My One Tip for BIG Tomato Harvests
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- čas přidán 3. 05. 2024
- The 3 phases of growing tomatoes, and why I am extending the 'neglection' phase this year! Get Your Copy of my latest book, The Self-Sufficiency Garden: geni.us/SelfSufficiencyGarden
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The best harvests of tomatoes I ever had occurred during a time in my life when my career and family were more demanding. Subsequent years of pampering did nothing to improve harvests. This taught me a valuable lesson about setting out healthy seedlings in healthy soil, and letting nature do the nurturing! Love your experimental ways Huw!
Very interesting indeed! Thank you so much for sharing that! ☺️
I always tell people "I don't grow plants. I care for the soil. God/ Nature grows the plants."
I usually get one or 2 volunteer heirloom tomatoes plants in my garden every year, and they generally produce better than nursery stock.
Cherry tomatoes here in northern Indiana will grow by just leaving some on the vine in the fall. I just clip the vine with a few left on and let it lay on the tomato bed over winter. Leaf lettuce and kale the same thing. I normally grow black seeded simpson. It will self seed and spread everywhere. I'm not all unhappy with that. Kale I throw a bit of straw mixed with leaves around the base and it stays good until heavy freezing.
@@taitsmith8521I once grew a volunteer squash and completely neglected it, I was amazed at the harvest. The squash I planted intentionally only grew one tiny squash and died off.
Timing is EVERYTHING... even if you follow the process to a T...
This guy is really good for inspiring me to just quit life and be a farmer.
Hahahaha that is the only propaganda campaign I am interested in supporting!
I know exactly what you mean. 🙂
@@HuwRichards My Man
Farming isn't quitting life. It's the best way of life.
Been there, doing that.
Huw, you are anything but a "lazy gardener." You are a creative and industrious gardener. You have a scientific mind and live on the cutting edge of new ideas. It is why we enjoy watching your videos! You free us from getting bogged down in the tedious tasks and thrust us into new discoveries in our garden. Thank you!
Well I must thank you for your very kind words☺️ I'm so pleased you enjoy the videos and my approach🌿
"lazy" gardening isnt lazy, it is applying your labor and energy in productive bursts, rather than dedicating a smaller amount of labor and energy over a much longer time period. The rest is marketing.
@@defective6811 I wouldn't say the rest is marketing, but rather bettering and building. I've been watching him garden since he was a kid and was amazed at where he took his dad's garden. He's a hard worker and really does believe in being self-sufficient. That has been consistent over the years.
@@judifarrington9461 I meant with "lazy gardening" on that marketing comment. As you note, there is nothing lazy about it, but it attracts people who are looking to refine their energy inputs. theres a ton more to it than that, but yeah
I don't think you understand, what a gardner means, when he says, he is a "lazy" gardner.
Finally! Someone publicly says you don't have to remove suckeres. I've known this for 60 years
I think it depends on how you're growing them. If in a large cage by all means let the mater grow wild. But, I grow a central stem up a string and if I allow the suckers to grow I'll have a sprawling mess with branches breaking off.
Suckers and side branches create a mess, and plants shade each other, increasing fungal/mold growth.
@@SK-lt1so we don't get rain in summer where I live. Mold and fungi aren't always an issue
I pull mine and put em in the dirt for a later harvest, but i do let some grow on the plant, when i pull my potatoes ill plant some suckers along with some seeds that way I can keep the food coming in
There are many people stating, that you don't have to remove sucker or prune anything in your garden. But a lot of us, Huw included, we live in moist areas, where fungi, blight and slugs is a problem. Taking this out of context and say "Huw says you don't have to prune, is just wrong, he said, under the circumstance he is in, growing in a polytunnel in UK, he dosn't have to prune. You don't HAVE to do anything in your garden, but being able to put an argument behind it and show results on the basis of it, is what makes Huw so repected as a gardner.
I've never pruned suckers, no one I ever knew pruned suckers. I also had a "happy little accident" years ago. I was just about to cage and stake all my tomatoes the next day and deer got to them all that night! I was sooo upset I didn't go back out to tear them out for a couple or few weeks and just ignored them. I went out to "clear them out" and they were going like gangbusters! Tomatoes, being a vine, they had decided to live and vined allllll over the plot and intetmingled. They were FULL of blooms and tomatoes! BEST CROP EVER!! I just let them sprawl and they grew forever. Nature at it's best. Now, when I have the space, I plant them "sideways", mound them up and let them sprawl and grow and the production is insane. At one point I was getting so many tomatoes every other day I couldn't keep up with them and was giving them away! It was awesome! :) I always mulch heavily with grass clippings and deep water when needed. Last year I had some cherry tomatoes in containers and I let some of the mature ones fall and buried them and now I have tubs full of tomatoes that came up on their own and overwintered just fine. Now, there were hybrids I think so who knows what I'll get but this year I am doing that with some of the heirlooms. One container had over 30+ plants in it! Good luck with your experiments! :)
I don’t bother supporting my tomatoes, either. I do put a generous amount of dry straw under them so the fruits aren’t in contact with the soil.
