit yellow, as well as any that are close to the ground. In the GH this winter, I did top plants that were getting too tall, but that only encourages more suckers.

Mike

I'm only pruning one plant and comparing the production to an identical plant that's not being pruned. So far the pruned plant has given me ripe tomatoes but the un-pruned plant is making much more fruit. I'm thinking by the end of the season the pruned plant will be the looser by far.

I prune for my safety. Sometimes plants will put out a long and low stem--well, I'm not tripping on them and so snip-snap and out it goes. I also like tidy aisles--my walkways--so any plant which is infringing on my elbow room will also get a visit with the clippers.

OK, so it doesn't matter in the amount of tomatoes you get then. Someone once told me that if you prune you'll get more tomatoes vs. if you don't prune you just get more vegetation. but that isn't the case correct?

I do need to get the yellows off the bottom though!

TY all! I am super excited about this year though becuase my plants are going crazy nuts and I planted 30 of them LOL! except for I don't know what is what because my 3y old decided to take my name tags off. grr! plus, I had a variety pack in there as well and I don't know what will come out of that either! So, I have chocolate cherry, beefy boy, german johnson, and a bunch of mixed ones. should be interesting!

when the tomatoes are growing in clusters and they will lose their shape even in the cage cause the flowers are too close, should a flower be pruned away to savor perfect growth/tomato

Loswan, I never heard of pruning tomatoes for shape... size, yes... shape, no! It sounds to me as though your cage can take the credit for ill-shaped fruits. The same would be true with a fruit that is trying to grow between the trunk of the plant and a stake that is holding it up. The fruit is going to grow... it just grows in the directions of the least resistance!!

Sheeshshe1, I'm 50 years old. And, I'd heard the prune/don't prune argument all my adult life. So, a few years ago, I tried an experiment. I set out 36 Better Boy tomato plants. I used 36 instead of just a couple so I'd have a better chance at getting results I could trust. And, there was 4 rows with 6 plants each.

As they grew, I removed all suckers from 18 of them. On the other 18, I removed nothing except limbs that touched the ground and anything that turned yellow. The 18 that I suckered produced some rather large fruits and little vegetation. The ones that I didn't sucker produced lots of vegetation. And, they produced a plethora of blooms and fruits!!!

The average fruit on the plant that I suckered was about 15% larger than the average fruit from the plants that weren't suckered. But, the plants that were suckered produced a good 35% more (conservative estimate) than the plants that were suckered.

I also noted that the plants that were not suckered didn't get near as tall as the plants that were suckered. The plants that I suckered grew as though Satan himself was after the top of the plants!! LOL!!

That said, remember that I only did this with one variety... Better Boy. So, I can't speak for other varieties. But, it seems to make sense that it would be true with other varieties as well!

One bit of advice, though... don't do what my brother did a few years ago. He pruned the suckers off his cherry tomatoes!! Bless his heart, he only had a fraction of the cherry tomatoes he was looking forward to!!!

I wish I knew about not removing suckers from Cherry Tomatoes. Hahahaha..

There have been lots of heated arguments on the various forums regarding pruning or not to prune and production per plant etc,
The general American view seems to be not to prune and that un-pruned plants produce the heaviest crop, and some have even gone so far as to quote various university studies into production weights regarding un-pruned as opposed to heavily pruned etc.coming down heavily in favour of the un-pruned plant etc,

Nothing could be further from the truth with totally the wrong approach to these test altogether.

The heaviest production of any (Indeterminate) tomato by far is achieved by fully pruning the plant from top to bottom of all side shoots and suckers bar none, but keeping the growing tip alive and fast growing, once you have fully pruned your plants you then have to feed them heavily-(Which is what the majority of you don't seem to realize or accept) and you must continue this heavy feeding every ten days right through the season until around the end of July and then stop and change onto a higher potash feed.

Tomatoes are gross feeders, and will respond by surging ahead and grow almost a foot a week or more and at the same time laying down lots more trusses of flowers and tomatoes every six to nine inches or so and go on growing forever upwards to- in some cases sixteen to twenty foot high-but most people top them out at around twelve foot high with the main stem loaded with tomatoes hung all around the main central stem from top to bottom on neat tidy plants.

