Side-Shooting Tomatoes...

Press, Volume C, Issue 29691, 8 December 1961, Page 10

Side-Shooting Tomatoes...

Most gardeners will have their tomatoes planted by now. It's a crop that’s well worth while, for the returns far outweigh the costs. Give them a warm sunny spot, adequate water and fertiliser, and you can hardly go wrong. There is one activity that occasionally gives trouble amongst the uninitiated, however, and that is side-shoot-ing. Tomatoes are vigorous growers if left to their own devices, for not only is there a central main-stem, as in most plants, but every leaf is capable of giving rise to a lateral growth from it’s axil. In no. time at all a plant becomes a jungle if not attended to. Lateral growths give rise to more lateral growths, the number of fruit trusses increases considerably but fruit decreases in size and does not ripea so rapidly because of the shade cast by the leaves. Staked tomatoes therefore have the laterals—or side shoots—removed in order to restrict growth to one main stem. As soon as your plant is nine inches or a foot in height it needs regular attention. First, it needs regular tying to the stake. A tomato plant can produce five or six pounds in a good season, but its stem is relatively weak, and regular tying is needed to give support. Don’t fasten the twine too tightly, or you can strangle the plant At the same time as you tie, remove surplus side-shoots. The lateral growth develops in the axil of each leaf, as soon as the leaf gets large enough. As soon as the lateral is large enough to handle easily it should be removed by snapping out sideways. There are two common errors— removing the sideshoot or attempting to do so. when it is too small, so causing damage; and breaking out the growing point by mistake, so that the plant’stops grow-

ing. If you attempt to reinove side-shoots when too small not only do you make an easy job unnecesarily difficult, but you are likely to break out the small flower trusses, too, for these also arise at the junction of main stem and leaf. So wait until the sideshoots are three-quarters to an inch in length before tackling the job. Breaking out the tip is often accidental. It occurs in the best regulated gardens. But it can be much more disastrous if you have side-shooted too tightly behind the growing point. Always leave three or your leaves behind growing point from which the side-shoots have not been removed. Then, if you do have an accident, the sideshoot from one of these can be grown on to become the new leading shoot.