Allotments 4 All

Do you remember the strange dandelion like flowers several of us had on Costoluto Fiorentino tomatos last year?. Well I have them on three other varieties this year: Brandywine, Cuor di Bue and Cherokee Purple. Just like the Costolutos these toms seem to have stopped growing at the point of this odd flower and I shall have to use a side shoot as a new leader. Anyone else having similar problems this year?

Marmande does the same

Quote from: Rhubarb Thrasher on May 06, 2007, 16:25:17
Marmande does the same

So thats what that is!

Its very interesting. Seems there are rolled up leaves inside it.

I think because Marmande is a semi-determinate variety,it gets a bit confused between a flower truss and a growing stem, and produces something inbetween, which turns into an enormous deformed terminal bud.

tried a Google with Marmande+deformed+bud, but got this  ???

Submission Returns by Name - Alisoun MacCoul of ElphaneIsabel de

Marmande. Device. Azure, two wooden spoons in saltire and in chief a bell, ... as to be unidentifiable as anything other than a deformed lozenge. ...

 ??? ??? ???

I wish they'd warn you of this on the seed packet.  Having looked at my marmande tomatoes mine seem to be growing a hug fat bud at the top too.   I shan't pinch out the top side shoots until I'm sure.

As far as i can tell that the growing point.

My Marmande look great and inside this bud are just more leaves. Let it grow.

;)

It says on my old packet T&M that if the growing stem forms a flower truss, use a sideshoot as a new main stem, but it doesn't say how deformed and ugly it looks

I'll take a photo tomorrow of what i have one my ones.

Had this last year - I let it go and everything was fine in terms of tomato production, I even froze a few kilo's. Althougn I must admit I am not too fussy about removing sideshoots on any of my toms which may have benefitted the big buds on marmande.

If your Marmande is a semi why would you want to pinch it out,I don't understand. XX Jeannine

the main growing stem initially forms a truss which produces the enormous deformed bud. If you use a new sideshoot as the main growing stem, it grows like a normal indeterminate variety (remove sideshoots)

What doesn't help I think is that Marmande is classified everywhere as an indeterminate which would normally indicate you pinch out the sides shoots.

But if it an semi determinate I would only prune from the bottom up to the last sucker before the first fruit truss,I would leave that one on,after 10 days I would repeat to catch the regrowth and then no more pruning at all, not on a semi. XX Jeannine

T&M say to treat Marmande as I described. What are the benefits of doing things your way, Jeannine??

RT

It is what I was taught on a UNI course in Canada,the reason was to get the best yeilds and the largest fruit in combination. They went into the reasons to prune/not prune ,which to prune and why and when etc.

I have always followed what we learned, the number one thing was find out what your tomato is and follow the rule for that one.

Semi is the one that confuses most people especially as seed companies do give conflicting advice and semis are often sold as the wrong thing anyway , if in doubt I would not prune it at all.

I am personally not very familiar with Marmande, ,if T&M say it is indeterminate they may well be right, in which case I would prune it, but if it is another one that the seed company has got wrong as they often do ??

I will take a look with a couple of very reliable agricultural UNI sites and see if I can get a sure answer. XX Jeannine

thanks Jeannine. Marmande is a large beefsteak variety. I'd have thought not pruning it would lead to problems with the heavy fruit - i mean it needs supporting and the best way to do it is treating it as indeterminate and staking the main vine. B Flowerdew has it as one of the best tasting varieties, tho that may be true if it's grown in Tuscany, it can disappoint here in the UK

It is  definately a semi, dislikes greenhouse, grows better outside. The reason T&M are saying to pinch out the flower and train a new leader is to keep the plant going when it wants to end as would a determinate.

Personally I would not pinch it out. or more probably I would pinch one out and leave one and compare at the end of the season.

It is a short season tomato ,by removing the flower  and training a new leader you would prolong the season but you may lose size of fruit in the process as the determinate doesn't start to grow it's fruit seriously until it had finished growing to it's full height.

I do have the seeds in my collection I have just discovered, I might quickly plant a few and see what happens.

XX Jeannine

I grow it mainly for sentimental reasons, as it was one of the varieties I grew in my first year of gardening,about 25 years ago. It cropped so heavily - we had more tomatoes in weight than potatoes

Then is sounds that you have been doing the right thing with this one and that is the beauty of semis. Well done XX Jeannine