Quote:
Originally Posted by TTRgreen2010
I've read that you certainly can leave the suckers on the plant but that the tomatoes will not grow as large as if you prune. Did this happen in your situation?
Personally, I think I'd rather have many medium size tomatoes instead of only a few large ones.
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Well I never did any testing to see if there was a difference in the tomato's size between pruned plants and non pruned plants growing in the same conditions. They did vary in size of coarse, but not drastically and I don't ever remember even thinking that they were smaller than they should be. We also did get ones that were huge, like the large beefsteak tomato's. I usually used those for making salsa or tomato sauce, because I don't like saving a cut tomato's. You can cut a few slices for salads or sandwiches, but as soon as you cut into them the juices start to flow, and if you don't use them right away the leftover would tend to go to waist. Bottom line we didn't get abnormally small tomato's.
Also I left them on the plant to ripen (not like in the stores), really ripen (blood red) and just starting to soften, unless I wanted to fry a green one. There is a huge difference in taste between what they call vine ripened, and what is really vine ripened. That difference can only be experienced, not explained. The green ones need to be completely green to get the best taste (even inside), and you cant really tell unless you cut into it. The slightest red color ruins the taste for fried green tomato's. It's almost like a tomiteo, I have fried them also.
I used the same soil year after year, but skimmed off the top 3-5 inches. Then tilled the rest, mixed in manure, potting soil and peat moss. Then about once a week or so I would water them with miracle gro. The only problem I had was getting to all the tomato's when the plants were so big. I had to kind of dig through all the branches to get to the ones deep inside. Those seemed to ripen fine also in the complete shade from all the leaves and branches. The repining may have been delayed for the ones in complete shade I don't know, there were so many tomato's that were ripe to choose from that it didn't mater. Also these plants were in between two garages (ours and our neighbors), and the garages blocked most of the direct sunlight. They only got about 4 hours of direct sunlight at mid day during the summer.