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Old April 21, 2015   #9
dfollett
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Utah
Posts: 693
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Depends on your objectives. I want variety, even if it is at the expense of a little size or production. I grow through the winter in a sun room in SWCs made with a full 27 gallon container on top using Raybo's 3-2-1 mix, his fertilizing method, his 'pea fence' support and his use of nylon netting for internal support. That creates eight vertical columns inside the support structure. I plant 4 full-size tomato plants - one in each quadrant.

I prune each plant to two stems, and train one up each of two vertical columns. Once a week I remove any leaves that intrude on or shade a neighbor plant, remove suckers and make sure each stem stays in its vertical space. On any sucker that gets large enough that it has blossoms, I leave the blossoms and remove the growing tip and remove the remaining small suckers. Some varieties produce extremely well, both in numbers and size. Others, don't do quite so well - I don't think they like the heavy pruning. However, I do get the variety I am after and once I find enough varieties that do well, I'll get the production.

In the summer, I plant two to a container and don't prune as aggressively - each plant gets four vertical columns. They do fine and produce very well. I have a quite short growing season - 90-120 days. Perhaps with a longer season, they would overgrow the containers.
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