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Location

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Grittyville, WA

I dont think pruning has much benefit. For bonzai yes but for tomatoes I'm not convinced its an essential requirement. Just stirring things up... a side by side prune / no prune test might also interesting.

10/26/2018 12:17:40 AM

Grittyville, WA

I think the unpruned plant would offer more blossom choices and it would be larger by the time the chosen blossom was set... The end result from totally unpruned plants would be better on average. I think some limited pruning might help but in some cases the plant seems to naturally favor fruit growth over plant growth. The key may be to trigger this rather than worry about pruning.

10/26/2018 12:29:06 AM

Grittyville, WA

Not saying every blossom should be allowed to bear fruit just that a much larger plant with all side branches should not hurt. My 5.04 was a late set on a very unspecial branch. The plant had no secondary branches removed if I had pruned heavily earlier I might have missed what turned out to be a really nice late set.

10/26/2018 12:41:09 AM

Grittyville, WA

And also it grew well for such a late set and I think this is because it was sucking all the strength out of the entire plant (Other than the side vine I missed that had six tomatoes on it. See my diary)

10/26/2018 12:50:14 AM

Eastern Shore of VA

I prune.
I grow the occasional giant watermelon,and I’ve always noticed a jump in measurements after a pruning.
I know it’s not tomatoes,but it makes sense that the plant would put more effort into the fruit,if it had to feed less plant.

10/27/2018 11:02:29 AM