why are uk gardeners obsessed with pruning vegetable plants?

Posts

• Busy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043

  July 2023 edited July 2023

  I'm not. What for? Apart from picking off sideshoots on certain tomatoes.

  Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.

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• Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889

  July 2023 edited July 2023

  They're not. You're wrong again 
  Where is your evidence of this "obsession"?

  Devon.

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• B3 Posts: 27,505

  July 2023

  I stopped growing cabbages because they are a PITA to prune

  In London. Keen but lazy.

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• JennyJ Posts: 10,576

  July 2023

  I nip out the side shoots of my cordon tomatoes, and remove the leaves around the end of September or early October so that the last of the fruit can get every bit of autumn sun before the frosts arrive, and I occasionally remove a manky old leaf or two on the courgette and cucumber plants, but other than that I can't think of an example of pruning vegetables. Unless harvesting cut-and-come-again salad leaves and leaving them to grow back counts as pruning.
  

  Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  

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• war garden 572 Posts: 664

  July 2023

  Hostafan1 try reading the threads on this forum for while 
  you will see numerous posts on pruning vegetable plants. 
  
  

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• Fairygirl Posts: 55,117

  July 2023

  Perhaps you could do the same @war garden 572 - and you'll see how many people grow fruit and veg without any great interference from the gardeners.
  
  Oh - and nobody 'prunes' veg. Wrong terminology altogether.  Fruiting trees [woody] would be pruned. Brambles and similar fruits- which are also woody, would be pruned.  
  
  What veg is woody? 

  It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
  
  
  
  I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...

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• wild edges Posts: 10,497

  July 2023

  Everyone knows that a tactical prune makes your 🍆 look more impressive.
  

  If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  

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• philippasmith2 Posts: 3,742

  July 2023

  What exactly do you mean by "pruning veg" ?  Pinching out on some is one thing but pruning is entirely different. Check the terminolugy before you spout off with your endless stupid queries.
  You are not only ridiculous but you also seem incapable of moving away from your conviction that America knows best.  It is becoming boring to put it politely. 
  I don't suppose I'm the only person on here who wonders why you bother to post on an obviously UK forum when you have no conception of how people garden here.
   Ever heard of a  PITA ?  You fit the bill to a T.
  
  

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• BenCotto Posts: 4,718

  July 2023 edited July 2023

  I’ve just put ‘pruning vegetables’ into the search box and the only pertinent hit was this thread itself. Can you direct me to the threads you’re referencing, @wargarden, showing I’m wrong and you’re right?
  
  Wild edges, are you confusing courgettes with curly endives?
  
  

  Rutland, England

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• Lyn Posts: 23,190

  July 2023

  He bothers to post because he gets the most reaction.  Nothing more,  just ignore it,  he may realise no one wants to know what he thinks is best. 

  Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 
  
  

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