In short- you only get out of a plant by what you put into it, the secret to heavy production over and above all other methods is all in the feeding and watering of a fully pruned plant, you can't expect to have heavy production if you just fully prune a plant and then just leave it to it's own devices,you have to pump feed into it from then on, and the plants are so greedy feeders that they will respond by putting out lots of new side shoots and suckers plus fruit trusses, the suckers and side shoots of course have to be removed by the time they are only a couple of inches long-but leave all fruit and flowers intact-you then end up with a none stop growing machine that is almost unstoppable until you cut the top off at the desired height,even then most plants won't stop and try to send out an umbrella of extra shoots just below the cut off top, these shoots can often reach four or five foot long with extra fruit on them if left to mature.

All this is of course under ideal growing conditions of good weather and low disease problems.

In a controlled environment and constant feed conditions-commercial European tomato growers under glass get plants that are from twenty to forty foot long and trusses of tomatoes every few inches overlapping trusses all the way up the plant from top to bottom regardless of plant length, with massive production levels that far exceeds any university tests.in fact because of the ideal conditions some commercial growers keep their tomato plants going for over two years or more with roots up to twelve foot long en-mass at the base, they have learned to take full advantage of the fact that tomatoes are such greedy feeders they will respond rapidly if it is pumped into them-but of course that is taking the production end to the very extreme - for the most of us who grow at home a sort of scaled down method will produce plants twelve foot high and loaded with tomatoes from top to bottom on fully pruned plants.

AHHHHH! Now, I'm worse confused! (I did do a search on this forum prior to this post and was a bit confused over determinate and indeterminate plants and pruning and not pruning etc) so I thought I'd make my own post and see if I could get a clearer understanding of what to do, but now I'm still confused LOL!

All I know is that I have 30 tomato plants and I'd like to have enough to eat and do canning etc. I do not know how I would know which plants are determinate and indeterminate or whatever.? I have different types in there and some I don't even know what they are. so IF I were to prune the indeterminate ones (if I knew which ones were indeterminate) how do I know which are suckers and side shoots? I mean they are a jungle right now and I'm not sure I would even know where to start! let alone know which ones are which (determinate/indeterminate)...?

The heaviest production of any (Indeterminate) tomato by far is achieved by fully pruning the plant from top to bottom of all side shoots and suckers bar none, but keeping the growing tip alive and fast growing, once you have fully pruned your plants you then have to feed them heavily-(Which is what the majority of you don't seem to realize or accept) and you must continue this heavy feeding every ten days right through the season until around the end of July and then stop and change onto a higher potash feed.

****

Well, you're entitled to your opinion M, but there are many of us who would disagree with your comment that pruning is necessary to get high production.

So you're absolutely right when you say that many of us, as in Americans, don't accept what you said about pruning. If that's your preference and it works for you, then that's fine.

******

(Tomatoes are gross feeders, and will respond by surging ahead and grow almost a foot a week or more and at the same time laying down lots more trusses of flowers and tomatoes every six to nine inches or so and go on growing forever upwards to- in some cases sixteen to twenty foot high-but most people top them out at around twelve foot high with the main stem loaded with tomatoes hung all around the main central stem from top to bottom on neat tidy plants.)

Well, I disagree about the heavy feeder bit as well, so be it. LOL

And I can't identify with the tallness of your plants b'c all the years I was growing so many tomatoes, about 2500 different varieties to date, most of them were grown by sprawling b'c I had the room to do so and it worked well for me, and depending where I lived at the time some were grown with cages.

I think each of us has to experiement to find out what works best for us as to the space we have available, the local critter problems, the diseases, both systemic and foliar that are in our area, the weather in our own area, our physical capabilities in terms of perhaps even our ages, and more.

There is no ONE correct way to do anything when growing tomatoes as I see it. And that's based on my being raised on a farm where we grew acres of tomatoes so I have about 65 years of growing experience behind me, since I started out helping on the farm when I was about 5 , and yes, my birthday was this past Saturday and yes, I'm still growing tomatoes but now being in this walker from a fall someone else does all my gardening for me. My job is to locate the tomato seeds needed each year. ( smile)

And I'll end with just a general personal comment for anyone reading here, not directed specifically at you M.

For many, growing tomatoes has turned out to be more scientific, more rigid, more you have to do this, you have to do that kind of a situation. Yes, some grow tomatoes for food for the family, some are commercial growers, but msot of us who psot on message sites such as this one are home growers who grow mainly for outselves.

