Plant management
 

I see several people asking if you should prune or not? I have had the best results with a single stem,and I have tried no pruning and everything in between. I can manage my plants better, I can grow them closer together, and the result is less disease, much better fruit set, and much more yield in a given space.
As a truss matures its fruit I trim the leaves off, and when the plant gets taller than I can reach, I lower the plant, this keeps production continuous, and fruit uniform in size. In a greenhouse I just use drop strings attached to the trusses above, and tomato clips to attach the plant to the string. For outside you have to build something to attach drop strings from to do this method, and it is worth the time. In short, if you want more fruit, proper pruning, one or two branches, and proper fertilization methods, will help you achieve much better results.
You will also find the quality and taste of your fruit improves with the health of the plant, disease, and nutrient deficiency, results in less than satisfactory results in my experience.
Good luck with your maters, I hope this helps some of you who wonder.
Mark

Hello Mark,

I always enjoy your posts, beautiful plants and tomato's. Just awesome to look at.

Rick

Man Alive, AK, what are you feeding those monsters? Do you get more than 12 Lbs of tomatoes per plant?

How much grow media per plant? Your yield looks tremendous!

Mitch, I am mostly happy, but not 100 percent.
I am running Hydro Gardens fertilizer at a 2.4 EC, 6.2 ph, but I think I need to tweek my MgSO4 and KNO3 just a bit. If I can't get desired results, I am sending off a leaf sample to have the elements measured. Our long days up here always leaves me with MgSO4 deficiency signs on my lower leaves, it drives me nuts, but never seems to affect yield. My worry is chasing MgSO4, it can result in Ca uptake problems as well as K, which is really bad. Right now some vines seem a touch bully, but others are fine, this tells me I may be inducing the Mg deficiency. If it does not go away, I will have to do the leaf sample.
I get up to 50lbs off of some varieties such as Delicious, but that is from mid May- June to the end of October. I probably average 25-35 pounds on most varieties.
I use 6 gallon containers with pro-mix HP. I used to use 15-20, then 10, now 6.

When I am fully cranking, I have about 250 plants in each of the 72 foot greenhouses, 350, or so in the 96 footers. I can prune and sucker all of the plants in a greenhouse in less than a couple of hours, and lower plants in 3-4 hours. I only lower plants every two weeks or so when that starts. Last year I pulled out 20 foot vines, they were coiled everywhere, but the plants were never more than 7-8 feet tall.
Over the last several years I think my best improvement in growing tomatoes has been management of the plants. This has reduced disease, and has improved my fruit production.

Mark, this looks wonderful. Bravo.

I love the pencil erasers (i think that's what they are) protection from the sharp ends of the sticks.

Wowzers! You make me so jealous, but in a good way.Heee.
Mark, please explain what you mean by you lower the plants. Cutting the tops?

I think he is referring to the practice of growing tomatoes to the roof. Once they are so tall, you let more string out of the spools which lowers the tops of the plants down a little.
this eventually results in a bare stem being coiled up on the floor.

[QUOTE=Uncle Doss;561061]I think he is referring to the practice of growing tomatoes to the roof. Once they are so tall, you let more string out of the spools which lowers the tops of the plants down a little.
this eventually results in a bare stem being coiled up on the floor.[/QUOTE]

That makes sense. Thank you. He's probably still asleep, 4 hours earlier there.LOL!

Obviously gorgeous plants Mark, I think we are all a little in awe which is why I have several questions. You may have stated, but how close do you grow them with one stem? Its interesting that one stem is more productive, seems like it would hurt production, but I will have to try it some this year. Do you think in ground plants would benefit the same from 1 stem?. Do you grow any cherry tomatoes or just biguns? Do you grow any determinate varieties or all Indet? You mentioned Delicious as being really productive, could you list your top 5 for production and/or favorites? Do you use new mix yearly? What do you do with the old mix? Ok I will stop, thanks for the expert knowledge Mark!

Really cool. Great to see such heavy production
Here is a short video explaining the rollerhook lower and lean method.
I just passed through Maine a couple times and wanted to stop at Johnny's but not
open to the public yet. No formal tours, just self touring they way i like it....maybe next year....
[YOUTUBE][url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE19mgLC9q0[/url][/YOUTUBE]

AK, thanks for the info. Much appreciated. Your fruit production is beyond amazing. If I can achieve 1/2 the yield you get from your plants, I will be ecstatic and consider my efforts a complete success.

I am completely amazed! I have to confirm (in order to maintain my sanity), are you saying that for a single tomato plant in a 6 gallon container, you are achieving an average yield of 25 to 35 Lbs of tomato fruit?

