Hit Man

[slugworth]

I performed a "hit" on some tomato plants today that were too close together.
Covid rules apply to my plants also.
Initially I planted them close together due to their sheer numbers.
Now I weeded out some of the puny ones to give them more space and
to free up some mulch for other plants.
I still have plants in containers I want to get into the ground.

[slugworth]

snip snip here,snip snip there on container plants that were planted in clumps.
Survival of the fittest.
Another method is withholding water on clumps in containers.

[JRinPA]

You must stop...soon you will be twisting off their suckers, trying to make them tell you what they know. They don't know anything!

I thinned a bunch this morning as well. Only the second time this year with green thumbs. Last week when I took the agribon off for good I suckered them almost completely to one stem. I got the support system on this week. This morning I checked them the Big Beefs started their first flower trusses. I am going two stems on the Big Beefs, so I went through and picked all new suckers except the one under the flower truss. I never tried this way before, but seems like I read it, and it is the obvious looking play because of the way the stems almost go co-dominant right under the first flower truss. At least on Big Beef, they appear to.

On my little sauce tomatos I may do the same pruning until the first flowers, then let them run. I pruned to 4 stems last year and I think they should just be let go like cherry tomatos. They don't seem to like the intense sun. They were folding their leaves heavily last week when I suckered them down to one or two stems.

[slugworth]

Darn it,I forgot to keep some cuttings for grafting experiments on to potato.
Plenty more where they came from.