From what I’ve read, the idea that tomatoes even have suckers is a myth. The definition of a sucker is an offshoot of a plant that does not produce flowers or fruit. So-called “suckers” on tomatoes DO produce, therefore they are not suckers.
Nah in the UK, tomatoes near the ground get eaten by slugs
Deer did this to me last year. 😂 great lesson
I've heard that if you put more than 1/4 inch of grass clippings as mulch it will start rotting spreading disease and also withholding air from the soil. What are your thoughts about that point of view?
I always buy at tomato plant at the store with the most suckers. I take the suckers off and propagate them into new plants. They wilt and are slow to start, but if you keep watering them, they grow roots and survive just fine with plenty of tomatoes.
I don't grow anything that can't at least handle some 'neglect', because I always have moments where I just can't take care of everything to the highest degree. Very thankful tomatoes are plants that thrive on a little neglect, because few things taste better than homegrown tomatoes ☺️
Agreed. I find that as long as you give your plants a reasonable competitive advantage at the start, they tend to do fairly well even through periods of neglect.
Last year my family and I spent hours upon hours tending the 20 or so tomato plants in my poly tunnel. It was so time consuming watering and pruning that this year they have said “No more tomatoes!”. We de-suckered and pruned them to the point they looked like grape vines. The tomato harvest was at best sub-par. Most of the tomatoes split due to an inconsistent temperature/moisture levels in the tunnel and (after watching this video) inconsistent soil moisture. It was meagre.
I went to the Isle of Wight to visit family. They had made a small metre squared patch for their tomatoes some years before and long neglected it. They had done no weeding, no watering, no pruning. NOTHING. We harvested bucket loads of tomatoes from just the few plants growing compared to a few bowl fulls from my 20 or so plants.
This year I have let the volunteer tomatoes come forth and planted out some seedlings more prematurely than even this video. I plan to do almost nothing to the plants. Let’s see what nature’s verdict is. 🍅
👍
Interesting. Good luck!
I was growing indeterminate tomatoes in my balcony "garden" last year. I left 3 suckers on a tomato plant out of curiosity. All 3 suckers gave me almost AS MANY tomatoes as the main stem. No difference in fruit size. I'm from Norway, btw with a very short growing season😊❤
The most productive, and best tasting tomato we had last year was a volunteer that came up i the compost bin. I let it grow and go everywhere, and it continually produced tomatoes until the fall frost killed it. Not a moments work went into that tomato, but it rewarded us with more tomatoes than any of the pampered plants.
Yep. I was away for 7 weeks and my disabled partner couldn't get out to water....so a volunteer cherry tomato had planted itself and when I came back, it had spread 2mx1.5m over my growing space 😅 so many cherry toms....created ground cover for the sweetcorn that I'd direct sown, and had climbed them in places....so I wasn't bothered by the courgettes and marrows failing as they took it's place in abundance.
And my brasiccas are in their 3rd year and are constantly providing leaves to pick, flowers for salad and the pollinators and seeds for replenishing if needed.x
Yes. My paternal grandmother used to say (purple sprouting in particular) brassicas were really trees. Used to tuck them out of the way in flower borders etc to harvest regrowth over a number of years.
Huw, I totally believe in your hunch. I had been waiting four years for hip replacement surgery and the last three years were the first time I’d never had a garden because it was too painful to do it. The last year I was so determined that I dragged myself around one bed, prepping it for the summer and at least planting store bought plants including six tomato plants. It made me so sore, I was unable to tend to them apart from an occasional deep soak. Two months later I had my surgery and watched my tomatoes grow untamed as I convalesced. Once I was able, I went with my secateurs and was amazed to find it laden with the most delicious enormous fruit. That was five months ago and I’ve only just picked the last of it here in a cool mountain New Zealand climate. After having it drummed into me by my father that de-lateraling was the only way to go. But I remember now, my father complaining about tomatoes never growing well for him. I’ve pre-purchased your book and looking forward to it coming out next month.
I hope you are well, and ready to go! Just my 3rd year, but, I cannot imagine a year without gardening anymore. Cheers!