If I had to think what should I put in the planting hole, what do I need to fertilize with as to NPK, what this, what that, all the time it would take the joy and pleasure I have growing tomatoes out of the picture and so I'm not an advocate of so called, well, what I call "scientific" growing. ( smile)

Carolyn, headed to the TV to watch Wimbledon tennis. Lovely flowers on the grounds there but no tomatoes. LOL

Carolyn

I do not know how I would know which plants are determinate and indeterminate or whatever.? I have different types in there and some I don't even know what they are. so IF I were to prune the indeterminate ones (if I knew which ones were indeterminate) how do I know which are suckers and side shoots? I mean they are a jungle right now and I'm not sure I would even know where to start! let alone know which ones are which (determinate/indeterminate)...?

The name of the variety will tell you which are determinates and which indeterminates. Most home growers select by types, know their variety names, and keep track of them since they have different requirements for both support and pruning. But since you don't know them then it is impossible to tell which is which. So your best bet for high levels of production this year, despite the comments from the UK which is a totally different growing climate and system, is don't prune anything except for ground-touching branches and any yellowing/damaged leafs. Otherwise you will be losing much of the production on the determinate types.

As the plants progress you will be able to tell which is which to a degree because the determinates (called 'bush' varieties) will be shorter and wider than the indeterminates (called 'vining tomatoes') and the fruit more evenly distributed throughout the plant on the determinates. But is still only a general guideline as there are exceptions.

For next year you'll want to know which is which. ;)

Dave

PS: Suckers and side shoots are the same thing.

Here is a link that might be useful: FAQ: What is the difference between det. and indet.

"The heaviest production of any (Indeterminate) tomato by far is achieved by fully pruning the plant from top to bottom of all side shoots and suckers..."

I'm not trying to spur this debate again, but I'd be willing to look at any kind of study or information you have on this topic. The thing I just can't wrap my head around is that suckers produce flowers and fruit, so how can cutting off flowers lead to more tomatoes? I have all of my plants un-pruned in cages and I now have 6 foot tall plants with a 24-30" spread, tomatoes on the bottom 4 feet, flowers on the top, and now I'm getting flowers again on the bottom 1-2 ft. from suckers I left to grow. I just can't see how I would have more flowers and, hence, more fruit set with only one main stem.

"Tomatoes are gross feeders..."

In my experience, bi-weekly to monthly feedings of fairly low NPK number liquid organic fertilizers yield big green plants with lots of fruit - assuming I've amended the soil well enough before planting. My growing conditions and soil are also significantly different than others who post here - I have a decent draining clay soil that is very high in P and K, and I only really need to add supplemental nitrogen and micro-nutrients.

"In a controlled environment and constant feed conditions-commercial European tomato growers under glass get plants that are from twenty to forty foot long and trusses of tomatoes every few inches overlapping trusses all the way up the plant from top to bottom regardless of plant length, with massive production levels that far exceeds any university tests."

Ok, so it all makes more sense now. If I were growing under glass in controlled conditions I would probably have a completely different strategy for my plants than I do now. As it stands right now, I plant in the ground, in wildly uncontrollable conditions with wildlife in my area that like tomato plants and tomatoes. The temperatures where I am now are exceeding 95 degrees and we've been going without substantial rain for an average of 10 days (way out of the norm for PA at this time of year). Part of the reason I don't prune is I never know when the conditions will get bad, or disease will set in, or animals will come by and defoliate some of my plants for me. If I pruned everything to the terminal bud and a hungry deer comes by, or a freak hail storm pops up, or high winds start up and any of those things top the plant, then that plants productivity is likely done for the season.

Ok, thanks guys!

I have
chocolate cherry tomato
beefy boy
german johnson
and let me check out the packet here.... the mixed one...
Ok the mixed one is a Burpee rainbow heirloom mix I could have any of the following...
omars lebanese (red)
dutchman (pink)
Djena Lee's gold girl (orange)
golden sunburst (yellow)
Aunt ruby's german green
black russion (purple)

man, it'll be cool if I get all those colors! we shall see, I prob planted all the same type knowing my luck ROFL!

off to check out the link someone posted...

omars lebanese (red)
dutchman (pink)
Djena Lee's gold girl (orange)
golden sunburst (yellow)
Aunt ruby's german green
black russion (purple)

Omar's Lebanese is pink, not red, I know b'c it's a variety I introduced, so if they say red then you don't have Omar's Lebanese. ( Smile)

And with Djena Lee's Golden Girl, most see it as gold, some as yellow and some as orange.

