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Indeterminate cherry tomatoes - remove side shoots?

EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
in Fruit & veg
I have always removed side shoots from all of my indeterminate tomatoes. I’ve just seen a gardener on YouTube stating that you should only remove the first few side shoots from an indeterminate cherry tomato until it gets going, and then leave them all on, only pruning for size as it gets out of hand. Otherwise you’ll lose too much fruit because cherries do produce a lot of fruit on side shoots, according to this theory. I should say that I’ve found the rest of his advice to be good. This is the first time that I’ve heard this. It’s kind of academic for me because I’ve forgotten to properly label most of my tomatoes, like I do every year. I could try it on the ones that I know are cherries. But it would be a bigger pain to support them than my usual method of training toms up a length of string. Do you agree with this? Have you done it? 
Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


Posts

  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    I would probably go with that theory.  I read an article by Bob Flowerdew some years ago he grows only a couple of plants and leaves the side shoots on and trains them horizontally. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    Yes, it works.  Commercial growers are able to grow the main stems to 20ft, so they remove all side shoots (it also makes harvesting easier.)  For those of us without 20ft tall heated greenhouses, leaving some side shoots will increase the crop, providing you have left enough space between the plants to do that.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
    edited April 2021
    I’ll give it a go then. Now there’s just the teeny tiny problem of finding the space 🤔
    Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


  • RedwingRedwing Posts: 1,511
    I think you need to know your varieties.  I've been growing tomatoes for over 40 years.  Some varieties take well to what you describe and some don't.  If I'm trying out a new variety I generally leave one or maybe two side shoots to grow and remove the others. And I generally don't allow more than two or three side shoots to grow plus the main stem on any, even the varieties that allow this treatment. What you often gain in terms of more tomatoes you loose is size. I have known some cherry tomatoes to only produce useless pea size tomatoes if too many side shoots are left.  Hope that helps.
    Based in Sussex, I garden to encourage as many birds to my garden as possible.
  • EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
    Thanks @Redwing it does, makes sense. I want a bite-sized cherry tomato, so I’ll do what you suggest. 
    Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


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