My region has an issue with septoria leaf spot, a fungal disease that tends to spread from soil splashing onto the leaves of tomato plants. Once it's on the lower leaves, it splashes up to higher leaves, and eventually kills the plant. It's nearly impossible to eradicate, but I have learned over time that pruning the lower leaves off all of my plants once they're established will help slow the spread and give the plants a fighting chance.
Good advice
Huw you would enjoy the article by the late Larry Hodgson "The Truth About Tomato Suckers" He was a Canadian Master Gardener who explained the benefits of leaving these stems to produce. I was so happy to see you doing the same!
Thanks so much for the heads up on the article I'll definitely give it a read!!
Wow. Once again my time is never wasted watching and learning from your videos. My passion for growing veggies started when I was 68, and I’m hoping to be able to keep learning and benefitting from reaping what we sow. You’re not a lazy gardener at all, you are curious, generous, and skilled as a result of your extensive research and learning as you grow! Thank you so very much for helping me in my quest to stay healthy!
Wow Kelly that's so lovely of you!! Thank you so much☺️
Totally agree. Have a bit of a neglectful relationship with your tomatoes and they’ll do what you want in the end. Not the best life lesson though. 😂
being a senior gardener, I totally negleted my outdoor bush tomatoes and one of 2 small polytunnels filled with Indet. varities and in our harsh miserable climate .eastern edge of newfoundland its been best years ever...the one poly closest to my house where I pamper them have way less fruit. those Suckers produce a pile of flowers and fruit well into end of Nov. protecting the fruit from the cold night as well. sometimes we over do caring following techniques used in commercial farms. I have been a happy lazy gardener fo many years but put most effort into creating good organic soil with compost.., love your channel and books bought for gifts for my younger gardener friends.
I spent a few years trying to prune out suckers, but have found that the bulk of my crop of really nice tomatoes come from leaving the suckers, and pruning the ends of them when they begin to crowd its neighbors. I experimented a few years ago with a side by side comparison, and I got a lot more produce from the ones I let branch. Once the plant gets to its boundaries, then I prune off the ends, and the entire branch back fills profusely with bunches of tomatoes, where the heavily pruned plant right next to it only grows a few bunches of produce. I also dont have to spend so much time hunting down all those suckers, I just clip off the ones that out grow their allotted space, much like I do with my landscape shrubbery and trees. Every plant gets its allotted space, and when it hits its boundaries, its gets pruned
So when the vine reaches its boundary, say getting too close to an adjacent plant, you just prune the end from the offending stem?
Hi! Here in Romania we have a big tradition in tomatto growing with local types etc. I have experimented with some suckers. I let them grow only 3 or 5 if they sprung downwards near the ground. It depends on the tomatoes type now also. Then you need a few sticks to support the big shoots/ suckers and provide more nutrients to the soil. Also the space should be generous. Have you tried a tomatto tree? It grows here or in Italy from what I know. It can grow like a vine. I haven t grown it. It a difficult. So try to find which tupe of tomattoes cand spring around 4 shoots from the base. Some Cherry types cand do this for instance.
I suspect the one leader method of tomato growing is carry over from commercial growers. Just like row spacings on the back of seed packs are based on commercial growing where the crop needs to be spaced far enough apart for the wheels of the sprayers, tractors, combine-harvesters, etc. to move through the field. Obviously home gardeners and small scale farmers know we can space our rows considerably closer together. I think you'll find your tomatoes do supremely well if you let several of the side shoots mature and set fruit.
I somehow doubt that commercial seed packets recommend plant spacing for tractors to pass through
@@shaolinfist8323 It sure is. Look it up. Row spacing used to be even wider when we used horses and oxen to cultivate our fields. Then they got narrower when we switched to mechanized farming because a tractor, sprayer, combine-harvester needed less room for it's tires. Most major seed houses assume farm-style production because the bulk of their business comes from commercial farmers, not backyard gardeners or small-scale farmers.
Well we have have to agree to disagree on that one unless you have some verifiable proof to backup your claim I don't believe it at all. Farmers don't buy seeds in small packages like small scale gardeners they buy them in bulk
This all makes a lot of sense! I like the idea of more leaves in the early life of the tomatoes to put more energy into growing roots!
Thank you!
I never prune my indeterminate plants. Lots of big tomatoes on only one plant. No worry of getting sunscald. Never prune cucumbers either
Our climates couldn't be more different - central Texas - but the "neglect" theory certainly works here. You need those roots to go way down because the top of the soil gets too hot too soon. (A thick layer of mulch later keeps the soil moisture a little more consistent between waterings.) I always let determinates grow several branches, but it is critical to eventually prune for airflow and to remove lower or diseased leaves. One advantage to letting those suckers go at least for a little while is that propagation is so easy. When they are six or so inches long, put some in water, and in a few days you can put them in soil and you've got new plants that will catch up in no time.