Also, when you say that you are using Hydro Gardens' fertilizer, do you specifically mean Hydro Gardens' Chem-Gro Tomato Formula 4-18-38 together with their recommended amounts of Calcium Nitrate and Magnesium Sulfate?

[B]AKmark[/B] wrote, "Our long days up here always leaves me with MgSO4 deficiency signs on my lower leaves..."

I always follow your threads Mark, and your plants look great. Do you know why long days, which we also have here, leave you with MgSO4 deficiency. I had the same problem last season, and I'm wondering if it was for the same reason.

Steve

You grow giant leaves just like your giant fruits!

Ginger, as Uncle Doss stated we coil a bare vine once they reach a certain height, this keeps production steady.

Big Van Vader, we grow them about 20 inches to two feet apart.
I think outside plants would benefit too, you can keep them well managed.
I do grow cherries, a few that is, and in the past I just let them grow. This year I will trim away inner insignificant shrubbage. LOL
I grow Mountain Fresh in the greenhouse, this year I pruned away shaded leaves to help keep disease under control, I want some air moving under them. I will post a pic of my MF cradle idea.
Delicious just does well for me and grows rather nice, but large fruit 1-2.5 lbs, some trusses get tomatoes trimmed off, I try to limit them to 5
The ones I love are not my best yielders, but are acceptable
Brandywine, Chapman, Yellow BW (Platfoot) Bear Creek, good yields there, KBX, Crnkovic Yugoslavian, it produces well, but the foliage gives me a wrestling match with Mg deficiency. The pics of the loaded plants are an F4 BW X Bloody Butcher that Sherry Sheisl and I have been working on, as is the orange tomatoes which is Green Giant x Juane Flammee. I will send out some F6's this year.
I do reuse mix in some greenhouses, except the experimental house, which is open 8 months.
I am not an expert, I appreciate the gesture, but I learn new stuff every year too. I went from simple dirt farming that I started 25 years ago, to trying to be a production grower, I get my fanny kicked quite often. However, I do have good friends at the Department of Agriculture.

Baja, I will need to recalculate weight, in the past, last year as a matter of fact, we got 50lbs from two vines. However, I think 25-35lbs is very attainable, I will let you know. Thanks for pointing that out.
Yes, follow HG's formula, I use much more than the bag says though, and need to re-balance with more Mg SO4, before I go nuts.

Steve, the old Horticulture guru up here just called it length of day syndrome, I think the long days results in ultra fast growth, and Mg is central to the Chlorophyll molecule. I don't have an answer, but can say that many varieties do not get so affected, but some like Crnkovic Yugoslavian are very susceptible. If I find out why, I will certainly let you know, I am going to increase MgSo4 even more, they are improving.

Thanks ya-all

Mark, you could make a 1,000 page book of just pictures and I'd look at each page. That greenhouse setup and production you get is just awesome.

Mark, it looks like you are using the same plum colored drippers coming off your 1/2" poly line that i am using.
I have to run my pump for one minute get 6 ounces of solution out of my spray stake.
Last year i ran it for 2 minutes per watering. Each watering occurred every 2 hours during daylight. So by the end of the day, each bag (which I am growing two single stem plants in) got about a gallon of solution.
How much total solution do you pump per bag per day, and how to you break up the frequency?
I really lightly dosed it throughout the day, but wonder if I should be heavier per watering, and reduce the number of waterings.

Here's my 2016 bag growing effort:

[ATTACH]60598[/ATTACH]

Mark

There aren't too many people in this obsession that make me rethink everything. For me that list includes Suze, Raybo, Bill in Alabama and now you. Thank you for sharing pictures that are always gobsmacking and freely sharing your approach in detail!

Between you and Bill I finally got the nudge to prune my in ground plants down to a couple of stems and use a string/tie/clip method. The ability to manage disease and insects alone makes it worth it. I haven't gone this route in my earthtainers because I don't have a means of growing them high enough, which is what happens when you have few stems. Inevitably, disease and insects hit them much harder. My production for those with 2 stems last year in the first year was improved and so far, things are looking good for 2016. We're having an unbelievably cool and wet Spring, so who knows what the results will be in the end.

Appreciate you.

Dewayne Mater

Pure Harvest, I water until just a little bit runs out of the bottom of the container. This is supposed to keep a container from getting salt build up. I try to keep my media consistently moist, so I run mine for about 7-8 minutes, if it's hot a couple times per day. The fruit we have ate this year has been good, some varieties have had good zip.
Your spacing is just about the same as mine, looks like you are on your way. Are you doing two plants per container? I know HG does that plus my Horticulture friend does the same. That worries me, I think my isles would vanish, I want good air flow, he/ they, say I would be okay. LOL

Dewayne, we are getting some cooler weather this week too, I guess my heaters will run more.

