Need help pruning my sun sugar plants

nicu2001 · June 11, 2015

I am in Northern NJ growing in a raised bed. While I have never had success with tomatoes I took a year off and decided to try again this year. Attached are pics of the three plants I have going and I fear I've already messed them up by not doing any pruning. I was planning on putting the cages over them this weekend. Looks like they are growing multiple larger stems from the bottom. Please help!!

MikeInCypress · June 12, 2015

Grow them in cages. Don't prune. you will have as many tomatoes as there are grains of sand at the beach. :-) Seriously why prune? From 2 plants I get at least 50-100 little tomatoes twice a week. Only prune if a branch gets leaf disease.

MikeInCypress

PhilaGardener · June 12, 2015

Nice start! Sun sugar is a very vigorous variety and should fill a big cage. Be careful not to give too much nitrogen (your plants are growing fine and very green). Good luck this year!

jmsieglaff · June 12, 2015

Your plants look great. I would have had cages on them immediately after planting, but you should be able to wrestle them over the plants with a little bending of branches here and there. As far as pruning, I have a similar sentiment as Mike, but I do prefer to prune suckers down toward the bottom the plant and then let the plant sucker from higher up. (Ask 10 people about pruning and you'll get 10 different asnwers.) I do this for air flow as well as having less foliage near the ground where fungal spores will have more opportunity to hit leaves near the ground. Tomatoes are resilient creatures, if you want to snip those suckers toward the bottom of the plant, just take a pair of scissors and cut them--the plant won't mind.

I'd highly recommend mulching your plants to converse moisture and reduce splash back transfer of fungal spores to your plants.

nicu2001 · June 12, 2015

Thanks everyone, makes me feel a little better now. I did wait too long to put the cages on but will get them on tomorrow. I will also prune anything close to the ground. Regarding mulch, I purchased this, would that be ok to use?

http://www.amazon.com/FibreDust-037-...dp/B00DQ4P6YW/

Thanks very much!

jmsieglaff · June 12, 2015

I reckon that mulch would work well. I haven't used it myself. Please report back at the end of the season how you liked the mulch.

peppero · June 12, 2015

Nice pix. I got to eat my first one this morning. YUM.

jon

June 11, 2015	#1
nicu2001 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: NJ Posts: 8	Need help pruning my sun sugar plants I am in Northern NJ growing in a raised bed. While I have never had success with tomatoes I took a year off and decided to try again this year. Attached are pics of the three plants I have going and I fear I've already messed them up by not doing any pruning. I was planning on putting the cages over them this weekend. Looks like they are growing multiple larger stems from the bottom. Please help!! Last edited by nicu2001; June 11, 2015 at 07:40 PM.

June 12, 2015	#2
MikeInCypress Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Cypress, TX Posts: 963	Grow them in cages. Don't prune. you will have as many tomatoes as there are grains of sand at the beach. :-) Seriously why prune? From 2 plants I get at least 50-100 little tomatoes twice a week. Only prune if a branch gets leaf disease. MikeInCypress __________________ "Growing older, not up"

June 12, 2015	#3
PhilaGardener Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Near Philadelphia, PA Posts: 1,940	Nice start! Sun sugar is a very vigorous variety and should fill a big cage. Be careful not to give too much nitrogen (your plants are growing fine and very green). Good luck this year!

June 12, 2015	#4
jmsieglaff Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Southern WI Posts: 2,742	Your plants look great. I would have had cages on them immediately after planting, but you should be able to wrestle them over the plants with a little bending of branches here and there. As far as pruning, I have a similar sentiment as Mike, but I do prefer to prune suckers down toward the bottom the plant and then let the plant sucker from higher up. (Ask 10 people about pruning and you'll get 10 different asnwers.) I do this for air flow as well as having less foliage near the ground where fungal spores will have more opportunity to hit leaves near the ground. Tomatoes are resilient creatures, if you want to snip those suckers toward the bottom of the plant, just take a pair of scissors and cut them--the plant won't mind. I'd highly recommend mulching your plants to converse moisture and reduce splash back transfer of fungal spores to your plants.

June 12, 2015	#7
peppero Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: selmer, tn Posts: 2,944	Nice pix. I got to eat my first one this morning. YUM. jon