Garden 2017

[Randall]

A shot of the tomato patch.

[Rockporter]

Wow, such a beautiful garden you have.

[ginger2778]

A few thousand tomatoes I think. You do excellent work, and your photography is excellent too.

[Randall]

Aww, thanks!

I noticed a couple of new Sunflowers opening up out there this morning.

[bower]

Randall, give me the scoop on your leaf removal routine with the tomatoes. When do you take away the leaves around the fruit? What is the theory behind that practice?

My greenhouse is a jungle and too crowded and I'm thinking of a major thinning event. The lower fruit definitely need some sunshine but do they still need leaves around them to grow bigger?

[Randall]

I more or less remove to the first cluster and then after removing 2 or 3 ripe tomatoes at a cluster, I go ahead and prune to the next one. The remaining will blush within a day or two and so on. If that makes sense.

It's fairly aggressive and probably wouldn't work in the high sunshine gardens. I get around 10 hours of sun a day but not every day is sunny. There are stretches like the current one I'm on where it's been cloudy for 4 days and appears it will be that way for 2 or 3 more until some real sun again.

It keeps the plants producing, as far as double stem growing goes. Kind of a greenhouse technique that usually works out in my climate.

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by Randall

I more or less remove to the first cluster and then after removing 2 or 3 ripe tomatoes at a cluster, I go ahead and prune to the next one. The remaining will blush within a day or two and so on. If that makes sense.

It's fairly aggressive and probably wouldn't work in the high sunshine gardens. I get around 10 hours of sun a day but not every day is sunny. There are stretches like the current one I'm on where it's been cloudy for 4 days and appears it will be that way for 2 or 3 more until some real sun again.

It keeps the plants producing, as far as double stem growing goes. Kind of a greenhouse technique that usually works out in my climate.

I do the same and I'm always having people ask me what those leafy green "trees" in my garden are. Staked, pruned to two stems, and lower leaves removed as we go through the season, and they do start looking like baby trees.

Your pictures are beautiful!

[zipcode]

Originally Posted by bower

My greenhouse is a jungle and too crowded and I'm thinking of a major thinning event. The lower fruit definitely need some sunshine but do they still need leaves around them to grow bigger?

I haven't noticed tomatoes ripening faster or better by not being shaded. I think this is mostly a way to force the plant to concentrate on growing more.
The most used practice for deleafing is to remove until the cluster where fruit starts to ripen, but they also say to keep about 15-18 leaves on the plant. That doesn't always add up however, unless you have some serious growth. 18 leaves means 6 clusters of flowers/green fruit.

[Randall]

I never let a tomato ripen on the plant. They're off as soon as they blush and I just keep the whole process moving and try to maintain constant production.

It seems as long as I keep up with pruning/tying they keep cranking out tomatoes and they are usually very nice-sized ones.

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by Randall

I never let a tomato ripen on the plant. They're off as soon as they blush and I just keep the whole process moving and try to maintain constant production.

It seems as long as I keep up with pruning/tying they keep cranking out tomatoes and they are usually very nice-sized ones.

Sounds like you and I attended the same Tomato growing school! This is exactly how I watched dad grow his tomatoes while growing up, so it's the method I adopted. Dad is still at it as well, although he tends to be a bit more extreme than me with leaf removal. I've lost so many leaves to disease in recent years that I'm still a little leery about taking off healthy ones.

I had never seen a tomato cage in use before my neighbor put in garden beds about seven years ago.

[Salsacharley]

Randall, would you mind disclosing a little more specifically where you are located in zone 6a? Your vegetation looks like you are in the perfect spot, although I know location isn't the only reason your stuff is so nice.

[Randall]

@Father'sDaughter In the past, I tried everything from FL Weave to cages on the way to using this method for the last 6 years or so. It gets me tomatoes a couple of weeks earlier and keeps me well ahead of the disease pressure here.

@Salsacharley, I'm in WV, way out in the woods.

Here are a couple of tomatoes.

Lucid Gem, Blackberry, Stump of the World, Brandywine (Sudduth's) and GGWT in there.

[bower]

Thanks for the info Randall and FD!
I sure do like the look of your plants Randall. Great setup.

[Randall]

Well, I tidied these rows up completely, this evening. Tomorrow evening, I'll throw down another layer of lawn clippings for mulch. Made a temporary fire pit from stone I've dug making this new bed. It's never easy!

Once I got done, I saw this little feller at the other end of the garden. The mother was at the opposite end eating some grass along the fence.

[Redbaron]

Had to carry one out of the yard myself a couple weeks ago.