I always fail to grow those suckers and excess growth as new plants, and I kick myself every year! It makes SO MUCH SENSE especially because I can grow tomatoes very successfully where I am right up until a killing frost.
I think this is a great experiment! It always seemed strange to me how aggressively some people prune their tomatoes. I hope you get fantastic yields this year!
I only started gardening last year so have lots to learn but I planted tomatoes back then and removed suckers. The plants produced early on but not much fruit. Then I let the suckers grow and the plant produced more volume late in season. However that crop was less healthy. Maybe I needed more fertilizer. I’m going to experiment with both methods again this year using your watering strategy.
Now in year 2, I was able to get my act somewhat together and started my seeds on time (indoors under lights). They’re already sprouting, so I’m super excited. Just hope I don’t have to do more traveling so I can stay close to my babies and be caressed by my garden’s glory!
Gardening has absolutely changed my life and given me a new sense of purpose. You’ve been a wonderful guide in that journey, so thank you!
I enjoyed your comment. It's my 3rd year, and I cannot imagine a year without gardening. I occasionally notice I have a silly smile on my face, even while doing the most mundane garden task. Cheers!
❤your analogy with solar panels…makes perfect sense 👏👏👏👏👏
I like this approach very much 😊 thank you for your help and support on my gardening journey 😊 great job 👏
Love your videos, so full if hope joy and positivity, keep watching❤🌱🙂
This philosophy and practice for making tomato plants stronger and more productive is awesome. It made me think of the way that parents would raise their children in the 1970's. Neglect them a bit and they get strong! That's why we are a strong and productive generation!
Wonderful video Huw thank you. Love your approach and its timely as i will hopefully plant out my tomatoes this week 😀
Thank you for bringing common sense to gardening!😊
Very interesting, this is the 1st time we have a polytunnel in the uk on our allotment ,I'm going to try this thanks
It’s lovely to see your thoughts on a blog and to question what we have all been advised. This is where we see the real you. I am also testing the neglect stage as I did this last year and had good results. Amazing video as usual 🎉🎉
I think the theory makes sense. I agree that there should be a cut-off (literally) for the neglect period, where increased airflow is necessary to prevent disease. That depends a lot on the weather and disease pressure, so I think one has to be flexible and observant. I'm also curious how you'll deal with all the sideshoots, won't there be a lot more stems to trellis?
To me, it's about finding the balance between workload and plant health. Best possible plant health for the least amount of work is my ideal.
Thank you for your knowledge, you have taught me the correct way to plant plants, everything is correct, I hope it works
give him abundant sustenance and hopefully he will live long. Greetings from Indonesia. Keep up your enthusiasm for planting, brother
❤❤❤🤗🤗👍✊
I love this idea - and it makes sense. I've done a non-intentional version of this experiment in the past - just got busy with other things and let the tomatoes be for a bit....until they were setting fruit and getting overcrowded with leaves. Pruned at that point, with very good results
I had never heard of pruning tomato plants until last year, well into our gardening season (we have a short growing season here, similar to yours, but less rain.). I have 3 favorite gardening channels that happen to be from the UK, that’s where I learned about the pruning. So of course I went out and pruned all the tomatoes and I had a good tomato crop, my first tomatoes being ripe the second week of July. I will be pruning this year and I am going to be following your technique that you discussed today. Also I always read you couldn’t start sweet corn because it didn’t like to be transplanted but I know you did it so I have sweet corn sprouted ready to be transplanted in 3-4 weeks when our frost should be gone. I preordered your book and will be getting it this month which is good because I need help with my successive planting program.😂. TeresaSue
Live in North East Texas. Couple summers ago, I threw tons of tomato seeds in the dirt. I planted a few that I had also started/babies from seed. It was a tomato patch, of different varieties, about 20 feet by 20 feet. I didn’t water it much, my chickens got a lot, and I never fertilized. Never pruned. Never sprayed. Just let these plants do their thing. I got some of the best tomatoes I’ve ever eaten that year.
THIS channel is one of my absolutely favorites!
Your explaining is genial - please don't quit it
I really appreciate that so much!! Have a lovely Sunday :D
Neglecting the tomatoes is something I can do 😂🙌🏽 loved this info…fair enough that they don’t naturally have all of the pampering if they were growing wild so sitting back and letting them do what they do best makes a lot of sense ! Thanks for the tips 🤗
You are such a lovely young man Huw! Wonderful to see someone young loving Nature and respecting it.
I don’t know how necessary it is to stake tomatoes, I’m often away for a couple or more weeks at a time…
A Moroccan friend I knew used to go off every summer, he said in his country nobody stakes toms, they just let ‘em grow on the ground?