Getting ready to pick some Brandywine, a few plants have some beauties.

[B]AKmark[/B] wrote, "...Crnkovic Yugoslavian, it produces well, but the foliage gives me a wrestling match with Mg deficiency..."

I'm growing CY, partly due to your praise, so thanks for the heads-up. By the way, the plant is a lighter shade of green than all my other varieties. Is that normal?

Steve

Steve, mine were the same, so maybe plan on upper the Mg if you see the deficiency.

If you want Mg deficiency try Aunt Gertie's Gold. It's called gold probably because of the colour of the leaves. Very good tasting, but I'm not regrowing it in my containers. It sat in the same container with a Druzba that barely had any, so I know it wasn't my fault.
I'd say Crnkovic is not that bad with Mg, but it is one of the worse indeed. I said it before, but I firmly believe it belongs in a different category of production than all OP tomaotes.

[QUOTE=AKmark;561272]Pure Harvest, I water until just a little bit runs out of the bottom of the container. This is supposed to keep a container from getting salt build up. I try to keep my media consistently moist, so I run mine for about 7-8 minutes, if it's hot a couple times per day. The fruit we have ate this year has been good, some varieties have had good zip.
Your spacing is just about the same as mine, looks like you are on your way. Are you doing two plants per container? I know HG does that plus my Horticulture friend does the same. That worries me, I think my isles would vanish, I want good air flow, he/ they, say I would be okay. LOL

Dewayne, we are getting some cooler weather this week too, I guess my heaters will run more.

Getting ready to pick some Brandywine, a few plants have some beauties.[/QUOTE]

Mark I am doing two plants per bag, single stem on each of course.

I am trying to remember why I ran the system multiple times throughout the day last year. I must have read that in the HG tomato manual?

It kept the bag moist all the time, but I don't know that it ever allowed the 10% flush they recommend.

HG says a mature plant needs 40-50 ounces per day, so I double that since I have 2 plants per bag. I then just made sure my system ran enough times throughout the day to deliver that.
We had a rainy season last year, so that complicated things a bit when the extra moisture went into the bags. Glad to have the tunnel to prevent that this year.
I think this year I am going to run the system longer in the morning and cut down on the number of times it runs throughout the day.

Thanks for the info Mark, much appreciated.

[QUOTE]I am trying to remember why I ran the system multiple times throughout the day last year. I must have read that in the HG tomato manual?[/QUOTE]

I read that multiple short waterings throughout the day is best somewhere as well, but not sure where.

Pure Harvest, I am not sure how vast HG experience is with heirlooms either, they push the Dutch varieties more than any, and they are tailored, nice tidy plants. They also tend to grow just a few varieties in a greenhouse. Mike paused when I told him I had 40-50 varieties in any given greenhouse. LOL

That's funny.
I've talked with mike before. He was willing to listen to a novice and help explain some ideas to me.
Yeah I try not to turn anyone's system into a bible, but give it a shot from the outset and then adapt from there.
Never liked or understood the greenhouse hybrid mentality.
I will say I bought and grew Big Dena from johnnys last year. I wanted to just try a greenhouse hybrid to see for myself. I knew it would suck.
HOWEVER, I liked its flavor better than big beef, red brandywine, big brandy, brandy boy, or jersey boy. Basically it was MY best tasting red slicer last year. uniform as all get out too.
Come to think of it, why am not growing any this year? I still have seeds and should germ a couple...

Pruning management
 

Here's how I manage plants that are too tall to sucker in a timely manner. Bust off the lower leaves, and drop the plants, while gently coiling the vines. The exposed fruit will ripen faster, if you get sun scald just leave a few extra leaves.
You can see the messy tops, the cleaned up plants, then plants after they are lowered.

Fruit
 

The fruit on the bottoms of the plants is ripening very fast after a good pruning, which exposed it to more sunlight.

Here's a pic of KBX, Delicious, and a few pics of our own crosses.

I am running about a 2.4 ec, and ph is 6.2. I upped the MgSO4 and I think I have found the magic number, even Crnkovic Yugolslavian has green coming back into the deficient leaves. I am almost at double the recommended amount. I do blame that on 18 hours of daylight, MHO.
Anyway, planted another 250 or so, have Russian varieties outside, getting there. LOL

Thank you for posting Mark. Those are some gorgeous looking tomatoes and plants. Just awesome, I could look at your picture's all day long.

Rick

Beautiful work, I always like the Delicious and yours are perfect, like bunches of red apples.