What that means is that color perception is different in that color range for quite a few folks. Let me not bore you with the arguments about what color this or that variety is or should be, when someone finds it hard to believe that what they see may not be what most others see as a color. ( smile)

Carolyn

One of Burpee's Mixed packets so no way to know for sure what was really in it. :(

But IF they are what they are supposed to be, and that is a big IF, then all of them are indeterminate except possibly the Black Russian. It is either a dwarf indeterminate or a semi-determinate depending on the source of the seeds.

Dave

PS: Next year you might want to consider getting your seeds from a more dependable source.

yeah... I usually do get the seeds from a dependable source, well the beefy boy, the german johnson, and the chocolate cherry all are from a dependable source, the Burpee ones were an impulse by at walmart LOL! I said, eh... those look cool, I'll try them. what the heck. so we shall see anyways. i guess no more burpees.

BAH, my neighbor came by a bit ago and I got a lecture on pruning the suckers...

You could always tell your neighbor the same thing I've told one of my neighbors... you tend your tomatoes... and, I'll tend mine!!!

You have been given some very sound advice from the American growers here... unless you are into 20 feet... 40 feet... or possibly 100 feet long vines!! If that's the case, by all means... listen to the advice from the UK!!

But, remember... in the end it is you who has to decide if you want to prune or not. For me, the best way to find out what works best for my needs was to try both. And, as for me and my house... we will never prune another tomato plant... other than the parts that touch the ground!!!

But, again... don't prune the cherry tomatoes!!!!

In answer to (Homegardenpa) the reason that all suckers and side shoots are pruned off-especially the suckers at the base-despite the fact that they may eventually carry flowers etc, is because if you don't prune them off it will reduce the overall vigor of the growing tip-(not the whole plant)and put all it's energy into growing the side shoots and suckers-which is exactly what you don't want, as the top growing tip is the goal to aim for, if you can keep the vigor and energy going in that most important growing tip then you are well on your way to success as that is what holds the all important key to heavy production in (indeterminate tomatoes).

Twelve foot plants are quite common over here in the UK, but in reality most people aim for seven or eight foot plants as being just about right to get all existing tomatoes that are on the main stem ripe, by the latest date in October or November if the plants are grown in a cold greenhouse , so the majority of the plants are topped off at seven or eight foot for this reason, left un-topped they would no doubt go on and on until killed by frost with several trusses of still green tomatoes on them.

When I referred to the feeding program, I did not mean the base fertilizer you put in the planting hole at the time of planting, but was referring in fact to a strong liquid feed fed at ten day intervals throughout the season, if you use pure organic feed the process is a bit slower by comparison to a powerful balanced liquid feed of non organic nature, but may in fact lead to tastier tomatoes in the end.

At the moment my own personal tomato plants are growing at the rate of a foot to fifteen inches a week per plant owing to the very hot sunny spells we have had for over two weeks now and it looks like continuing for a while longer yet.

I have been growing tomatoes this way for forty five years as of now,and I can tell you that the best production I ever saw on tomatoes in my life was in a victorian style greenhouse with no heating whatsoever-but they used hot beds made from (fresh) horse or cow manure and loam type soil-three foot deep, the loam type soil was created by stacking freshly cut field turf and letting it rot down over the winter which resulted in a fine fiberous loam with some nitrogen already in it,
When laying the hot beds in the greenhouse they stuck a thermometer in the beds in various places and when the temp dropped from a very high temp as it fermented and steamed,-down to around 75 to 80 F then they planted all the tomato plants and just left them at that for the first three months before extra feeding took place-and even then it was only side dressing with (fish-blood-& bone meal)in those days back in the early sixties there was very little else to use.

However-back to the plants themselves, all plants were fully side shooted and suckered from top to bottom always, the varieties were either Ailsa Craig or Potentate at the time and all main stems were attached to the sloping roof line by wires close to the glass no more than six inches away at any one point, they went right up the roof to the apex and also came down the other side almost back to the floor again, roof height was around 12 foot at the apex,

half way through the season the plants were de-leafed for the first six foot of stem.

The tonnage of tomatoes that came out of that greenhouse was fantastic as all tomatoes hung down from the roof in big trusses so much so in fact it looked for all the world like a roof of solid tomatoes right across the roof, there is something about tomato plants being very close to glass high up that seems to trigger them into producing more flowers and setting well.
All that was way back in the early sixties, but tomato growing has moved on a lot since then-it is a proven fact that tomatoes(indeterminate type) can be molded into any way you wish and they will respond quickly if fed well.

