Should I crop these down?

[Balr14]

My tomatoes do real well, but some of the plants can go wild and grow 14' - 16' branches. Should I be cutting these back, even though they flower and set fruit?

Here's a better look at the whole area: http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=33252

[AKmark]

No, they look great

[Father'sDaughter]

No need to unless you want to stop them from getting taller AND the plant has plenty of shorter stems that are still flowering and setting fruit. Otherwise they look great so totally up to you.

I've actually started doing some highly selective topping on some of mine that have one or two stems reaching well beyond the tops of my 6' stakes. I make sure there are plenty of flowering/setting lower stems, let them form one final flower truss at the top, and then pinch out the growing tip. I know from past experience that if I let them keep going and set more high fruit (especially the larger varieties), they will eventually topple over onto neighboring plants. A massive growth spurt during a two week trip left me with multiple stems where I originally only wanted two or three, so I figure I can take advantage of the extra stems by topping the taller ones early!

[Balr14]

Originally Posted by AKmark

No, they look great

I looked at your pictures and read where you cropped out of control plants and that really made a difference. I thought it might be a good idea. BTW, those are some monsters you are growing.

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

No need to unless you want to stop them from getting taller AND the plant has plenty of shorter stems that are still flowering and setting fruit. Otherwise they look great so totally up to you.

I've actually started doing some highly selective topping on some of mine that have one or two stems reaching well beyond the tops of my 6' stakes. I make sure there are plenty of flowering/setting lower stems, let them form one final flower truss at the top, and then pinch out the growing tip. I know from past experience that if I let them keep going and set more high fruit (especially the larger varieties), they will eventually topple over onto neighboring plants. A massive growth spurt during a two week trip left me with multiple stems where I originally only wanted two or three, so I figure I can take advantage of the extra stems by topping the taller ones early!

I can relate to them getting too tall. Last year, I had the plants in my back row of containers fall over those in the front row. I had these long vines lying all over each other, I had a layer of vines about 2' thick. I must have lost 500 tomatoes because I couldn't get to them before they went bad; most of the time I couldn't even see them. I don't think that can happen this year as I've added more support.