Author Topic: Tomato sideshoots.  (Read 1358 times)

planetearth

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Tomato sideshoots.
« on: August 02, 2022, 16:09:55 »
For the first time in 30 years I am getting so many tomato side shoots I am going crazy.  They are bursting out on the mainstem, trusses and on leaves.

It's almost a full time job keeping up with them.  The plant is my usual and ever so reliable Gardeners delight, but with some leaf curl.

What's going on?

Beersmith

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Re: Tomato sideshoots.
« Reply #1 on: August 02, 2022, 19:17:45 »
As I posted few weeks ago . . .

That's the thing about tomato side shoots.  You can be really diligent in pinching them out, but if you don't pay attention one of them will grow six inches while you are sitting in the shed drinking a coffee.
Not mad, just out to mulch!

planetearth

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Re: Tomato sideshoots.
« Reply #2 on: August 03, 2022, 07:49:47 »
These aren't the ordinary side shoots, these pop up on the plant (upper half) in all sorts of places and in bunches of up to 4 shoots from the same spot!

small

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Re: Tomato sideshoots.
« Reply #3 on: August 03, 2022, 17:08:29 »
 My GD's have done just the same, I've given up trying to take them out and am just leaving them to see what happens. I put it down to the excessive heat since that's all that seems different. But tomatoes are always coming up with surprises, aren't they?

picman

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Re: Tomato sideshoots.
« Reply #4 on: August 03, 2022, 21:37:19 »
Same side shoot excess , i missed a few in the early days and have now given up, its a tomato jungle...

BarriedaleNick

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Re: Tomato sideshoots.
« Reply #5 on: August 04, 2022, 09:36:14 »
I potted up a load of side shoots and now have another 10 free plants - luckily the season is long enough here to get a crop of them..
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Tiny Clanger

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Re: Tomato sideshoots.
« Reply #6 on: August 04, 2022, 12:29:31 »
We've got more side shoots that can be dealt with easily. Hubbie was so diligent looking at side-shoots, he's also "side-shooted" my determinate varieties  :blob7:
I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

Deb P

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Re: Tomato sideshoots.
« Reply #7 on: August 04, 2022, 17:16:59 »
I give up when they get about head height, just tie the buggers to each other and stop them when they hit the roof!
If it's not pouring with rain, I'm either in the garden or at the lottie! Probably still there in the rain as well TBH....🥴

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Vinlander

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Re: Tomato sideshoots.
« Reply #8 on: August 05, 2022, 14:10:31 »
I potted up a load of side shoots and now have another 10 free plants - luckily the season is long enough here to get a crop of them..

It's a brilliant system if like me you've got the space for the extra plants.

A couple of points - firstly - tomatoes are thugs and root pretty quickly, but the big shoots have much less surface in the compost until they grow roots, and they can dry out in that delay - so the bigger the shoot is the more of it should be buried (doesn't have to go in vertically) and it should be given more shade to slow its water loss.

The alternative is to root the bigger ones in water - that gives them the time to make roots. As a rough approx. I'd say any cutting less than 100mm will do better in damp soil, but anything bigger will definitely gain from being in water until the roots are 50mm plus. There's almost no limit to the size of cutting you can grow on in water.

There's no advantage in fertilising the water - it seems to encourage the stems to rot - probably because it goes septic.

I've never noticed any evidence that the water roots don't work in soil - except that the plants do better (recover/convert) in very damp but well drained soil (if they are going into rough garden soil I root them them first in ~100mm pots of good stuff). OTOH they might actually prefer to move straight into a true hydroponic system - which in our case we have not got.

Secondly, I'm now convinced that any cutting will flower and fruit earlier than a seedling the same size. Some fraction of the maturity of the donor plant carries over - they are past the mad growth stage and so you will end up with smaller plants that fruit within a week or two of the donor (depending on the weather).

On a related theme - I try to have decent sized plants in April and coddle them until May. The coddling interval makes the plants leggier than I want them, so this year I'm experimenting with letting the lowest side shoot stay on each - so it will eventually produce fruit alongside the bare stem - that's should be quite soon. Some of them have 3 fruiting side shoots to see if that's better.

I buy Gardeners Delight and Sungold plants as soon as they show up in shops & DIY stores (2 or 3 of each), and use all the side shoots to make more.

I've been impressed by Cocktail Crush - I will buy 2 plants next year as insurance against blight - what a difference from those first efforts (like the disgusting Ferline).

The Green Tiger family have a unique flavour (includes Shimmer and the "Artisan" version) I've been growing them for years - but they turned up in the garden centre in 2021. Sadly not this year so I'll be back to sowing them in January 2023 (also seeds from supermarket Piccolo fruit).

Cheers.

With a microholding you always get too much or bugger-all. (I'm fed up calling it an allotment garden - it just encourages the tidy-police).

The simple/complex split is more & more important: Simple fertilisers Poor, complex ones Good. Simple (old) poisons predictable, others (new) the opposite.

 

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