If you've picked up some tomatoes at our Saturday Market stand, you know that there's nothing that compares to a fresh tomato in peak season! We grow our tomatoes trellised in our greenhouse. We only grow indeterminate varieties, which mean they never stop growing (until it gets cold, that is)! So, in order to control growth and keep our greenhouse from being overrun, we have to prune them regularly. Soon after we first plant them, we tie baling twine from the base of each plant to the rafters. Then, we select two "leaders" or growing tips from each plant. Each leader gets twined up a string and any other growing tips that emerge on the plants get pruned. Growing tips usually pop up in the "armpit" of the plant, between a leafy branch and the main stem. Our tomato plants really got away from us over the last two weeks and today we had to aggressively prune them and re-train them to grow horizontally at the top of their strings! We also trellis and prune our cucumber vines in a similar way. |