I have done the cutting back thing before and sometimes those late sprouting stems that come up low on the plant will develop into a good sturdy stem that will sometimes put on some tomatoes late in the season. The biggest problem I have found with those stems is how weak the juncture is where they come out of the main stem. They will frequently shear off or break off and they must be supported well most of the time to prevent this.
I fought spider mites for nearly two solid months on my tomato plants and seem to have mostly won that fight but it left me with lots of long bare stems with some greenery on top with few if any new fruits due to the combination of extreme heat and the destruction of the blooms by spider mites. I am sure that if I want to continue to pamper the plants and fertilize and keep them sprayed that they will have a rebirth of fruits that can be picked in the fall. I have decided to leave one or two of my beds to do this but the rest are going to be removed so I can get an early start cleaning up and preparing beds for fall and winter crops. The bed that I am going to surely allow to continue is the one planted the last day of May and some of the plants have both new and almost ripe tomatoes still on them and they also have more and healthier vegetation than the plants in the older beds. Hopefully they will give us a few tomatoes for eating over the next few months until cold or TYLCV gets them.
Bill
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