A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Grape Tomatoes

I'm having trouble with my grape tomatoes vining all over the place. How should I prune them or tie them off?

Hi and welcome. Are they just sprawling on the ground now? You could stake them up with something and tie them to the stake.

I have mine pruned to 4 stems and tied to a stake. Last year I pruned all my tomatoes to 2 stems and staked (with rebar), but 2 stems isn't enough for my orange sungold and red grape tomatoes, so this year I pruned to 4 stems. They still looked a bit sparse, so I'm also allowing a few of the suckers to grow. I have them spaced only 2 feet apart, so I don't think it's wise to let all the suckers grow.

The approach that works for me is a combination of light suckering, staking and caging. I drive in one of those long green plastic coated poles from home depot and then place a big round tomato cage around it. Next I tie the cage off to the pole, then plant the tomato smack-dab in the center.

As the plant grows, remove the first few suckers until the plant is about half way up the cage. I don't remove any more suckers from then on as they tend to bear fruit. As the plant grows out of the cage, tie off the various branches to the pole with twine.

Those Juliets- grow like mad too! Mine are growing like crazy, flowering heavy! Cant wait for them to fully ripen

I've found the Juliets are best if cooked. Just a short stint in the toaster oven brings out lots of tomato flavor. In a omelot or frittata they are remarkable, eaten plain and fresh they are somewhat unremarkable.

Im gonna try some salsa with mine, and Pane` Pomodoro which is an Italian Bruschetta we grew up eating- although the cherry tomatoes with more soft guts & seeds work better for that. My sis in law has made good Marinara with juliets- they are pretty versitle, and seem to be growing very well.

Yes, they seem to be more like a mini-plum tomato and less like a grape tomato.