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TOMATO MIX UP ...🌱

romahevromahev Posts: 23
in Fruit & veg
I have planted two packs of tomato seeds thinking they were both cordons ! Then on seeing the free packet Of seeds I got from GW , were tumbling . So my question is how will I know which are which as I see you don’t nip out side shoots on tumbling where as Red Cherry seeds you do ! I know I should of labelled every single pot .....

Posts

  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    I'm not sure, but in the back of my mind somewhere I recall that cordon tomatoes produce their trusses from the main stem, bush varieties (Tumbling) produce their trusses from the branches formed by the side shoots. So you could wait and see where the flowers begin to appear. But as I mentioned, I'm not SURE.
    See what other advice you get here

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • romahevromahev Posts: 23
    Pete.8 said:
    I'm not sure, but in the back of my mind somewhere I recall that cordon tomatoes produce their trusses from the main stem, bush varieties (Tumbling) produce their trusses from the branches formed by the side shoots. So you could wait and see where the flowers begin to appear. But as I mentioned, I'm not SURE.
    See what other advice you get here
    Thanks Pete any info is good info 👍
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    I would also leave the sideshoots on both for now until it becomes more obvious.  You can then choose to remove the sideshoots from the cordon (btw, they root well and can provide extra plants) or grow it as a bush.  It will need far more support if you do that and they tend to produce a large crop but all around the same time when grown that way.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • romahevromahev Posts: 23
    BobTheGardener said:
    I would also leave the sideshoots on both for now until it becomes more obvious.  You can then choose to remove the sideshoots from the cordon (btw, they root well and can provide extra plants) or grow it as a bush.  It will need far more support if you do that and they tend to produce a large crop but all around the same time when grown that way.
    Brilliant thanks Bob , I’ll do that then 👍
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    You could be lucky and the tomatoes have different leaf forms, But I don't think those do. An unpruned cordon tomato will also set fruit on the side shoots so that's not going to be a way to tell them apart I'm afraid.
    It's not the end of the world if you don't prune a cordon tomato so long as it has space to grow and airflow it will do fine, but it will make the crop a little later, and obviously it's not going to be happy in a hanging basket!
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    The difference is that an un-pruned bush variety will not produce flowers on the main stem - assuming my memory is in tact.

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • romahevromahev Posts: 23
    Thanks Pete  I’ll remember that and see how they get in 🤓

    Pete.8     said:
    The difference is that an un-pruned bush variety will not produce flowers on the main stem - assuming my memory is in tact.
  • romahevromahev Posts: 23
    Pete.8 said:
    I'm not sure, but in the back of my mind somewhere I recall that cordon tomatoes produce their trusses from the main stem, bush varieties (Tumbling) produce their trusses from the branches formed by the side shoots. So you could wait and see where the flowers begin to appear. But as I mentioned, I'm not SURE.
    See what other advice you get here.

    Just to let you know you were right about cordon growing trusses on main stem good advice thank you 👏
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