Kitchen Garden Forum

How many trusses should you have on a tomato plant before stopping it? I thought 4 for outdoor and 6 for greenhouse but am wondering if this is a bit conservative when we've been having mild autumns. Any views on this?
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Granny

I let them keep going until they start to struggle a bit or when the weather turns much cooler so there's no chance of things ripening.

Some varieties seem to go on vigorously much longer than others, especially in the greenhouse. The Sungold has reached the top of the cane and I'm training it round the edge of the greenhouse on strings, so a huge number of trusses and still going strong, whereas quite a few of the other varieties, usually the ones with larger fruits, seem to have run out of steam already even though they've been fed and watered the same.

I usually let them keep on so long as they are growing well and there is no disease, although I sometimes want the space and stop the ones with only a few left to ripen and then chuck them out.

I'm afraid I rarely stick to any gardening "rules". I'm aware what it says you should do, then adapt it to what I feel is best at the time. That's the fun of gardening.

Hi Granny,
I carry on very similarly to Plumpudding. I grow Gardeners Delight in the greenhouse and remove all the side shoots up until the 6th truss has set then I simply let them do their own thing. Although I live up at 500ft and it gets fairly cold here I can generally pick a few small tomatoes on Christmas Day.
I allow 6/7 trusses outside and when the first real frost is imminent that will damage the plants I pick what hasn't ripened and make Green Tomato Chutney.
Any that have started to ripen I leave in a draw in the house where they take their chance of ripening.
JB.

i once looked round a commercial greenhouse, they grew tomatoes suspended from wires , when they reached the top they were let down and moved allong the row so the plants ended up with the bottom 3 ft or so of the stem parallel to the ground which allowed more growth at the top end.
i just take out the growing tip when they hit the tunnel roof

Thanks everyone. I've been letting chery tomatoes sprawl when they hit the greenhouse roof and cut off whatever droops down. They do tend to get rather small after a while, though. I'll leave outdoor for another couple of trusses. I'm not too keen on green tomato chutney but I do have a rather nice recipe for chicken with green tomatoes!
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Granny

Hi Granny,
When you leave the Toms to wander up to the roof and the Toms will be very small have the odd snipping session and reduce the size of the trusses.
This will tend to increase the size but not that dramatically but they will at least be bite size.
JB.

I'd never thought of that - what a good idea! Thanks, JB
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Granny