Help: tomatoes taking over greenhouse

[vegnovice10]

I have 2 grow bags in my greenhouse - one has 3 tomato plants in and the other one plus 2 cucumber plants. The cucumbers are telepathy F1 and the tomatoes are moneymaker (2), shirley and one cherry tomato gardeners delight.

Question is can I cut off some branches, if so which. Should I stop feeding them so often, am doing it once a week with tomorite. I have taken some branches off and thought I'd taken the growing points off the top but not sure. I have been taking off side shoots and trying to train them up supports. I think if they carry on like this I won't get in the greenhouse!

Thanks Susan

[fluffy]

TBH this is my first full year of growing but I've got the same variety of tomotos that you have. You need to pinch out the side shoots which, sometimes when you go to do it are so small you think I'll do them next time I'm on the plot & next thing they're big & got flower heads on them. What I've been doing is taking off the lower leaves & any leaves that either shadow the fruit or comes into the aisle of the greenhouse. Then, I check for side shoots & if they've already developed flower heads I leave them on otherwise no matter how big they are I pull them off. You don't need a huge amount of leaves on the plant but at the same time you need to leave enough to ensure the tomatos are sweet. I've even been pulling leaves off the side shoots because they're grown soo big. You can also tie them to supports if you want. Hope that helps. Mine are doing fine with this treatment just waiting for my first crop of tomatos. They're developing really well @ the mo.

[vegnovice10]

Thanks - will give them another trim. Do have quite a few tomatoes so hope they'll ripen up and survive. Good luck with yours. Susan

[Lesley Jay]

Hi both, you shouldn't really remove the leaves from your tomato plants as the plant needs the leaves for photosynthesis and energy to produce your lovely tasty tomatoes! Indeterminate tomato varieties that you are growing do need the side shoots removing. The plants grow with a main central stem and quite a gap between the side branches. Where these side branches join onto the main central stem you get a little shoot growing and it is these little shoots that need removing - these are the side shoots. The flower trusses also grow from the main central stem so take care not to remove these. At the end of the season when the day length shortens and I still have green tomatoes on the plants then I do remove the leaves to help ripen them.

Susan you need to keep feeding the plants once a week now that you have tomatoes growing but feeding tomato plants before the fruits form can cause alot of leafy growth.

Matt has a great photo showing the side shoots.

Tomatoes - Shoot between trunk/Branch...

Doug's third photo shows how 'open' the plants growth is when the side shoots have been removed.

my cucumber plants and tomato plants

Apologies if you already knew which were the side shoots!

[Tee Gee]

Question is can I cut off some branches,

In this case yes!

I have had a closer look at your pictures and you have missed a lot of your secondary growth (side shoots) and these have now become a bit wayword and causing your problem.

This is what you should have done;

Side shoot visible;



Side shoot removed;

Should I stop feeding them so often, am doing it once a week with tomorite.

No carry on as you are!

I have taken some branches off and thought I'd taken the growing points off the top but not sure. I have been taking off side shoots and trying to train them up supports. I think if they carry on like this I won't get in the greenhouse!

If the branches (side shoots) are looking like this then leave them on;



Difficult to describe/write as what to do so try this;

Stand back from your plant and look at it as if it were a tree! You should be able to determine the main stem (trunk) with its main branches and secondary branches (twigs).

Leave the main branches with trusses on and cut of the twigs these are the side shoots you missed.

I hope that makes sense.

As a last resort count how many trusses you have on each plant then cut off everything above the sixth truss and allow the plants to grow as bushes rather than cordons!

I find six trusses are about as many as a plant can cope with particularly those in growbags!

I hope that helps ......Tg

[chezbean]

This is the first message I've ever put on a forum! But found the tomotoe info really useful. I wonder if Ive been feeding mine too early. thanks