Tomato Flowering

[Garden Manager]

A problem i seem to have is that of the first flowers being produced so far up the stem. That is to say the plants seem to grow quite tall before starting to flower.

This wouldnt  be s aproblem if I had unlimited height to let the plants grow into but (at least in the greenhouse) I dont. I will end up with only about 3 or 4 trusses before the plant hits the roof of the greenhouse

Is this a common problem, what might i be doing wrong and can I do anything to prevent it?

Thanks

[Garden Manager]

[ina]

There is something can you do to get your first truss to grow lower on the stem Richard.
Remember my system of stripping the stem of the plant and laying it under the soil to grow more roots? This way the fruits start much closer to the ground, leaving you more greenhouse hight for more trusses.

[Kepouros]

The usual cause of your problem Richard is quite simply an imbalance of heat and light - too much heat for the available light conditions - as a result of which the plants become drawn.  If you have used bubble polythene insulation this could well be the problem as it does reduce the light reaching the plants.  The best practice is to remove the bubble polythene from under the greenhouse roof in April and place the plants near the roof, where they will grow harder but shorter.

Ina`s method is the best one in the circumstances and is one which many professional growers have used in the past to get the maximum number of ripe trusses from a plant.  Once the tomato plant stem comes in to contact with the soil it will send out adventitious roots which should be lightly covered with compost as they form.

[tim]

You'll notice, Richard, that the stunted, yellowing things they offer in centres often have their first truss at about 4". Something about rushing to perpetuate their kind??

I always fail to get them low enough. A lean-to doesn't help even growth.

[ajb]

I've had a go this year at letting two shoots grow and flower, because I run out of height too. I'm hoping that this way I'll get more from the same plant before running out of height. 

I've also seen something on Gardeners world that they are trying out a system where the growing shoot is nipped out after the truss -and then a side-shoot is trained upwards until there is a flower, then nipped out and another side-shoot trained upwards, etc. In theory that too is supposed to provide more trusses for the same height.

Since I can't stay on top of the toms that are trying to take over the world starting with my greenhouse, I haven't had a go at the GW training system  ;D

A.

[Garden Manager]

Thanks for replies.

Ina: I remember now about your method. How i WISH I had remembered it when i planted! ::). Still I have a couple of 'late' plants still to plant out so might try it with those (however the problem has been worse with the earlier grown plants now growing in the greenhouse border).

I would think that the light/heat problem is the cause though. I had to keep the young plants close together in the greenhouse for a lot longe than usual becase of the cold spring, they probably got too warm during the day, whilst greenhouse shading cut out the light they were getting. Unfortunately I cannot control the light levels enough to overcome this

Strangely enough earlier in the spring the plants grew nice and slowly and were looking like being nice stocky plants.

PS I too am trying the 'GW/ Chris Beardshaw' training/growing method on a few of my plants. I am curious as to whether it really works.