Author Topic: british garden writer discovers age old american tomato growing advice (Read 7095 times)

plainleaf · « **on:** October 13, 2011, 00:54:41 »

thought point this great revelation to you all since i have been preaching this advice for several years.
it has been discovered by a contributor to the British garden magazine."Grow Your Own Magazine" that none suckered tomato plants produce more tomatoes.
but poor me, I knew this all along now some British(no offense to those of you who are British )person thinks they discovered something well known in USA for many years.
thought I should point this out to you all so you all now know the truth.

I can wait till this person learns the critical mass ripening rule that certain varieties have.
In other worded they need to produce certain number green fruit before they start produce ripe fruit.

Edited to remove link to another forum -
Edited to remove reference to a member on another forum

antipodes · « **Reply #1 on:** October 13, 2011, 10:43:14 »

I don't understand what a non suckered plant is?

SO if there is a critical mass, does that mean that by taking off some early green fruit, the others will ripen more?

plainleaf · « **Reply #2 on:** October 13, 2011, 15:39:14 »

antipodes a "non suckered plant" is tomato plant that has not had it's suckers
removed.

critical mass means the same as it means in physics you need a certain amount of the thing in question before the reaction you you want happens.
In other words you might need 50 green tomato on the plant before any of the tomatoes start to ripen.

aj · « **Reply #3 on:** October 13, 2011, 19:57:24 »

Aw, bless you Plainleaf/Grid Gardener.

I think you have misinterpreted the point of the thread to which you refer [or did refer until it was removed] however.

a - I didn't discover a new method - I did it to prove to another member of that forum who doubted my assertions a year ago. And I proved him/her wrong.

b - I am Canadian.

Loving your work though - misunderstood as usual.

brown thumb · « **Reply #4 on:** October 13, 2011, 20:23:41 »

by suckers do you mean the growth between the joints of stem and branch

aj · « **Reply #5 on:** October 13, 2011, 20:25:47 »

Yes, the sideshoots [armpits].

I've never referred to them as suckers #just saying like.

Trevor_D · « **Reply #6 on:** October 13, 2011, 20:33:35 »

Do you mean "Remove the side-shoots"? That's normal practice, isn't it? (At least, in the 40-plus years I've been growing tomatoes, I've never not done it.)

plainleaf · « **Reply #7 on:** October 13, 2011, 20:37:07 »

brown thumb yes that is correct. (sucker) is the term most often used describe

Quote from: brown thumb on October 13, 2011, 20:23:41

by suckers do you mean the growth between the joints of stem and branch

tomato armpit is new term of recent origin.

the term sucker go back at least to 1860's
since I have seen several descriptions of the use of term in newspaper article
that far back.

Squash64 · « **Reply #8 on:** October 13, 2011, 20:40:47 »

I have 9 Sungolds which I have not been able to keep under control due to their position, and one which I regularly remove side shoots from. The 9 have produced lots of very small fruit, but the sideshooted one has produced more and of a much larger size.

(I've never heard side shoots called 'armpits' before - it's enough to put me off eating tomatoes) ;)

aj · « **Reply #9 on:** October 13, 2011, 20:42:55 »

Quote from: Trevor_D on October 13, 2011, 20:33:35

Do you mean "Remove the side-shoots"? That's normal practice, isn't it? (At least, in the 40-plus years I've been growing tomatoes, I've never not done it.)

Yes, that's the point.

I'll explain.

I had a spat last year with someone who told me that removing the side shoots would reduce yield. As I was growing in several schools, and two were merging into 1 - I wanted to grow bush toms so that we could easily move them and I wondered what would happen to vine toms if the shoots were not removed over the summer hols. Thanks to JayB on here, as well as the seed circle, I had lots of bush toms but I really did want to try and see what happened if you grew vine toms and didn't remove the side shoots.

