Here is some information on an approach to pruning (that I would call early topping) that some people may find interesting.
Even if you're in a hot, sunny climate if you have room you could try doing this with some plants to get really early harvests, but it's probably more of interest to those of us in cooler, less sunny areas, like here in the UK (although our spring has been worryingly dry and sunny and hot so far – record breakingly so).
by True_Adventures
4 Comments
Oh this is from Grow For Flavour by James Wong, a UK botanist and hobby gardener. It’s general and not tomato focused though.
I assume he is suggesting this for areas with very short seasons like in the UK.
I am in a shorter season area in the US and do variations of this on some plants. I grow a few early varieties in small containers and then top them once they set a couple fruit to force them to ripen early. It works, but the plants are done and are pulled after that bunch of fruit.
I also top some plants at the end of the season when there is a low chance any newly set fruit will ripen. This stresses the plants and seems to help get a few more ripening fruit at the end of the season.
*“As soon as the first bunch of fruit sets, pinch out the growing tip of the plant three leaves above this truss and remove all sideshoots – you should barely need to stake or prune ever again.”*
I have words I want to type (**fighting words**) but will choose to hold it in 😑
I have limited vertical space above my tomatoes (they probably have about 6 feet to grow before running into the ceiling), so I think I’m going to do something vaguely similar in theory. I’m encouraging a sucker fairly low on each, and then topping when they are at their height limits… encouraging them to their bushy max instead of height max. I live in a fairly breezy area, so I think as long as I do careful internal pruning I can still keep good enough airflow.