TOMATOES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 267, 10 November 1934, Page 6 (Supplement)

TOMATOES.

If you want the very largest, finest and cleanest tomatoes for home use or for Show, tie e.vcry plant up to .a stake, pinch off all suckers as fast as they form, and thin the fruits to half a dozen or so to each plant. The stakes should be about four feet high and should be set firmly into the ground. As soon as the tomato plants are tall enough, begin tying them up, using strips of cloth rather than twine. Suckers form at each branch of the plant. Cut or pinch these oil cleanly, and prune the plant back to a single main stalk, with not more than three main branches. Also pinch oft' the tops of the plants when they reach a height of three and a half feet. Pinch off most of the blossoms, leaving only the clusters that come on the strongest branches, and not more than six to ten to each plant. The result will be tomatoes of a size, solidity and flavour such as you never had before. Kept well above the ground, the fruits will not rot, as tomatoes so often do when allowed to ripen on the ground. Furthermore, fully twice as many plants may be grown on a given space when the plants are staked and pruned, as is possible when they are permitted to grow as they please, all over the ground-