So, I put 4 'end of season' plants into the ground at a community garden that I also garden in. These went in during July. They then got left, and in Sept there were loads and loads of fruit on them. Many many more than I have ever got from 'sideshooted' or armpitted vines. At the time, there was so much foliage that you couldn't see how many plants there were. I knew I hadn't put many in but it looked like there were about 10 plants - and it turns out there were 4 - one of each variety. They were PW's French Black, Falcon, Purple Russian and Franchi's Pear. Me, the guys at the community place and other students have all had loads, and I chopped the lot back on Monday as a few were showing signs of blight. Hence my surprise that there were only 4 plants.

Plainleaf seems to have taken umbridge at me sharing this with people. No idea why.

aj · « **Reply #10 on:** October 13, 2011, 20:44:29 »

Quote from: Squash64 on October 13, 2011, 20:40:47

I have 9 Sungolds which I have not been able to keep under control due to their position, and one which I regularly remove side shoots from. The 9 have produced lots of very small fruit, but the sideshooted one has produced more and of a much larger size.

(I've never heard side shoots called 'armpits' before - it's enough to put me off eating tomatoes) ;)

Aye, but these were never sideshooted. I don't want to get into an argument - I didn't post this on here - I just wanted to share this with my friends on another forum. That is all.

brown thumb · « **Reply #11 on:** October 13, 2011, 20:51:15 »

squash you made me giggle Dont you fancy a cheese and tomato sarnie ;)

plainleaf · « **Reply #12 on:** October 13, 2011, 20:52:59 »

aj 1. sorry calling you British
2. don't mind would/could pm me a link to the original thread that you are try to prove the person in question wrong.
3. I was not taking umbridge I was basically saying god someone in the uk final gets it.
4. If you want more info about the early start method I will tell you on one condition. you post the method in total on the grapevine.
and credit me being your source of the info.

plainleaf · « **Reply #13 on:** October 13, 2011, 20:55:18 »

brown thumb

Quote from: brown thumb on October 13, 2011, 20:51:15

squash you made me giggle Dont you fancy a cheese and tomato sarnie ;)

at least give the earl his do and call it a sandwich

aj · « **Reply #14 on:** October 13, 2011, 20:57:44 »

Quote from: plainleaf on October 13, 2011, 20:52:59

aj 1. sorry calling you British
2. don't mind would/could pm me a link to the original thread that you are try to prove the person in question wrong.
3. I was not taking umbridge I was basically saying god someone in the uk final gets it.
4. If you want more info about the early start method I will tell you on one condition. you post the method in total on the grapevine.
and credit me being your source of the info.

Actually, I have absolutely no need of anything in any shape or form from you. If you want something, try the search button. I like to do my own research and trials and am more than happy to share them. There is absolutely no reason to send unsolicited PMs to me and I will never be answering them so you are wasting your time.

Now, if you don't mind, I have a humungous pan of passata [tomato sauce] to reduce down thanks to this lovely method of growing tomatoes.

daveyboi · « **Reply #15 on:** October 13, 2011, 20:58:47 »

No one has mentioned the two types of tomato plants though Indeterminate which you armpit and determinate do not.

aj · « **Reply #16 on:** October 13, 2011, 21:00:34 »

Quote from: daveyboi on October 13, 2011, 20:58:47

No one has mentioned the two types of tomato plants though Indeterminate which you armpit and determinate do not.

This is the point. They were vine/indeterminate tomatoes that were just left to grow with no intervention.

Squash64 · « **Reply #17 on:** October 13, 2011, 21:05:08 »

Quote from: brown thumb on October 13, 2011, 20:51:15

squash you made me giggle Dont you fancy a cheese and tomato sarnie ;)

Not now I've got this picture of hairy armpits in my mind....... :o

betula · « **Reply #18 on:** October 13, 2011, 21:06:16 »

Underarm pleaseeeeeeeeeeee :o

aj · « **Reply #19 on:** October 13, 2011, 21:07:57 »

Quote from: Squash64 on October 13, 2011, 21:05:08

Quote from: brown thumb on October 13, 2011, 20:51:15
squash you made me giggle Dont you fancy a cheese and tomato sarnie ;)

Not now I've got this picture of hairy armpits in my mind....... :o

;D

You know about the sideshoots/armpits rerooting and making new plants now, don't you?

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Author Topic: british garden writer discovers age old american tomato growing advice (Read 7095 times)