Thank you for the info you share, I find it very useful and helpful. Have a good weekend - here it’s going to rain Sunday! 😅
Huw, love this vid, made us feel a lot better - our tomatoes often get inadvertently neglected during early summer, whilst we’re trying to catch up on weeding etc after the big summer plant out has finished and now you point this out, interestingly I realise that our 2nd tunnel that Dan mainly looks after, always get neglected the most and crops the best!!! 😃👍🍅✌️🌿
THANK YOU!!!!!! Another incredible video! ❤❤❤❤❤
Nature is magic! And I thank you for the information about suckers. You don't have to prune them! I have in the past, then rooted the suckers in water to create a new plant. I've also had a rogue tomato plant which grew beautifully because it was left alone, not tended, watered, or pruned.
Ill be sharing this video with my garden neighbors and friends! Thx huw!!!!❤
Refreshing to see a video that validates my tomato growing practices. By an initial deep watering followed by holding off on watering again until the soil indicates that it’s drying out helps the roots grow deep so the plant can better sustain itself. It’s my first step in preventing BER. I also don’t prune suckers at all because of the benefits of photosynthesis. I will prune for airflow, but not a stickler for suckers. My season is long, 8, sometimes 9 months long. Our winters are mild and short. I have bountiful harvests year after year, except for the year I pruned all my suckers. Simply my experience. Thanks for the vid.
Great video Huw, You are the best forward thinking Gardner I know, I have been watching your videos for a couple of years now and they have taught me to think out of the box and question some of the traditional methods I used to follow, I am an expat here on Vancouver Island and looking forward to the arrival of your latest book. Many thanks for all you do (:
As always, your videos are so helpful. Also, perfect timing as I’m potting on my determinate tomatoes from inside my house to the greenhouse this weekend (zone 8b). 😊
I really appreciate that! Hope your tomatoes do amazingly
In the past I've used plastic piping and watered down the tube ... helps prevent rot amongst other things .... Great talk 😊
Hi Huw, ive been watching your youtube quite a bit and I love it, thank uou for sharing your knowledge. I'm doing a project with my Year11 group and your info is great🙏 blessings Susie👍
In hot and dry climates like mine pruning tomatoes is a mistake. The branches shade a little the rest of the plant and the soil and the harvest is better. Also, not watering is for a few days is a good practice as long as the soil under the root is wet! Good luck with your experiment! ❤
I will try as well this year with you - I just planted my tomatoes as well today but outside and will try to do what you, on some plants and others will prun
I'm literally planting tomatoes whilst listening to this video, trying lots of different varieties but I've got 6 Gardeners Delights in a row, so I'm going to try some of these ideas and have a direct comparison. Cheers Huw
Thank you for your very useful tips. I grow tomatoes in Corsica, France, 700m alt. I am just now seeding and will also try direct in earth this year. I do no remove the excessive little branches except the one touching ground to avoid mildew. When planting mid May, I can harvest till November, good years til Christmas. So Yes, leaving them to live their life is for me a good way for effective growth 😊
I have had a ton of volunteer tomatoes come up in my hotbeds and I've left the best two in place. They look amazing. In a couple weeks, I'll harvest the spring greens, whack a trellis in, and see what happens!
You’ve reminded me I had 2 main stems off 1 tomato a few years ago when I missed a side shoot, so I just tied it up - it worked a treat and you’ve inspired me to try again this year - If I can find the room 😂
Interesting and I may give the no pruning a try although my greenhouse is quite small. Look forward to comparing results.
I love your enthusiasm, very interesting approach. I follow an Austrian 'Der Tomatenflüsterer' who has basically all varieties in the world. He plants them out into the garden, waters once only when planting, lets them grow as they want and only ties up with string to support the heavy branches. If you see these healthy plants, unbelievable. I want o try this for maybe 2 this year, let's see...
Glad you recommended Charles Wilbur's book !
Alabama grower who set (and still posthumously holds) the world record for outdoor grown tomatoes, in both the size of the plants, and weight of harvest.
Thank you for the great tips and suggestions! Love a good challenge and experimenting is just fun! Like waiting for Christmas! Blessings on your growing season Kiddo!🌻🐛Carolyn in Ohio 🌿
Interesting take on the two stems. Doesn't hurt to experiment a bit! I always pot on the side shoots - get more plants that seem to go on later. Saves wasting the excess growth, roots might not be as good as the parent but I've had quite a few extra tomatoes that way - especially with Sungolds being expensive and I don't use as many seeds, saving some for the following year. Not as good with beefsteak types though, so I don't do their side shoots anymore.
