[KosmicKitty]

Lettuce!!

Tons of lettuce. We’re eating salads for lunch and dinner almost everyday. My head lettuce is gone, but the leaf lettuce keeps on going.

And we got a shopping bag full of lettuce from a friend when we helped to remove their pool cover.

And we’ve been getting two heads a week from our farm share. (Yes, I admit that we bought a farm share in a local farm. My garden just isn’t big enough to supply all our veggie needs.)

Collards & a ham hock just put in the slow cooker with a can of whole tomatoes (none ready here yet) onions & garlic. I’ll throw a can of black-eyed peas in later.

Tomato question, how many people remove non producing branches from your tomato plants and exact how do you a) know which ones to remove, and b) how do you remove them by cutting??

Love to read this thread every week. Wish I had enough knowledge to give back.

[Red_Devil 232]

I prune any of the lower branches that touch the ground and what are called suckers these are the branches that start growing in the "V" between the main stem and side branches. I just pinch them off if they are small and tender or if they are bigger I just use a quick snap to remove them.

Other than the lower branches and the suckers I don't prune anything else. In the picture below they are pruning out a sucker. They just use up the plant energy and will not produce tomatoes.

[Red_Devil 232]

I meant to post this video in my other reply. It is a good video on how to do pruning.

How To Prune Tomatoes

[Red_Devil 232]

I had to look up the term Missouri pruning as is shown in post #28.

If you have not removed any suckers all season and they have grown out of control, you should be careful about taking off the entire sucker, as it could cause too much sun to hit the developing fruit. In this case remove parts of the sucker to the last set of leaves. This is called Missouri pruning, where you pinch just the tip of the sucker, letting one or two leaves remain. This gives the plant more leaves and thus more photosynthesis and aids in protecting developing fruit from sun-scald. In this case, suckers should be removed gradually, over a period of a week or more, so the plant is not shocked too much.

[cherry]

"how many people remove non producing branches from your tomato plants"

I do....but I'm no expert...

once most of the blossums are set, or have little tomotoes,I'll break off a few non producing branches and I'll pull a few off every few days....hopefully, this sends the growth to the tomatoes that are coming on....

they always say that you want to grow wonderful tomatoes, not wonderful plants...