cutting back tomatoes

[George]

I've read that "... about a month before frost, cut back the growing tips of [indeterminate?] tomatoes ...", so as not to waste the plants' energy on fruits that won't have time to mature. We have Cherokee Purples, and it's getting close to that time.

But, simply put, I'm not clear on where to cut. The tip of every stem/stalk/vine? What about flowers? What about leaves - are all leaves an asset at the end of the season, or just those on fruit-bearing stems?

Any insight/experience would be appreciated. Thanks.

G-

[Steve Peek]

I just can't imagine cutting back a tomato. The night before frost is predicted I pick everything. The ones that will ripen sit on a shelf where they can be watched. The others go into pickles, relish or just fried. This time of year my plants start dying from the bottom up, so, if you must cut something just cut the blossoms, leave the leaves and growing tips to sustain the plant. Just my $.02 worth, Steve

[Bert Hyman]

I ->think he's talking about a situation where you have some tomatoes which will probably be ripe before the first frost and a number of tomatoes and blossoms that don't have any chance, and the suggestion is to cut off the ones that you know won't make it to force the plant to put its resources into the ones you expect to survive.

This suggestion would appear to apply only to cases where you have no use for tomatoes that aren't completely ripe, although without knowing what [indeterminate?] means, I can't be sure.

[George]

Indeterminate means they just keep growing. As opposed to 'determinate', where the fruits more-or-less mature at the same time.

These URLs describe determinate/indeterminate, and advise re pruning, including the '30 days before frost' thing:

in the forest of our tomato tops, I'm still confused.

G

[Billy]

I'm growing both, and I'm confused. Determinate are suppose to restrict tomato ripening to a short period. It is going to be a bell curve with some ripening early, and some ripening late, but most will ripen about the same time. It would appear that most of my determinate's (Glacier) are ripe now. I have no worry about frost yet, so I'll just let it keep on, keepin' on.