I grew my first tomatoes last year in polytunnels. While I did lots of research that indicated I should remove side shoots, my intuition told me otherwise. I instinctively let them grow wild and crazy, trusting they would thrive if left to grow the way nature intended them to. It was amazing watching them flourish and I had an abundant harvest. It was also really good fun rummaging around to find all the fruit. Air flow finally became an issue towards end of season and we did some hefty remedial pruning to ward off blight but it’s clear from my neighbouring farmer friends there was no escaping that blight no matter how manicured your greenhouse looked!
I’m glad to have seen this video as I’ve been telling myself ‘this year I’ll do it properly’ but perhaps I’ll stick with being wild witchy gardener with my cats and just enjoy it all over again 🍅
Wow! This is just like raising children!
I'm a neglect gardener when it comes to Tomatoes. In my region of the world (South Island, New Zealand - temperate climate) I have a fairly long, warm summer with minimal rainfall. In the past 2 years I've planted my tomatoes deep, watered irregularly, removed 'suckers' sparingly and erratically and had good harvests! Have fun experimenting Huw!
Thank you for the video! This year I was thinking of not even making seedlings for the next one. And it's not out of laziness, but the plants become more resilient. I have cherries that I left like that from last year and I see that they are developing very well, and I don't even use a greenhouse. Our winter ( in Bulgaria) was quite snowy this year.
I love embracing the lazy in a way that still produces good results! We finally got our own house with a garden this year and put up a 24m2 polytunnel. Been consuming lots of your video content looking for tips, as well as a couple of your books. Hopefully it'll result in plentiful harvests, thank you for another fantastic video!
Best tomato crop we’ve ever had was the ones I’d completely left in the garden to do there own thing, great video Huw thanks so much 😀
I've a tomatoe plant from last year! All the others died off and the tomatoes weren't edible. But this plant I brought in and placed by the window. I've had a few fruits but a few cuttings. The cuttings are coming on well and I'm getting more flowers on the older plant.
Interesting and feasible concepts. Keep us posted.
Thank you!
Thanks for this Huw, very useful and informative rather than the usual ‘do this’ type approach of a lot of videos on CZcams.
I’d love to see a video on your top 10 tomato varieties and possibly even a seed package available to your viewers. Managed to pick up a few wonky reduced price plants yesterday from a garden centre so I should have around 8 varieties growing this season, my plug plant trays got tipped during the wind in early April and without additional heating it has been a slow start this year. Love the tip on watering deep and planting deep then not watering in, totally makes sense.
Last year I didn’t have the time to tie up or prune my tomatoes at the beginning. It was horrible.
The plants grew bizarrely with loads of “stems” because it fell over and had roots where it was laying so I then couldn’t tie it up properly. And each stem kept growing loads of suckers so it was a never ending pruning process with no airflow and finding tomatoes hidden and rotting along the ground.
I’m definitely tying mine up as soon as I put them in the ground this year. And taking the bottom half of the leaves and suckers off ASAP. England is too wet to mess about with the chance of blight and other diseases.
It's the "fell over" that went so wrong! And I've "saved" a ravaged crop by the intentional "fall-over and reroot" method. The toms came late, and I staked them up, as you suggested, but I got some produce!
Super interesting video, thanks Huw!
I'm looking forward to your results!
Love the theory and listened intently! Going to give it a whirl with half of my indeterminate tomatoes
Thanks Huw, and looking to see how the extended 'neglect' phase goes 🙂
This is great to hear...I planted a tomato plant out 3 weeks ago and just left it to itself. It since turns out im just doing the legit "neglect phase" 😅 But I will now go out and give it some support.
When I was a beginner gardener I did as I was told and pruned my tomatoes, but as soon as I learned more about how things (like photosynthesis) work, I stopped. For the past at least 15 years I have been decidedly lazy about it and still had great yields. As you say, root system and good, living soil is the key.
YES 👏 So happy to hear the tomato growing method being trialed. I live in zone 7 and we have better results without pruning so I’m looking forward to seeing the results of this! Also what happened with the black oats you guys were growing? We love oats and would love to learn more about the growing process. Absolutely awesome! Thank you for sharing your experiences 🙏
Brilliant info Huw. Thank you once again. I'm in the subtropics, and I have found the one benefit of pruning tomatoes is that in times of extended dry periods (which we regularly get) it helps reduce the amount of water the plant requires. Love your work!!
Hi Huw, in the past I have left my tomato suckers to grow, - I still got tomatoes from them - but I never measure how much because as long as I get some I am happy. With not removing the suckers after a while the branch that they have come out from often gets a bit 'tired' and can be removed instead - if it's leaves are going yellow or brown.
