Tomato trusses

by Ploshkin 28th June 2019, 1:17 pm

I ponder this every year but have never got around to asking anyone else what they do.
Tomato trusses always end up with a number of squiddly little fruits that are never going to come to much. I'm never sure whether to take them off or leave them. The usually get left.
Would the decent sized ones benefit from them being removed?

I often wonder if the catalogue pictures have been photoshopped as they are always full of even sized fruits.

by Chilli-head 28th June 2019, 2:05 pm

I will admit I don't know, but I would assume that the small runt tomatoes don't grow big enough to divert any energy from the main fruits to speak of.

My dad gets bigger and more uniform fruits on his tomatoes than I do, I think being retired he waters and feeds them more than I do. I have this nagging doubt that his peat based compost ans non-organic fertilisers do seem to produce good results too. Not that I will be going that way.

I'm sure that the photos in the seed catalogues are the best truss from a large greenhouse full of fruit, and not necessarily in this country either. And more photo tweaking than the cover of Cosmo !

I have ripe Sungold tomatoes at the moment, with the weather forecast I think maybe some of the larger fruits will be ready soon

by Ploshkin 28th June 2019, 2:14 pm

My tomatoes seem to be very lacklustre this year but are picking up now and there's quite a bit of fruit coming but nowhere near ripe yet. Most seemed to have noticeable magnesium deficiency early on but are now ok apart from one (a black cherry). One thing I find odd that I have noticed previously is that the Italian tomatoes seem more susceptible to leaf curl when the temps in the polytunnel are high which makes the plants look really manky. I would have thought that it would be the opposite.

by Chilli-head 28th June 2019, 3:47 pm

I thought leaf curl was supposed to be due to the temperature swings between day and night - anyone know if I'm remembering OK ? Temperatures certainly have been a bit random of late.

by Ploshkin 28th June 2019, 4:01 pm

Yes, that's right CH. We haven't had many warm nights but the daytime temperature in the polytunnel gets to 40°c very easily. At night it matches the outside temperature. During last year's hot spell it regularly reached 50°c during the day.

by freebird 29th June 2019, 10:31 am

I think I would experiment, Ploshkin. Take little fruits off one plant and leave them on another, and see if there's any noticeable difference.

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Tomato trusses

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