Tomatoes

[AlbertF]

Well I know if the leaves are turning yellow they need chelated iron.

But do you need to prune them or train them a certain way to get the most fruit out of the plant?

[Harold Sukhbir]

Here are some pics. I replaced the string with a nylon string on the lower branches that have fruit to highlight the support

[Harold Sukhbir]

And these

[Kobus Jooste]

I'm going in the same direction, but have cleared a lot more tomato leaves off the bottom sections of the vines to make way fro peppers and stuff growing underneath.My problem is that my variety started bearing fruit very low down, and these are still not mature.  It is time to start coiling the bottom of the vine, but hopefully the tomatoes will be ready to come off soon.  I'll post some pics tomorrow.

[Kobus Jooste]

Harold - here are some pics of what I am trying to do with the vines.  The first two are of the ones in a grow bed with an unobstructed path to the ceiling of the structure - still, the vines are at the top of the greenhouse and the fruit is not yet ripe!  The second vine is obstructed (water melon support overhead) and thus I am letting it grow out to the side of the bed.  Incidently, this one is in a raft and is doing great.  The "string" I use to tie up the vines is flat waxed dental floss.  It works!

Kobus Jooste said:

Will have to refine the coiling angle then!

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Kobus,

Wow you have tremendous growth in you media beds! Your beds are very intensive! Ap really develops a strong growing system, doesn't it? I think that Tomato plants ideally require a separate dedicated bed as their nutrient demands are more than most other plants and they do better without competition.Their root mass demands adequate space and without it not only do their roots become thinner and spread out evasively throughout the bed hunting nitrates, but the stems also become thinner as a result. So, we are going to grow thin and high, fruiting at different heights instead of growing laterally and lush. Anyone can correct me on this, but this comes from my limited. experience on tomato culture.

I think we're both on the same page with the hanging supports.

[Kobus Jooste]

Harold: I do squeeze the beds a bit as I have a passion for trying a whole lot of stuff.  I constantly run low on micro-nutrients, but believe in variety over performance at this point.  Last season I had 5 tomato plants in one of those beds and they did produce well until the system wobbled under the alkalinity and pH issues.  Now I'm at two plants per bed (and some cucumbers, and egg plant, and peppers ) per bed. It will be interesting to see how production is affected by the high density planting.