There are of course lots of other problems along the way that can make things difficult such as blind tomato plants where the growing tip peters out onto a leaf or leaf joint, you then have to leave it and another shoot will re-grow inside a couple of weeks near to what was the growing tip.and you can then continue on-on a fresh version of the main stem.

there is something about tomato plants being very close to glass high up that seems to trigger them into producing more flowers and setting well.

It's called the sun. Something most of us here in the US have no shortage of unlike the UK. This might also be why your plants grow so leggy. Also what do you consider hot and sunny? According to the weather your high temps have been in the 60-75F range where mine have been in the 85-95F range. This is a different climate and your ways wont work here. How about some pics of those plants you grow?

Its must also be said that is depends on the types of plants you are growing.You can always use simply pruning. l do think the reason some prune is coz of the tomatoes suckers this help the growing plant to get some nutrients , you also,prune get side shoots off. its said when you prune you do get bigger fruits.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pruning-Tomato-Plants

OK, so if I leave the side shoots (which I plan on doing), what about the suckers coming from the roots. prune or not prune? I planted the tomatoes on their side so I have a bunch of new shoots coming up from the ground where the stem was planted, y aknow?

just for kicks, lets add a picture of my plants. might as well, right? lol! this was a week ago and they are bigger still. they seem to grow almost a foot per week.

[IMG]http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd229/sheeshshe/June2010andEsgraduation735.jpg[/IMG]

You need to use the HTML code from photobucket.

Here you go.

You also need to reduce the photos just a bit.

Sheeshshe1, when posting a picture here on GW, if you use the "IMG" code, it won't display the picture. On Photobucket, there is a code choice that says, "HTML code." It starts off with a "". Copy that code and paste it here in the body of your post where you want your picture to show up. Here's a picture of my Lawn Buddy as an example:

As for the suckers that come up from the base of the plant... If the main part of the plant and the sucker both look good, strong, and healthy, and I don't want to start new plants with them, I leave them.

It's one of the ways that I get a later crop of tomatoes. Another way is to break or cut bottom suckers off and set them out... if you have the extra room. You'll get a late crop of tomatoes. And, the suckers will make just as many tomatoes and just as good of a tomato as the donor plant did!!

The main thing (for me) is to break off any lower limbs that hang down on the ground. If you allow them to lay on the ground (even straw) you are just asking for problems!

It's with the bottom suckers like it is with the others... you'll have to decide what works best for you... and do it!! Just remember... don't remove suckers from the cherry tomatoes... unless you want to start a new plant!! LOL!!

BTW... nice looking tomato patch and plants!! ;>)

Sorry about the double post about photo info. Taz beat me to it!

cool TY!! different boards use different codes apparently!!!

I just went through and pruned off all the yellow ones and diseased looking ones. those were all near the bottom and touching the ground.

is that what happens? what touches the ground goes bad and looks diseased? and just bad? I have a few plants left to do but the baby went cranky on me HAHA! I have more tomatoes and buds on there than I originally thought so that is cool!! things are huge. some of them are now to my neck! i think those are the chocolate cherry tomatoes since those grew super tall last year as well.

I'm a little confused about all the talk about "side shoots" and "suckers", anything that sprouts from the leaf axil is by definition a "sucker" and will get flowers and eventually fruit.

To my knowledge, the only things that sprout off of a main stem are leaves, suckers, and flower trusses. So I'm guessing "side shoots" and "suckers" are the same thing - unless we're talking about leaf pruning as well.

yes, one of the posters that replied to this thread said that both side shoots and suckers are the same thing.

Yeah homegardenpa is right. I think I posted above that side shoots and suckers were the same thing but it got missed.

There are stems - primary and secondary. Some of which are secondary side shoots mistakenly often referred to as "suckers" because they supposedly "suck" energy from the plant which isn't true. Then there are leaf branches (which are really leaves composed of leaflets but that's another issue). All leaf branches that touch the ground should be removed because yes, disease from soil splash is a problem. So you have lots of them in your pics.

All stems-both primary and secondary/suckers/side shoots whatever can remain or not - your choice.

Dave

My little 2ft plant has a lot of growing to do then....

I haven't pruned, and I'm exceedingly new, but a thought occurs that a 20ft tomato plant would need about 3ft (deep)of root right?

So depending on your soil depth you may not be able to grow it that high?

