why?

I'd sure put away the pruners for the remainder of the season. ;) It isn't too late to let some side shoots (suckers) develop. They will require some creative staking but in your zone you still have time to get at least some fruit.

Next year, perhaps a little less aggressive? ;)

Dave

Yeah, thats not a good thing.

These plants are adapatable though if otherwise healthy. If you get some lower side shoots come back out, I'd keep them and for sure prune nothing else untill you've done some reading.

http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/how-to/articles/pruning-tomatoes.aspx

From Cornell, a little past halfway down the page.

http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/pubs/ask/tomato_qa.html

From Alabama extension,

http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-1060/

From The National Gardening Association,

http://www.garden.org/subchannels/care/techniques?q=show&id=365

Another from Cornell, specifically,#6

http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/pubs/press/2004/040727tomato.html

Univercity of Arkansas, right side of page 3

http://www.uaex.edu/Other_Areas/publications/pdf/FSA-6017.pdf

An actual test done by Purdue.

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/fruitveg/rep_pres/2002prior/tomvar00f/tomvar00.html

In most if not all of those articles, you will note that it is mentioned that pruning is not necessary. Some people believe it can enhance others vehemently believe it is only, purely destructive.

I'm in the first camp but some education first and slow practice is pretty much a given.

I believe you gave me some seeds last year and you live near me in Tx. Let them grow and you could get some Fall tomatoes.
Fruit set in this 100+ weather is unlikely, but by September you should have some luck.

Pete

LOL! why? because it was a jungle last year and i had too many hornworms and i was afraid to go pick my toms for fear of them. sad thing is, i did read up on pruning. k, from now on, no more pruning for this season. arghhhh! thanks everyone for the input. live and learn. my pepper looks great though don't it?! =)

Tessa:

Your garden is PERFECT to use the texas tomato cages. I think I calculated that an 18" texas tomato cage should have about 8-14 main stems, it's a good amount to keep the air flow going and enough room to pick the fruits.

dave1mn2:

I apologize if my remark seem rude earlier.

Johnny, I've got thicker hide than that. Don't worry about it.

I probably owe the same to Carolyn, whose expertize is nearly peerless and logic possibly flawless but I'm just muleheaded enough to see for myself and stubborn enough to report findings as they come, no matter how incompatable they are with our mental models of the world.

Removing extra stems is one thing, but why did you remove so many side branches???

LEAVE HER ALONE SHE KNOWS BETTER NOW. SHE CANT PRACTICE TREE PRUNING TILL NEXT YEAR.lol

LoL! I was just taking off leaf sets below the first flower cluster. and then when the cluster didn't set any fruit, i thought it would be ok to take off more leaves until the next flower cluster. and i was taking off the little side shoots that came in between the main stem and the leaf. i thought i was doing it right. but now they look funny. i have four on the other side of the yard that i just put in the ground. I WON'T prune those! just tie them up.
Johnny, thanks for letting me know about the texas tom cage. i'll have to look those up.
LOL! thanks again everyone!

wow tessa don't feel bad because i screwed up WAY worse than you did! i am so glad i found this site and your thread because i was up all night trying to figure out what to do and the only forum i could find was the ubc one and nobody wrote back. let's put it this way. overpruning is an understatement to what i did. i'm almost embarrassed to admit that i took off every leaf branch thinking that it was a sucker. now i know who the sucker is! lol i'm hearing anthony in toronto asking why? because number one, i was overly enthusiastic because i just read about pruning, which i never did, so i couldn't wait and went out in the dark no less...and i somehow thought these branches with no fruit clusters were overdue suckers that never came off so if they said you should get rid of the ones before the lowest cluster, then i thought ya had to get rid below all the clusters. and it's embarrassing to say that i did read a million articles on it before i did it, but i guess i didn't get that you are supposed to leave leaf branches until after i did the damage and read all the articles on sunscalding and overpruning. SO, now i have one main stem with two long upright stems off of that. picture two small green tomatoes at the point of the V where the two stems meet. there are two clusters of flowers up the one stem and one on the other. somehow i only left one leaf branch between the tomatoes and the higher cluster. on a scale of 1 to 10, i know this is really bad. what do i do now? do i move it closer to the pot next to it to offer some blockage? granted, i need to prune (stop laughing) the other two pots but needless to say i need someone to tell me how to know how many branches to leave

I happen to think that what this guy is doing is pretty radical in that he is only keeping one stem and he has allowed suckers to get much larger than I do prior to pruning but its a video and if a picture is worth a thousand words, maybe a vid is worth a lot more.

