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Old June 19, 2017   #4
b54red
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Alabama
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As someone who has grown nothing but single stem plants for the last few years I can say that the variety also makes a big difference. There are some varieties that do exceptionally well and are very productive as single stem plants and there are others that do not function as well as single stem plants. To benefit from single stem pruning you need to lean and lower your plants in order to take advantage of the length that the vines will get as the season progresses. It is not unheard of for the vines to exceed 20 ft. and still be producing though usually the fruit are smaller near the ends of those long vines. Some varieties with more sparse foliage need to have the Missouri style of pruning to give them the necessary foliage to shade the fruit from sun scald.

Using only single stem pruning of my tomatoes I am getting far more and larger fruit overall now than when I allowed two or three stems in the same amount of garden space. Of course I am planting at least twice as many plants in that same space.

Bill
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