A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Tomato Plants going nuts!!

hey guys, maybe i planted my tom plants a lil bit too close, but i have them about 1.5' apart and in cages. But the branches and leaves are getting EXTREMELY long and overgrowing eachother.

My question is, do i clip them back any? Or let them hang into eachother and drape all over?

These are Big Beef tomatoes.

I had the same thing last year and As long as your cages hold up, I`d say leave them grow.

Mine were 2 feet apart and they grew over 5 feet tall X 3 feet wide. I had tomato fencing so no problem with holding them up. I had big boys (almost same size) I got like 50+ big boys and a few hundred of Romas. I got over 100lbs of tomatos and i`m not B,S ing you. I picked forty lbs of my plants just before frost hit (I weight
them).

I say let them grow and ENJOY!!!!!!


Oh That was only 8 plants I got all that from.

That is certainly very close together. They should be OK, but if the cages you are speaking of are those cheapie small cages, those Big Beef plants will be twice the size of them in no time. I would get some stakes(at least 6 feet)if I were you and tie the plants to them. Also, prune the suckers going forward to create one central leader. My Big Beef's got to 7 feet last year.

john by the "suckers going forward" what do you mean? 3/4 of my plants have very vertical center stalks. my other plant, sidetracked and now has 2 verticals for some reason. Now that you mention it, i have another plant that has 1 center stalk, and 2 offcenter that are growing straight up on the outskirts of the cage.

If you're going to stake them from here forward, be sure to pinch the suckers. This will keep the plants at the one or two central stalks that you currently have and make it easier to tie the plants to the stakes.

You could also make some REAL cages out of a material called concrete mesh. It comes in sheets or rolls 5 feet tall with 6 inch openings and are the best way to cage tomato plants.

Ciao John,

Are you doing that this year or going with the wooden stakes? You've already done sooo much work with those raised beds and the light setup before that! Those cages look like a lot of work, not to mention the band-aids you'll probably need for your hands.

Also, just curious, since we're at about the same growing rate, whose got fruit-set in your tomato garden? I've only got Borgo Cellano, Sungold F1 (your seeds), Kotlas, Moskvich, Orange Strawberry, Kimberley, Sophie's Choice, Whippersnapper, and today Mountain Princess. flowers are exploding everywhere now, though..finally.

Cheers,
Julianna

Ciao Julianna! Check out the other topic I started.