P.S. I don't usually prune any leaves or leaflets unless diseased or touching the ground.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vid of pruning

yeah dave, that's the guy i watched before i went to town! i was reading that foliage was necessary not only to prevent sunscald, but to produce sugar. i clearly have a black thumb and no nothing of gardening, so excuse me if this sounds stupid, but when something starts growing out of the main stem, should i just let it be and hopefully some leaf branches will start forming again?

~~~ but when something starts growing out of the main stem, should i just let it be and hopefully some leaf branches will start forming again? ~~~

I think so, don't you? :-)

dave do you think i ruined the plant? i guess i have to get over it and hope for the best. this is my first time and i guess stupid mistakes are to be expected. you seem to be on here a long time. is this the stupidest thing on record? speaking of mistakes- i was wondering how to avoid others so if i have questions on fertilizing do i have to start a new thread or can i just ask here? also, i read that you once said,"If you prune, when you prune, practice rooting the cuttings. Its fun and comes in handy." do you suggest i do this and if so, how? thanks

~~~ do you think i ruined the plant? ~~~

No. Set it back, cut production, opened yourself up to sunscald? Yes, but these things, if otherwise healthy, are amazingly durable.

~~~ is this the stupidest thing on record? ~~~

No. My own mistake of not growing tomatoes when I knew I couldn't give them the ideal, is the stupidest mistake on record.

~~~ so if i have questions on fertilizing do i have to start a new thread or can i just ask here? ~~~

I'm not so much of an oldtimer here as you give me credit for. There are lots of discussions about fertilizing. A search will keep you busy but if after nosing around, you still have a question, a new thread would probably be better.

Same goes for rooting cuttings :-) Apparently like pruning, some folks have a harder time of it than others. Some just stick things in the dirt and they grow, others build special chambers. I'm towards the former.

Try the search feature, read the FAQ, you'll find gobs of stuff and be able to ask better questions when you need to.

thank you so much dave. it's so nice to know that people here are willing to help. when you do the rooting, do you leave it in wet soil in a little cup?

