mawmaw, Some people routinely "top" their plants. It will keep them shorter, and cause the plants to bush out. There isn't much point in a 9 foot plant that requires a step-ladder to pick the fruit at the top, especially if you are a short person. lelia, Tomato plants can be prone to fungus, particularly if your weather is both hot and humid. If you plant them close fungus can be a difficult problem, and pruning will decrease the density of foliage and improve the air circulation, thus lessening the chance of fungal growth. You can also spray with an anti-fungal of your choice. What you choose to do should depend on your weather conditions and your garden. Having faith in mother nature is a philosophy, and not the only one. At the very least, species go extinct, all by themselves. Not all species thrive in the natural environment. So much for the perfection of Mother Nature. Caging and staking, just like vegetable gardening, are constructs. They are not necessarily easier (catering to the human), in fact they can be a lot of work. They allow the gardener to plant tomatoes closer together, when space is an issue. More importantly these techniques keep the fruit off the ground, where it can rot more easily and may be vulnerable to pests like slugs. Mulching can help with the rotting problem, but will provide a wonderful habitat for slugs. Caging and staking will fix that, but may make your 'maters more vulnerable to birds. Once again it depends on your garden conditions. Petro

Actually, plantlady, Dahlias are a lot like potatoes. The Aztecs used to grow them for the tubers, which they harvested like potatoes and cooked with like potatoes. I have taken cuttings even with no roots and they root within 3 weeks if kept moist. Last year I made a whole collection of 80 plants of about 50 varieties for my mother starting with little or no roots. The plants still grew to full size and, remarkably, had full tubers at the end of the season. There was no way to tell the difference between these and the ones planted with full tubers. Dahlias are extremely forgiving and resilient. You should feel free to experiment if you want to make more plants. By the way, I didn't even chill my tubers this year. I left them in grow bags full of soil and stacked them up in the back of my heated greenhouse and didn't water them. Out of 213, only 2 have yet to come back--they began sprouting in March when the temperatures in the greenhouse turned tropical. They are all about 2 - 3 feet tall now and it's getting crowded in there. I think there are a lot of myths surrounding the the care and handling of the tubers. Stories get handed down and everyone forgets to experiment.

Just trim it off all the way around and chop off its head. Don't remove more than one-third of total growth at any one time, then allow the plant to regenerate before trimming again. Pruning is not an exact science with most plants, especially the shrubby ones. Dry the prunings and put them in sachets and toys etc for your cats to enjoy!

Re: rootdoctor "The plants genetic coding, and the available nutrients, soil type, etc.tells it when to stop growth with a single top, and then the plant splits at the top. Most go into two branches, but some have gone as many as 6." This is something I'm curious about. I've been assuming that 3 branches instead of 2 on my jalapenos means that plant has more ideal conditions. Is this right? The seeds are from the same pod. Usually my doubles get 2 peppers growing from the first node, and the triples only have one. The higher nodes are all doubles. Also, I got some strange results this year with one plant sprouting a 3rd branch late and the 1st pepper grew a couple of inches up the stalk. This coincided with xplant and adding slow release fertilizer. A few other plants, including some bells, had 2 cojoined stalks on one side that split further up. Weird. c.