Anna, People have different opinions and growing practices so there really is no right or wrong. I do not prune or pinch out any suckers, I want the plants big. I do remove leaves and the very bottom limbs when the leaves get diseased or start to yellow from age. The reason I personally do not prune off the side branches (suckers) is because 1. I do not like to create any injury that can let in disease or fungus. 2. I get more fruit if I leave the "suckers" to grow. 3. If you remove the "suckers" a lot more searing sun gets to the remaining foliage and fruit. I want the plant so the leaves somewhat shade each other, it helps cool the plant the same way shade cools us. In my opinion if you leave the plant intact disease is much slower to spread through the plant. I have a neighbor that always prunes her tomatoes to the single stem. She and I share some seeds and I shared with her some of the Matts wild cherry seeds I bought.....she planted them and they grew great but she pruned them to a single stem and hers died off 6 weeks or so ago along with her other tomato plants. Here is a pic of mine from 4 days ago. Now the rest of my tomatoes are done, ripped them out this weekend but they still lasted 6 weeks longer than hers did with many times the amount of fruit production. I am of the thought that if it isn't broken don't fix it. You could simply try doing plants both ways and see what works best for you as that is all that really matters.

Jo, I think Brandywine might set for you in August or September. It is a really, really late-season tomato, especially in our climate. Some of the Brandywine crosses I'm growing from seed Jay sent me are much better producers, but nothing matches Brandywine's flavor. Brandy Boy, a hybrid from Burpee, comes closer in flavor and produces much better but also doesn't have that amazing Brandywine flavor. In 2002, I had so many Brandywines that I gave them away to several people. I haven't had enough fruit on a BW plant since then to make it worth the space it occupies. What was special about 2002? Here in Love County we were abnormally cool in May, with some nights in the 40s, and even abnormally cool in June. Thus, the weather Brandywine enjoyed during that time was similar to the weather in Pennsylvania where Brandywine 'originated' there in the Brandywine River/valley region. Jay, I'm glad the flowers are attracting some beneficial insects. We need to figure out if there is a beneficial insect that eats thrips or pysllids because if there is, that's the beneficial insect you need. It sounds like your harvest is going to be stupendous! I never get everything in the ground that I planted either. Something always stops me....too much rain leaving the ground too wet, too much cold weather late into the season, too much hot weather early and even the combination of too much cold too late immediately followed by early heat which happened this year when we had a late frost in May and just a few days later were in the 90s. It also could be that I always plan to plant many more plants than I have space for. Carol, Great bargain on the CRW. I've been very disciplined when picking peppers this year and have been waiting for them to turn to their mature color, but I've had more sunscald lately because of that. I may have to start harvesting some bell peppers green in order to get them before the sun does. I found a lot of tomatoes 'hiding' yesterday and it is always fun to find ripe tomatoes that I hadn't even realized were there. It sounds like Tess's is keeping your busy. Isn't the production on it amazing? I wish we had a large-fruited or medium-fruited plant that would produce 1/20th as heavily as Tess. Some people call Jaune Flammee by half its name....Flammee. I haven't started seeds for fall and I really need to. It is hard to feel terribly motivated in this heat, but I know I'll be sorry if I don't start some. Maybe I can get that done today after finishing up the last batch of Habanero Gold. (I might make another few batches tomorrow though....the habs are coming in hot and heavy and I am desperately trying to process them within a day or two of picking them so I can avoid last year's Pepper Explosion. It does help that I didn't plant the bird pepper this year because that's at least 600 peppers I won't have to deal with at the peak harvest (and I still have hundreds of dried and frozen bird peppers so I won't have to plant it again for another decade). "I guess gardening in Oklahoma is always a gamble." lol Oh, yes it is! We need to needlepoint that and hang it on the wall as our slogan. Heck, most springs living in Oklahoma is a gamble. I still love it here though, despite the challenging weather. The people here in this state are just the best! And I'll include Jay in that group since he has one foot on the Oklahoma side of the border and the other on the Kansas side. Dawn

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.

That is the question...First off, know your variety! Never prune a 'determinate' type tomato, or you will lose production! Indeterminate varieties vary in their response to pruning, some reportedly have increased yields when the young plant is pruned back to three or four vines. Experiment with your favorite varieties to see how they respond. Also,removing new flowers and immature fruit near the end of the growing season can help speed ripening of mature fruit. Is pruning necessary at all? No. Tomatoes will do just fine left to sprawl, though fruits that touch the ground are far more likely to be lost to insects, disease or rot. But if you have the memory of your ancestors' glorious 7-foot-tall staked tomato plants and want to grow them that way, you'll need to prune a bit. By pruning, I mean removing the excess vines, which form where a leaf meets the main stem. A simple pinch does the job, but if you use pruners be sure to disinfect them with bleach to prevent spread of disease. When plants are large enough to begin staking, you'll want to remove all but 2-3 vines, and tie them to the stake, with supports about every 10 inches. You'll likely need to remove some top growth later, to keep the overall weight down. On some varieties, pruning and staking will result in larger, cleaner fruit, but yields will be lower, and subject to sunscald due to losing the protection from the foliage. A good compromise is growing in cages. The fruit stays clean, no pruning is necessary, and yields are large. Building or buying tomato cages is a bit of an outlay initially, but well-made cages will last many years. Another solution is growing on wooden ladders or trellises, some time is required each week to work the vines between the supports.