Ohdear,

~~~ when you do the rooting, do you leave it in wet soil in a little cup? ~~~

Hopefully you found your answer with the search by now but yeah. 4-6" of growing tip planted at least 50%, more is better, in potting mix. Trim excess leaves and or leaflets keeping in mind that this tiny plant has no roots for a while. Keep it very moist, just short of standing water for about a week, then back off the water a bit. Keep it protected from wind, excessive temps and in dappled sun/shade. If it went well it should be ready to tranplsnt in a couple weeks.

Some mention that they have to do more but that usually works just fine for me.

thank you for writing back again. do you think i can keep these inside so i don't have to worry about them falling over in a cup? i have it on a table near a window of a shady side of the house right now, just in water, because i hadn't gotten your answer yet. so i understand, three inches should be submerged and three inches of leaves sticking out? i'm an idiot. i'm not sure what a growing tip is. i hope what i saved was the right thing. it looks like a stalk with leaves (stop laughing). yesterday i tried to do the manual shake that i read about, and a little flower dropped off. that was upsetting. maybe i'm reading too much! didn't know what to do about the fallen yellow thing. also, i put fish emulsion yesterday thinking that would be a good thing. i also happen to have a bag of that recommended poultry manure. what do you suggest i do with that, if anything? do i alternate between each from week to week?

Take a look at this thread for more on mistakes we've made...

Here is a link that might be useful: Dumbest thing you've done with or to your maters?

that was cute! i think i took pruning to a whole new level though. :)

by the way pense, you are sorta close to me. are you getting ripe tomatoes yet? i don't see a whole lot going on. i'm in containers on my deck. i have some clusters of flowers and some spots with really little green tomatoes poking out. am i about right? mine are deboro plum (which got the mother of all haircuts), green zebra, and black prince.

Ohdear,

Honestly, the best advice I can give you is to use the search feature and the FAQ.

From that you might find this discussion about rooting cuttings that shows, while some use complicated setups, others can stick these things in the ground and they grow.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg062026019373.html

Or that poultry manure is very rich in nitrogen and can burn plants, or that "over loving" meaning too much water, fertilizer or pruning, are probably the most common mistakes :-)

Relax, these things are weeds.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Anatomy

Here is another good one.

There are hundreds of yrs. of collective experience in this one thread

Here is a link that might be useful: If you had to teach a Newbee one thing about growing tomatoes

thanks guys. next year, definetely not as agressive. i'm pretty sure i learned my lesson. at least i hope so! on a side note... my first black cherry tomatoes have finally ripened. AND there's lots more blooms and fruit on the way! yay! didn't screw it up too bad!

thank you dave! i spent about twelve hours reading through everything. needless to say, i didn't have luck with the clippings because they shriveled up in the cup of water before i had a chance to get mix. i decided i don't trust myself to prune, so i'm leaving everything alone and hope i'll get something. the plant i balded, still has the tomatoes but they are green. i guess they are hanging in there. growth and new flowers started at the top of where i pruned, so i did what i read you did in another thread and let it bend over the top of the deck railing. the one leaf branch i left is hanging on the side, yet a little yellowy and wilty. my other two plants in pots i'm not touching, and hoping for the best. it seems like really small green tomatoes and some flowers. leaves look good. the black prince barely has any flowers at all though. dave, do you think i should keep fish emulsioning every week? a lady with 700 plants i spoke to said she does 20-20-20 then 10-10-10 then back to 20 the next time, and then nothing for the rest of the season. i'm in containers remember. thanks!

Ohdear,

I'm still experimenting and have mentioned, that while I do a fair amount of reading, all my stuff is seat of pants and hardly equates to science. I'm just ornery enough to show the results either way and not be afraid to try. Gotta have fun with it :-)

You could find much better to emulate than me :-)

You could do worse than mulching heavily with straw, do no pruning and let them sprawl, though I would string a soaker hose under that straw to each plant, slap a timer on the fauset and call it good.

That said, if you want to try things in a more intensive method, I think_moderate_amounts of pruning have merit from both a fruiting aspect and a plant health aspect, especially if you are in a humid area. I strongly believe that getting the plants off the ground, whether staking or caging, drop line or florida weave, cattle panels etc. is time and money well spent and most of those need varying amounts of pruning. Mulching is a no brainer.

As to fertilizer treatments of what type and when, you are much better off reading other's thoughts. I know the physical propeties of soil as a building material very well but I'm no agronomist. Charles Wilbur's book recs. maintaining the plants at a blueish tint but many believe that is much too much fert. I have mixed thoughts on it but can tell you it is hard to maintain since I do fear over fertilizing.

Hope that helps and hope the remainder of your season is "fruitful" :-)

updated picture, 2 weeks later. I've stopped pruning!!
looking alot better.
8/1/08

looks good,it wont be to long and you could put a hamack between them.lol

timeline
8-1-08
src="http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f23/tessanoel1999/IMG_1966.jpg"; border="0" alt="8-1-08 cop side">
8-18-08
src="http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f23/tessanoel1999/IMG_1981.jpg"; border="0" alt="8/18/08">
8-24-08
src="http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f23/tessanoel1999/IMG_2001-1.jpg"; border="0" alt="8-24-08 tom and pepper bed">

well, that didn't work.

what i'm trying to do is make the pix smaller....
8-24-08

YES!!! i did it!