Last year my tomatoes were a disappointment so early this spring I added some good organic material and low analysis fertilizer to the bed. They are now growing vigorously and are filled with fruit. The first are ripening and I had a tomato sandwich for breakfast. Now to my question. The plants are growing in cages and are 4-7 feet tall. They continue to send out lots of new growth. Would it be good to trim some of this new growth back or should I just let the plants continue to get bigger. Does the new growth help to feed the smaller developing tomatoes? Opinions please. What do you do?

I ususally let them grow until it's clear that any new tomatoes will not be able to mature before the first frost, then I pinch them off so that all the energy goes to developing the last remaining tomatoes. I'm not sure if that's a good thing to do, but it seems to work for me.

Thanks Tom....that is what I am thinking.

Last year I started pinching off new growth at the end of July. Almost every tomato on the vine ripened before the fall frosts hit. I plan on doing it again this year.

In previous years I had just let them go and always had tons of green tomatoes when the first hard frosts hit. Some people like those little green tomatoes for pickling, but I am not interested.

For those of us with short seasons, I think it makes sense to "nip them in the bud"

Thanks Geof........

Love your Avitar Geof! Welcome to ATP. Nice to see someone else from the good old Cheese State.

Thanks Tom. Those little frogs love my dahlias, and help keep the insect damage to a minimum. How they get up there 5-6 ft. off the ground is my question.

mandolls said:Thanks Tom. Those little frogs love my dahlias, and help keep the insect damage to a minimum. How they get up there 5-6 ft. off the ground is my question.

They are tree frogs. They have little suction cups on their toes like an octopus. It lets them climb when the dew is on the plants.

Somewhere I have a picture of a tree frog clinging to one of my irises, but I can't seem to locate it, think it's on one of the old floppies. Wish I could find it.

LOL -- I love the tree frogs! My avatar is a very tiny tree frog in a daylily flower...

OH! Now I see him!

Hi, guy!!


(all five of us waving)

Thats a hoot that 3 of us are using avatars of flowers with tree frogs. I hadn't spotted the one in yours Sandy, and Rick's is crazy, I have never seen them hang around in groups.

Back to the original subject:

I was checking out my tomatoes yesterday - I have ten plants and right now they have between 12 and 20 fruits formed and each have another 25-45 blossoms. If all of those develop fruit, I should get 30-40 tomatoes per plant even if I start tipping the new growth next week and don't let anymore develop . 300-400 tomatoes is more than enough for me! I still have quite a few frozen from last year that I need to turn into sauce soon. But I sure am looking forward to eating fresh ones. There are a few that may be close.

Mine are starting to really put on the fruit now too. I've had a few ripe ones but when they all start to ripen I'll be canning tomatoes like mad. I have 27 plants. I raised 15 from seed. 5 are Sausage tomatoes, and 10 are San Marzano Redorta. Well I remembered the last time I did the San Marzano's and they didn't get ripe in time before freezing, so I went and bought 5 more, 3 Roma, and 1 Celebrety, and one Wisconsin (some number I forgot). That made 20. Then a friend of mine drops off 7 more plants, 4 Roma's, 2 Beefsteak and one yellow pear, so Now I have 27 plants. This year the San Marzano's have started putting fruit on much earlier, the last time I had them it was the terrible hot summer, and they didn't set fruit until later. I'm going to have lots of them to can unless we get an early frost. I ususally like to can a lot of them every other year. I do make sauce every year though, as I always seem to run out. If I have extras (IF??? ) I'll take them to the food pantry.

Frogs galore. Three avatars. Such cuteness.