The plant is productive (north Tx) but despite clips on branches to try to train upward growth, all the fruit is near the ground. Do I need to cut off all the lower plant?
by Who-took-my-abs
6 Comments
CitrusBelt
Are you sure it’s Early Girl and not Bush Early Girl? That’d be the first thing to check (the latter is described as a fairly compact determinate).
similarities
On a totally separate note, I’m curious why you have two tomato cages there?
RevolutionaryMail747
It’s a bush not a cordon.
NPKzone8a
I grow a couple of bushy varieties like that and always have trouble keeping the fruit up off the ground. The best approach I’ve been able to come up with so far is to use a combination of a cage (like you have) and supplement that with stakes and ties to support longer branches. It’s not terribly efficient, and always looks pretty improvised and makeshift by the end of the season.
>>”Do I need to cut off all the lower plant?”
I never can bring myself to do that, but I’m not sure of what the best approach really is. (I treat it like a determinate variety, with minimal pruning.)
Last year I even wound up putting small pieces of scrap lumber under the lowest fruit to keep it from rotting on the ground. (Had seen that trick on photos from a commercial European tomato farm.)
chromecod
If it is Early Girl bush. You’re in luck , it’s a way better tomato than Early Girl.
Butterbacon
My early girl won’t grow any flowers! All of her neighbors have all these beautiful flowers and she’s just looking like a healthy little houseplant 😭
6 Comments
Are you sure it’s Early Girl and not Bush Early Girl? That’d be the first thing to check (the latter is described as a fairly compact determinate).
On a totally separate note, I’m curious why you have two tomato cages there?
It’s a bush not a cordon.
I grow a couple of bushy varieties like that and always have trouble keeping the fruit up off the ground. The best approach I’ve been able to come up with so far is to use a combination of a cage (like you have) and supplement that with stakes and ties to support longer branches. It’s not terribly efficient, and always looks pretty improvised and makeshift by the end of the season.
>>”Do I need to cut off all the lower plant?”
I never can bring myself to do that, but I’m not sure of what the best approach really is. (I treat it like a determinate variety, with minimal pruning.)
Last year I even wound up putting small pieces of scrap lumber under the lowest fruit to keep it from rotting on the ground. (Had seen that trick on photos from a commercial European tomato farm.)
If it is Early Girl bush. You’re in luck , it’s a way better tomato than Early Girl.
My early girl won’t grow any flowers! All of her neighbors have all these beautiful flowers and she’s just looking like a healthy little houseplant 😭