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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: Homestead <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Homestead] Tomatoes
  • Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:24:41 -0500

In researching appropriate soil depth for vegetable roots, I came across this most informative site at the Soil and Health Library, which is worth much attention. Here is the chapter on tomatoes:

http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010137veg.roots/010137ch26.html

Something about which I was apparently mistaken is the matter of pruning. Here is the graph on that subject:

Pruning.--Pruning the vines, i.e., pinching out all or nearly all of the lateral branches as soon as they appear and thus confining the growth to one or a few stems and training these remaining stems is a practice used by some growers especially in the South. 145 It has been suggested that any benefit thus derived may be due to a lessening of foliage diseases, which are more severe in the South, since trained plants are thus benefitted by better exposure to wind and sun. 157 In the North it has been largely discontinued since it has been found unprofitable. In general the yield decreases in proportion to the severity of pruning. 176, 120 For example, at Urbana, Ill., plants pruned to a single stem gave a yield of 6.5 pounds of marketable fruit; those pruned to 2 stems yielded 10.5 pounds; those with three stems 12.1 pounds; but plants not pruned gave a yield of 19.6 pounds. 95 Indeed, hundreds of pruning experiments have been done without reference to the effect upon the root system. There is a close correlation between root and shoot development and the maintenance of a proper balance between them is of very great importance. If either is too limited or too great in extent, the other will not thrive. Unpublished studies at Cornell University show that the root system of a pruned tomato plant is reduced in about the same proportion as the top. "Hence it seems probable that pruned plants suffer more from drought than unpruned plants because the former cannot get as much of the available moisture as the latter." 157 This is further indicated by the fact that blossom-end rot is nearly always more severe on trained and pruned than on unpruned plants.
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On Jun 27, 2008, at 9:24 PM, Gene GeRue wrote:/\...

http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010137veg.roots/010137ch26.html
...


Pruning.--Pruning the vines, i.e., pinching out all or nearly all
of the lateral branches as soon as they appear ... In general the yield decreases in proportion to the
severity of pruning.

My parents, who learned their garden ways in the 1930's and 40's, pinched out all the "suckers" that sprouted between any other two branches of the stem.

Maybe it was a strongly held bad idea.

Roy

Roy Morgan
k1lky AT earthlink.net
Lovettsville, VA 20180







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