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addison Il

i am growing beefsteak tomatoes and the plants are about 2 feet tall now and there starting to flower there not even to the top of the tomatoe cages i was wondering if its normal to flower so early and what i should do for the plants pruning wise and all that good stuff any advice would be helpful thanks much

5/29/2005 12:02:45 AM

Hobbiton New Zealand

keep to one main stem and yes It normal to set fruit as the plant grows if you are just growing them for eating not competition

5/29/2005 2:08:31 AM

Follansbee, Wv

Most of my regular tomatoes are less than a foot tall, and all are making blooms. Your pruning will be determined by what you plan to do with them. More pruning means bigger tomatoes, but fewer of them. Less pruning means the opposite, more tomatoes, but a little smaller.

Since you're growing in cages, I assume you are growing either a determinate variety, or have very tall cages. Most people who grow in cages prune very little.

My best advice for pruning is to grow the main vine and maybe one or to early suckers as vines. Prune all other suckers off until the plants near the top of the cages. Let the later suckers grow. They will provide much needed shade for the fruits below.

5/29/2005 7:54:56 AM

Roanoke Il

I tried this last year after reading it in and old oganic gardening book it it worked great for me. I planted the tomatoes in two heaping shovel fulls fresher manure i'd say the 5-6 month old stuff then mulched the plant. other than prunning the first few suckers, staking them. If I watered the 5 times the whole summer max and it was a cool dry summer. Last year was the best year for tomatoes I have ever had also mixed some lime in maybe a quater cup in each growing spot. Not one problem with rot or fungi.mark

5/29/2005 8:54:21 AM

Follansbee, Wv

Excellent tactic mark. Tomatoes love that rich organic stuff. I usually have "volunteers" pop up all over the garden when I spread my compost, due to the seeds left there from the fall. The ones that sprout in the compost pile itself grow like mad, and are sometimes transplanted into spare spots.

5/29/2005 9:30:16 AM

Montoursville, PA

Mark.........you are right on target because that is exactly what my great grandma, grandma and mother did. That covers a year or two, of organic tomatoe growing. Since I never knew any other practice that is what I do to this day. My growing, of tomatoes, spans some fifty to sixty years.

I went high tech and put in two underground T-Tape water lines,in my raised beds. That was good news and is today, in this hot dry spell. Incidently I have grown, in that bed thiry years without tilling or crop rotation. The permanent mulch is four, to six inches deep. I use no fertilizer what so ever, in that bed. On occasion I get, to feeling guilty and give them a shot of kelp and molasses foliar fed.

Each year on or about June 15th. I give the bed it's drink of aerobic tea. If I think about it they get another drink of tea about the middle of July. More often than not I forget the second tea application.

6/27/2005 10:19:33 PM