I pruned most of them so far, the ones that were touching the ground and the ones that were diseased looking. will the rest of them turn diseased looking too if they were in fact diseased?

Taz6122, I assure you that none of the plants I was talking about are deemed (Leggy) by even the remotest statement,-they are all just very well grown plants compact in the fact that nearly all the trusses of tomatoes are overlapping with the one below it all the way up the plant with close internodes.

The temp in the Uk for the past three weeks or a month has been hitting 30C degrees daytime temp every single day sometimes it goes over a hundred around 4pm to 5pm on some days,-this is not the norm though as Uk summers are usually around 75 to 80F on good years and just as bad as everywhere else on bad years.

(There is something about tomatoes being close to glass etc,) it is not just the sun- it is all the extra light they receive on either sunny days or dull days, and also because of the osmosis given off by the plant leaves close to the glass there is more humidity and often a fine mist is seen on the glass of the roof, this then helps with the setting of the flowers and fruit.

(These methods will not work in the USA the same as they do in the UK because of different climate conditions)- Ah"- but they do, and very well too, and also there are a lot of big commercial companies growing under glass in the USA as far south as California, and as high up as Canada who provide millions of tons of tomatoes to the states every year -who use these very same methods with the highest production,

Even in spain-which is very hot there are big commercial companies there who grow in high poly tunnels who use the very same methods and provide millions of tons of tomatoes to europe each year.

Also there are loads of commercial growers in Calfornia and below who grow them outside as field tomatoes in full bush untrimmed form, and because of the large acreidge they also get tons of tomatoes too but by a different method to keep the costs down,and not so labour intensive.

mickyfinn:
Sounds interesting. I might test it next year.

It seems you are primarily describing greenhouse growing conditions. Have you seen this method work in outdoor settings? My biggest concern would be with sunscald since you're removing a lot of the foilage.

more humidity and often a fine mist is seen on the glass of the roof, this then helps with the setting of the flowers and fruit.

High humidity does NOT help fruit set. If fact it hinders fruit set.
You also keep mentioning commercial growers. Most here are hobbyist gardeners not commercial. We aren't trying to make a 2nd or 3rd job out of gardening and that makes it fun.

madferret - for an in-depth (pun intended) discussion
of tomato root systems, follow the link!

Probably more information than you want to know, but
very interesting nonetheless.

There's also a mention of pruning and that overall, yeild
suffers when pruning is done.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato root article

Taz6122,
No one said that high humidity is good for tomatoes-it isn't- as tomatoes in reality prefer drier bright conditions, the tomatoes I was referring to in that particular large greenhouse WERE- growing in a drier atmosphere in the rest of the greenhouse below the roof glass, it was only on the surface of the glass that one tended to notice this fine mist almost as if someone had breathed on the glass, and any flowers in the immediate vicinity absolutely seemed to love it and resulted in more flowers plus very good fruit setting, all this was caused by natural leaf osmosis and transpiration.

If you doubt that this method of fully pruned and shooted plants produce the heaviest crops by far, why do you think that thousands of commercial growers all over the world in every country have invested millions of pounds or Dollars into constructing modern versions of environmental controlled giant glass houses-even in your country, and using this method as the SOLE -method to get the highest tonnage and plant density to give them the highest profit margins per square metre of floor space, and this method is used worldwide and is accepted as the best way to produce the heaviest crops.

If you were to walk around any of these building to have a look-you would never ever- see plants allowed to grow with full shoots and suckers on them.

This is of course for commercial crops under glass, -but the same methods can easily be adapted to the ordinary gardeners use in a much smaller way-either in the small greenhouse or outside in the garden.
The ones grown outside obviously have to have some sort of staking or tying up method to at least ten foot high, they must be side shooted and suckered fully without any let ups or laziness half way through the season, and they must always be fed every ten days or so with a good liquid feed and watered and never allowed to run dry at the base, until around mid august to the first week in september when no further watering is given to allow the tomatoes to ripen-perhaps one single watering of a higher potash feed helps with the ripening better.

The all important growing point and heavy feeding is the key to very large crops.

Almost all of the well know famous growers throughout the world use this method in their home gardens and small greenhouses, the late Luch fitoch from Belgium was one such grower-famed rather more for his very large collection of varieties, but one only has to look at all the photos on his website to see the huge crops he grew- reams of tomatoes all the way up the single main stem-even the largest tomatoes varieties had fully set trusses from base to tip.