help - tomatos - 'prune' or not

Chris314 · June 2017

I'm growing 2 varieties of tomato: Ailsa Craig, and Orange Paruche.

Ailsa Craig behaves like a 'cordon' type and so I'm pulling off the side shoots.

The Orange Paruche are a bit of an enigma. Last year I just let them 'do their thing' and they grew into enormous bushes, and were laden with fruit.

But... they are described on the seed packet as 'indeterminate'.

Surely a bush type like this should be determinate. My book also says indeterminates should have their side shoots removed, but being a bush, they're mostly side shoots. If I remove them there won't be much left !

Help... I'm confused..

Dovefromabove · June 2017

I've not grown Orange Paruche, but Sutton's website describes them as being 'semi-determinate' but recommends that they be grown as cordons which means that you will be removing the side shoots. http://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Vegetable+Plants/All+Vegetable+Plants/Tomato+Plants+-+F1+Orange+Paruche_242981.htm

However you grew them as if they were a bush type last year and got a good crop ... so you could do this again.

From my understanding the only difficulty would be supporting the side 'branches'.

This article is informative https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_to_differentiate_determinate_and_semi-determinate_varieties_in_the_field

Let us know how you get on ... how did you find the flavour last year? Sutton's description sounds good.

Chris314 · June 2017

The Orange Paruche have by far the most flavour of any cherry type tomato I've tasted. You need to be patient and not pick until deep orange colour and therefore fully ripe. You can pick them earlier but then don't get the full flavour. The seeds are a bit pricey though, but I seem to get 100% germination no problem.

Maybe I'll try pruning a couple of bushes and then see what method works best.

Thanks for the reply.

help - tomatos - 'prune' or not

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