Topic: tomatoe plant question

[chuff]

I am growing sweet 100 and sweet million do I grow these as courdons or are they bush varieties and I take it that courdons I pinch out the side shoots, Ive done a search on the internet and I'm more confused now than ever because I get results for both ???

[triffid]

They're both cordon varieties.
So yes, you support them with a nice sturdy bamboo stake and you pinch out the side shoots.

Are you ok about knowing what a side shoot looks like? The first year I grew toms (back in the dark ages), I enthusiastically began nipping off the new-forming flower trusses as well...  :-[  Fortunately, my old dad put me right quickly enough that I didn't pinch out every potential tomato.
Side shoots are the fast-growing lateral (sideways-growing) stems which grow from the joint of the main stem and a leaf. Tomato flower trusses grow on their own, midway between leaves.

If the side shoots are big enough, you can grow these on as cuttings and make more tomatoes.  :P Lots of peeps are doing that at the moment.  ;D
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,59762.0.html

 

[chuff]

thank you triffid, Ive never heard of taking cuttings from the side shoots before, I shall have ago, I take it that I leave them on the plant until there are a decent size. thanks 4 the tip on which are side shoots and which are flower trusses. ;D