It's quite funny that this year I decided to follow the advice and pinch out the suckers - which I don't usually do. I have lots of tomatoes this year so I might leave some of them and try and notice whether there is any difference. We shall see . . .
Oh and just as an aside your discussion about roots reminded me of Chauncey Gardener from a little-known-film called Being There (1979), it's a very funny film. With all your gardening you probably don't have much time for movies.🌞😎🌻👍
I grew up with my grandma who grew a ton of tomatoes. We planted them and then harvested them. Complete neglect. She always grew masses of maters. Cheers from the prairie in Oklahoma America.
Love your channel!
NE Okie. Happy gardening neighbor!
NE Okie. Happy gardening neighbor!
NE Okie. Happy gardening neighbor!
Finally, one of the big garden channels singing the praises of the honeycomb tomato. I've been growing it since 2019, it's the best! And it seems like almost nobody knows about it or grows it.
I am in Eastern Canada so my growing season tends to be even shorter than yours. I prune the first foot to 18" of my cherry tomatoes only and then let them go wild as long as I can continue to get to the fruit. Later in the season I will trim the lower leaves off to fruit set to help them ripen. I pull a ridiculous amount of tomatoes off in my season. I had most of my slicers with a double leader last year. Worked great. Got very large healthy fruit. I did prune the suckers off after the original 2. Most of my neighbors did get blight but I didn't. Covered soil and pruning to fruit set seemed to help a lot. And healthy soil of course.
Good advice.
Watering beneath the plant before putting them in sounds genius, I am about the put some plants out and I was worried about not being there every day to water them so I'm going to try this!
Best of luck with your tomatoes!!
Absolutely agree, I had a volunteer Tom grown in my strawberry bed without pruning suckers a single plant produced over 15kg tomatoes. It was well over 6 feet trailing on the ground without any support. As a result it grew additional roots where it had direct contact with soil.
Wow, so much interesting thoughts within that video. Thanks a lot for sharing!
Thank you!
This year, I planted my community garden plot early, mid march, so cal 10a, thought El Niño will give me extra hot summer so decided to start sooner. I told those seedlings you’re on your own, but you have all the opportunities to do well. (I also had another set of seedlings ready to replace them, if needed) . Cold nights and days, some very hot days, some strong late rains. Abt 6 wks later I planted tomatoes in my backyard, and I pampered them. The ignored community garden tomatoes are beautiful, while the ones at home are anemic. The community garden plants are the most lovely plants I have ever grown, with the least effort at the start. Yes, soil and light could have a lot to account for some of the difference, but I think more of it was they were encouraged to be tomatoes by not interfering too much at the beginning
This is very interesting to me. Because I grew tomatoes for the first time last year and I didnt know anything about it. So I just left them as is and they where producing fruit in abundance until october. 🤷🏼♀️ They also bent ever which way even towards the ground and I only supported them after some of the fruit turned red while touching the ground. It was a happy accident but I am not going to fuss over them more this year
Nice one Huw. I do something very similar with the sideshoots (not suckers - suckers are underground LOL). But I do limit them to the space available.
I’ve been gardening my entire life, 3d generation taught.. when I ended up in an apartment instead of having a “yard” anymore.. I switched to making a food forest in containers on the patio.. and I get ridiculous amounts of food..
For tomatoes, since I’m in New England and it’s either cooler or tropical hot 🥵 🙄🙄 I like to grow a mid size early tomato and then I’ll have a couple pots of cherry and slicer sized ..
I have found that if I ‘ignore’ them after transplanting into the big pot, inevitably I will end up with 1-3 suckers that have become literally 1/2 the plant.. I’ve gotten into the habit of leaving the first one or two immediate big suckers to grow on, but for the rest of the season I try to keep all the rest nipped early..
..the nice thing is, that first trimming, can be rooted in some water and planted out as secondary plants happily..
The remaining plants get BIG and I tend them intuitively the rest of the season, trimming leaves, staking etc..
I get SO much fruit from a handful of pots that I keep my apartment neighbors in fresh tomatoes, eat all I can and still have some get away from me and go squish before anyone get to eat them..
At the end of the season I’ll top the plants to a point, so they work on finishing the fruit that’s there already and green..
I still end up with buckets full of green fruits when the frosts are just TOO much anymore..
If you want a prolific harvest, I can’t recommend Early Girl enough.. so so much fruit! 😮😅
And
They’re very hardy..
my micro climate is NUTS.. easy 115F in the shade during the dog days of summer.. but if it’s chilly it’s maybe 55 overnight..
but..
the toms hold up like champs..
