So how do you get the more prolific top tiers? Do you grow 4,5 or more fruiting branches. I’ve got a few this year that I have allowed to topple before training up a pole. This makes spotting those troublesome base side shoots easy but watering is a little tougher as the fruiting branches are so close to the ground, none of these plants have topped out yet they still have growing space. I’m not sure they will fully ripen the top tiers as they were so late going in but we’ll see how they get on.
Could you not have planted them deeper to start with as the horizontal stems are taking up space that something else could use.
The only things I grow in my greenhouses are toms, cuc’s and a few bell peppers, so I never fill the beds. You don’t actually have to waste any space as the horizontals can swap canes if you want them to. If I’d planted them deeper I wouldn’t have seen the armpits constantly growing from each pinched out leaf branch. Doing it this way I can see all the armpits above ground. This plant currently has 7 fruit branches with about 40 cm growing room still available before reaching the angled roof. Potentially I could get 9-10 fruit branches without also attempting to tie them into the angled roof . It might not be for everyone but, I hate having to pinch out the top of the plant just when the plant is really getting going. The fruit branches always seem to get bigger and better the higher you go.
I've never pinched out the top of a plant - too cruel.
What do you mean by "fruit branches"?
I don’t know the correct term for them, you get leaves which have side shoots that you refer to as armpits then you have What I call fruit branches that hold all the tomatoes. Any thing that can hold 25 beefsteak tomatoes deserves to be called a branch in my eyes.
No wonder I wouldn’t call it that a truss holds up a house roof Not a tomato.!!!
Maybe it's a truss you wear?
At this time of year the problem for me is the unlikelihood of the tallest trusses, which are only flowers at this stage, ever having the time to form viable fruit by the end of season. Even if the weather stays good, the lessening hours of daylight hamper the tops ever giving proper ripe tomatoes. So I pinch out most GH tops, a) because of height restriction, b) to encourage lower fruit to ripen and c) the top flowers won't produce fruit in time. Although if the top truss bashing against the roof is made up of fruitlets I usually leave that alone in the hope of miracles.
Ever the optimist, you develop that being a gardener
. Mikey, I think you are blessed with enough of both space and height to experiment. You'll have to let us know how your top trusses get on.
I’m hoping for an Indian summer as they were very late going in.
I’ve got to ask what kind of truss can you wear?