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Allentown, PA

Howdy!!!

I hope everyone's season is going full bore and giving you many mega blooms in which to set potential monsters on.

Here's my question;

How do you personally prune your plants for tomato size?

A single stem?

A double stem?

A triple stem?

How many main stems do you personally grow in order to produce a heavyweight?

I currently subscribe to the double stem method because it's my belief that the secondary stem provides additional leaves that generate energy for the tomato growing on the main stem.
I also top my plants at around six to seven feet.

My 4.46 LB Big Zac from last season came from a two stem plant that was topped at approx six feet.

So what do you subscribe to, and why do you feel it's the best method?

6/15/2014 9:44:30 AM

Ely Mn

I will be doing a few single stems this year.fabrice had great luck with them
last year.my beliefs are the second stem allows you more of a chance to get that big mega bloom,thats about it.i think the root mass is the most
Important to keep that big one growing.
Last year my biggest 2 stem plant produced my smallest tomato.
My old small worn out plant produced my biggest 4.57.

6/15/2014 11:05:48 AM

valparaiso, in

I normally only grow one stem. Sometimes I do two. It depends on how the plant looks. My biggest tomato came from the most haggard looking single stem plant.

I top my plants at the end of whichever stake I have them on. Some are 7 feet, and others up to 9 feet.

6/15/2014 10:47:11 PM

Corbin, KY

Single and doubles for me.I really dont think it requires that many leaves or feet of stems to grow a mega bloom to a large size. Think about this if you were growing tomatoes to eat you could have 8 or 10 tomatoes growing on a vines all at one time. SO you know its not taxing the plant to grow a mega bloom with 2-3 or 6 part bloom. Now I am wondering if you need all them roots as well. Growing tomatoes to a large size is more about getting that right bloom and then pushing that fruit to the largest you can get it. So a heathly vine and healthy roots may be more important than the size of the vine. Tomato growing is a little different than pumpkin growing.

6/16/2014 10:19:02 AM

Springfield, VT

The way to look at it is single stems for eating or giant tomatoes is quality over quantity. Multiple vines are grown typically for quantity of fruits. The down side of a single stem is sunburn on the fruit a double stem give you more leaves to shade the fruit.

6/16/2014 10:32:59 AM

Cameron

Double stems here. It's just the way we've always done it. I might try a single this year if I remember. :o) We just transplanted our tomatoes out this weekend, so it will be a while before we're looking for megablooms.
Our 7.33 was on a double stem, with only the one mater allowed to grow. It was on the 1st cluster of flowers on the original main stem. I admit we got lucky by getting one of those megablooms of a lifetime. The plant was allowed to grow to 5'+. Timing was right as it just happened to be ready for the Port Elgin weigh off.
We'll be growing 12 plants this year, 3 of those will be the 5.0 Timm. Hopefully lightning can strike twice. LOL.
Good luck All.
Jane & Phil

6/16/2014 4:29:34 PM

On top of Brush Mountain, Pa.

I think it depends on getting a megabloom. If your first stem produces what looks like could become a huge tomato then I would cut off the second stem wherever it is. If not I would let it continue on. It could give you the big blossom and then you would terminate the first stem. No growth should be allowed on whichever stem you terminate and you may want to cut the terminated stem way back. As far as shade for the single stem you are growing on, let the new suckers on that stem grow one or two leaves for shade before you terminate them. My latest thoughts. My 6 pound tomatoes were grown on plants with two stems with the second one terminated at four feet and the other with the tomato allowed to grow up to 6 or 7 feet.

6/17/2014 7:52:17 AM

Princeton Kentucky

Good Post and a Bunch of Good Answers to consider. Marv I believe I saw you on a video via youtube yesterday Thanks good Info on the double Stem method. Thanks for posting the question PA_J

6/20/2014 11:32:13 AM

Allentown, PA

Your welcome. And I decided on the single stem method this season for all my plants. Since I pruned seven plants this morning I pretty much made a commitment to those seven.

6/20/2014 6:59:51 PM

Allentown, PA

Update; I pruned one more plant this morning so as of today's date I have nine tomatoes growing off of eight plants.

6/21/2014 8:36:42 AM