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topping tomato plants?

FireFire Posts: 19,096
in Fruit & veg
In my local gardening group we have several people whose Gardeners' Delight tom plants are exceeding two metres tall. They are struggling to find ways to support them in their pots, esp in high winds. These are people new to gardening and would like to find easy ways to manage. Is it possible to pinch out the tops, if the main bulk of the plant has flowers and fruit on? To top it, say at head height? Would it harm the plant?

All thoughts and links appreciated.
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Posts

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    No point in trying to keep them going if they're being affected by weather, and they don't have adequate supports. They'd get knocked off anyway, and could possibly break and do damage further down, so it would be counter productive to leave them.

    If there's plenty of fruit there, I'd nip them out.   :)

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    Yes that's fine to do Fire. The fruits will ripen earlier too.
    They still tend to extend themselves after topping - in my greenhouse they sometimes stretch another foot after topping.
    After topping I find the plant tries to find other ways to grow and often see vegetative growth (like a little tomato plant) coming out from the ends of trusses or out of the middle of leaves - they really want to keep growing!

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited July 2020
    Thanks

    "They still tend to extend themselves after topping - in my greenhouse they sometimes stretch another foot after topping."

    @Pete.8  - is this to suggest that you top once - rather than keeping on pinching out the growing tip?

  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    edited July 2020
    Once you've pinched the growing top out, that's it, the plant can't produce anything more at the top. But the plant itself seems to grow as in it stretches in length by a few inches or more.
    Best to pinch out leaving a single leaf at the top, this makes the plant continue to feed the leaf and therefore any fruits just below it.
    Assuming the side shoots have also been pinched out, the plant can't grow in any direction and that's when the weird plantlets may start forming and sometimes new side shoots start to appear.

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Most are growing GD, which is a vine tom. They are pinching out axial growth only.
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    Yes that's the right thing to do, then when the plant gets to the height you want, just nip off the top.

    I've recently topped some of mine-
    What's left of the growing tip of the plant is the stub in the middle. Either side you can see where the side shoots were (pic 1) and still are (pic 2) which I've just nipped off.


    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Great. Thanks. I've passed the advice on to the group.
  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286
    The 'book' method is to pinch out the top after 5-6 trusses have formed, leaving two leaves above the top truss. Don't know if it is just luck, but it usually equates to a manageable height with varieties I've grown as standards.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    👍🏽
  • HotwaxHotwax Posts: 51
    How many trusses do you allow to grow before pinching out the top? I’ve got gardeners delight and tigerella growing in the greenhouse border. Usually they reach the top of the greenhouse after about 6 trusses so I pinch them out then. But this year I followed some advice to plant them very deep (I took off quite a few of the lower leaves as instructed), and they’re now already up to the 6th or 7th truss, but are only about 4ft tall! 
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