Last year was my first year of growing anything and I started with two tomato plants. I didn’t know anything about suckers or anything til they were well established. I got so many tomatoes!! I even had several bags of them in my freezer cause I couldn’t eat them fast enough. Even gave away a bunch. So I’m not sure how I’ll do it this year but last year worked great!
I never prune them unless: 1/ They've grown so much I can't get through the corridor anymore and it becomes impossible to water them or to pick the tomato's 2/ The leaves touch the ground.
This method is not laziness as at the end of the road there is much more stuff to 'clean-up'. That massive clean-up brings the hidden benefit that it is very good greens for composting.
However, and you mentioned it in the video, it is very important to aerate well to stop or at least slow down diseases. It helps to have 1 door on each side of the greenhouse creating some draught. Also , when rainy whether is coming in, do not water the tomatoes until the humidity levels in the greenhouse have normalised or temperatures are high.
Having pruned commercially, here's my one bit of input. From a carbohydrates perspective, I think you could get away with it, though you're making the plant spent a huge amount of carbohydrates to build those stems only to remove them. My bigger concern is that tomatoes stems are pretty fragile, almost brittle. When the stems start to thicken, it is much easier to accidentally snap the main stem while messing with the suckers than if you just remove them when they are small and pliable. The plant will eventually put out a new leader but it takes time. So just be careful when working around mature stems and I would still train them up as soon as you can. Breakage sucks.
Oh my gosh Huw, I’ve been thinking about the pinching out of tomato suckers for a while and I have 4 plants that I’m not pinching out, thanks for the tip about 4-6 weeks, looking forward to seeing what happens 😀
Im growing tomatoes for the second time. The first were in the ground and did ok, these are in buckets in a "greenhouse" made of mosquito netting because I'm in West Africa and the sun is too strong. They're doing much better! I couldn't go more than a day without watering, we're getting up to 43°C with 7% humidity. I agree about the suckers, i removed them last time and left them this time and im sure it's helping with a more successful crop.
I went to Epcot Center back in the 1980s.
They had a tomato tree. A single plant, with a canopy of 20 feet diameter. All supported on trellis.
And lovely tomatoes on it.
So it comes down to varieties and landraces that are adapted to your particular micro climate.
I myself never prune my indeterminate varieties. I plant more plants than most, and just do not have the time to fuss with pruning. And we get kilos and kilos of tomatoes.
Hi Huw, first time here i think as i normally watch you on the tv. I got a tip from Charles Dowding last year and bought and bought Rio Grande/Roma toms as they are blight resistant, i sowed 8 seeds of each but only 5 came up, i am not worried though as i use the suckers as cuttings and my late father always cut off the tendrils from cues as he said they took away vigour from the plants, i got the sucker idea from the late Steve at (Green side up) who was a very knowledgable gardener, cheers Dave
It's only my 3rd year of serious veggie gardening, and I am astounded that several of my tomatoes survived the Winter outside, and are looking quite nice (Northern California USA Zone 9B) after fertilizing. I had no idea this was even possible, lol. I also have scads of tomato volunteers coming up in my stock tank beds where I squeezed out seeds from the cherry tomatoes, up potting them too. This will be an interesting year for sure. I love your ideas. P.S. I spotted my first tomato today on one of last year's plants, May 8th!
Huw you are a disruptor and I love that! Creativity and breaking the norm.
I would like to copy what you are attempting and share my results with you. The only thing is that I don’t have a poly tunnel just an allotment. Ps. Love your book! Got and extra two and gifted them to friends ❤
Interesting. I have grown some with two “leaders” or stems but don’t know results yet. So far all good. I grow in a very hot arid climate so though I agree with deep roots soil dries out very quickly. Expect 100 F weather in a couple of weeks and need to shade everything. ❤Love your channel and can’t wait for your new book in a couple of weeks.
I live in central upstate Ny. Zone 5b. I do the similar method that you explained like the rocket. I let the tomatoes grow grow grow and branch. Once they start setting fruit I prune about a foot to two feet off the ground. They start producing even more fruit. I’m talking crates full of tomatoes by the end of our season. I don’t start pruning off suckers and non fruiting branches until later in the season so the plant can focus on ripening. Sometimes I’ll even top the plant to really get it to stop. I used to live in Florida where the climate is much more humid and I had to prune consistently to battle disease. So in my opinion I really think it depends on your individual climate areas on what’s best for growing them.
If you cut off a strong sucker, you can put it in water or wet soil and you get another plant. I do it for years and I have tons of tomatos - l just run out of space every summer and end up planting them at the weirdest places imaginable.
Lol. I can picture that. I started rooting suckers last year, its pretty addictive. I don't "prune", I just grab a sucker here or there.