Re: Tomato Plant

[Frankhartx]

rom: [e-mail] (Nanceemo)

>My tomato plant is just ridiculous, over 5' tall and although staked, hanging >over the side of a raised bed. It's not producing many tomatoes, and those >small. It's an Early Girl, I think. Can it be pruned back so the foliage >isn't sucking up all the energy? My first year trying to grow anything, >sorry >but I admit I'm not tomato literate. : ) > >Nancy > >Possible causes: excess nitrogen fertilizer causing green groeth at the

expense of fruit-avoid addinmg any nitrogen fertilizer---exces heat over 90 degrees can can affect fruit set adversly--a combination of both these condirions

> > >

[Phisherman]

Give it time. Most tomato plants look like something between a bush and a vine, depending on staking, suckering, water, variety, etc. It needs foliage to make food for the plant, and it needs plenty of sunshine to produce fruit. Give it a light feeding of fertilizer every 3 weeks.

[Nanceemo]

expense of fruit-avoid addinmg any nitrogen fertilizer---exces heat over 90 degrees can can affect fruit set adversly--a combination of both these condirions>>>>

aahhhh ... I have only used Osmocote and that only twice. I thought the time release thing would take care of frequent fertilizing and probably more intelligently than I would. But it's been 90 - 100+ all summer, so I guess it's just the wrong combination, huh? At least, the tomatoes I am getting are delicious. : )

[Chris Owens]

Depending on where you live, this was not a great year for tomatoes. At this point, unless you live in the deep south, pruning back isn't going to be very productive; the plant will die with the first frost.

Chris Owens