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Tomato side shoots

WilderbeastWilderbeast Posts: 1,415
in Fruit & veg
So my tomatoes are growing rapidly with loads of fruits setting and its all happy in my world 😊.

BUT that's not quite right !! I have side shoots, not just on the leaf axial point but growing from the ends of trusses and growing out of the leaves in fact it seems from everywhere ☹️.

So what do I do ? I keep removing the standard side shoots and the truss side shoots, but what about the leaves ?. This is on the marmade tomatoes which I am going to nip the growing point out as well as they have 4 big trusses each. 

Any help for this poor dumb fool of a 1st time tomato grower (I have way too many growing as well but that's a different problem) 
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Posts

  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    My toms also produce 'new plants' at the end of trusses and sometimes from the leaves too.
    You'll find a knuckle just at the end of the truss where the new growth starts - just snap it off there. The ones the grow from the leaves I just cut off.

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Pete.8 said:
    My toms also produce 'new plants' at the end of trusses and sometimes from the leaves too.
    You'll find a knuckle just at the end of the truss where the new growth starts - just snap it off there. The ones the grow from the leaves I just cut off.
    Ditto here  :)

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • war garden 572war garden 572 Posts: 664
    i never prune tomato side shoot it 
    lowers production. this was even proven
    by RHS.
  • WilderbeastWilderbeast Posts: 1,415
    Thanks all. I spent an hour removing all the side shoots, yellow leaves and and suckers. 2 big trugs of gear to shift. @war garden 572 that advice is for determinate or bush tomatoes not indeterminate cordon tomatoes
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    That depends on the variety @war garden 572
    If you are talking cherry or cooking toms, then I would agree. But salad types don't do so well if left to bush, as they tend to put all their energy into leaf instead of fruit. And because we have such a short growing season,  especially outside , lots of small green toms are not what we want.
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    P.S. @Wilderbeast I too am taking leaves off the ends of trusses.
  • WilderbeastWilderbeast Posts: 1,415
    @purplerallim I found a 2ft long shoot coming off 1 truss. The marmade tomatoes have got 2,3 or 4 shoots per leaf. It's not something I've read or heard about so was surprised to see it. 
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    As it is so rampant this year, I am again wondering about the seed producers.  It seems for the past three years we have had one problem or another with different veg/fruit behaving odd, growing odd,  varieties that are well known suddenly having different leaf patterns (eg. potato leaf instead of tomato shaped) or poisonous courgette. It can't be just one packet when so many are noticing the difference @Wilderbeast
  • StephenSouthwestStephenSouthwest Posts: 635
    I think marmande is semi-determinate? This year I'm taking that to mean that I remove side shoots in a fairly casual not-bothering-to-remove-them-all-and-looking-forward-to-the-tomatoes-which-are-growing-on-those-side-shoots kind of way ...
  • war garden 572war garden 572 Posts: 664
    edited July 2021
    it decreases production of all varieties there
    have been several studies that proven this.the people uk only 
    prune because they used only get tomatoes out
    of greenhouses and that was blight risk. 
    those side shoots will produce fruit if given time.
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