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Gardening in Oz

Tomato Plants

15 years ago

Hello there. I was wondering how high do you usually allow your tomato plants to grow. Mine are about 6ft almost and heavy in fruit and flowers. Should I just keep letting them grow upwards or should I now nip the tips out. Thankyou for any help/advice offered. Cheers. Royce.

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Comments (3)

Foodtomax
15 years ago
Hi Kiwilad55 We don't prune tomatoes in Australia as we have plently of light. Tomatoes ripen better when shaded by leaves. Prunning reduces yield (see Diggers studies) but is used in short season countries to get fruit to ripen.

I'm envious that your vines are so well established at this time of year. What varieties are you growing? Cheers Max
kiwilad55
Original Author
15 years ago
Thankyou Max for your response and advise. At the moment I have Tommy Toms and Beef Steak growing. The plants have well over grown their 6'6" stakes and continue to flower and set fruit. (I am not in the NT now but living in Yeppoon on the Capricorn Coast)- I have made the mistake of removing lower leaves - I thought that was a good practice!!!! Doesn't seem to be bothering the fruit at all - sure is great eating fresh home grown tomatoes and not having to eat those horrible supermarket ones - tasteless and always hard like eating an apple. All the best with your spring planting. Cheers.
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Foodtomax
15 years ago
Hello Royce. Removing the lower leaves is cool. I often do this as well as mulching to reduce the danger of soil splash starting diseases. I've started planting out this year's tomatoes. I'm trying lots of colours and varieties this year and hope to play with some cross polination. Cheers Max

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