Simple vegetable tip for huge plants

BigJon said:

So if I'm not planning on a harvest for this year, does it matter when I plant the strawberries? They suggest May in my area but can I do it in July if Im not worrieda bout fruit until 2013?

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If they come bare rooted then it is better to plant them when it is still spring. Bare rooted or not if you plant them in July make sure they do not go thirsty. They should be good to fruit next year. Then after fruiting they will start making a lot of runners and you will have tons of plants then. I had buckets of berries this year. What I did not give away i froze. Good luck.

SirLancelot said:

I was under the impression that the fruit never grows on these sucker braches which is why I always pluck them... although this year I've left one plant alone (besides pluckin flowers) with the suckers it's wayyy more bushy, guess I'll see the differences in a month or two.

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RyanTheRhino said:

I just pulled of a flower cluster from each of the grown out suckers. They definitively will grow tomatoes also

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So I let this plant go 2 days ago ( stopped pulling off flowers) & you can see it has grown flowers on all the suckers I let grow out. In this short time it grew 3 flower clusters and 2 more are forming on the top branch. One of the flowers has even been pollinated and is already the size of a nickel. Cant wait




Use this as a scale

one reason that people pull the suckers off is because depending on where you live those suckers that start producing lAte in the season wont have enough time to flower and fruit before the first fall frost which means that the sucker is just using more nutrients to produce nothing..(this is the case up in the northern parts of the world) i dont have experience growing stuff in warm climates but i have to pull suckers off because i would have 3/4 of the plant that wouldnt produce in time if i didnt.. so i plant one foot apart and pull the suckers off (only my inderterminate ones tho)

do you also pull of tiny fruits? I have read in many gardening articles to not leave fruit on the plant very long because it hinders growth and production.

Also would it be too late to start pulling flowers once some fruits begin to appear?

georgyboy said:

Also would it be too late to start pulling flowers once some fruits begin to appear?

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If the season is short then don't pull them, but pulling a fruit would not harm the plant.

SirLancelot said:

I was under the impression that the fruit never grows on these sucker braches which is why I always pluck them... although this year I've left one plant alone (besides pluckin flowers) with the suckers it's wayyy more bushy, guess I'll see the differences in a month or two.

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yeah i always pluck the suckers and get at least 6-8 foot tall tomatoe plants.

at some point i will top some of the plants at around 6 feet tall and it will force the tomatoes to ripen.

Here are some pics.. I have had so many tomatoes im sick of them and the next set is even bigger. Hope my neighbors like tomatoes. Not bad for battling early blight this entire time

My camera makes some images look yellow but whatever.

Done this with a couple tomato and pepper plants every year, it lets the plant focus on a few larger fruits instead of several regular size ones. depends what traits your tomatos have and what you like.I plant a lot of extras from heirloom seeds, and have volunteers from years past growing on their own, I pluck some of these, eat some and let the others drop and seed next year.Works on zucchini and some squash to, if you want a couple large ones, or a bunch of smaller ones.