Should I leave my sideshoots

[haza1981]

OK I know the golden rule with cordons is to snip out side shoots.....but what if you have left them a while and they are flowering but it's probably a little to late to use as a cutting. Also what do you do if the side shoot has become the dominant shoot and the one under is drooping down? would you then take off the droopy one?

[Tomatoking]

OK I know the golden rule with cordons is to snip out side shoots.....but what if you have left them a while and they are flowering but it's probably a little to late to use as a cutting. Also what do you do if the side shoot has become the dominant shoot and the one under is drooping down? would you then take off the droopy one?

Hi Haza

Ok, first of all if a dominant shoot takes over and is healthier, cut off the head of the plant and leave the shoot on. As for the other shoots, cut them all off. if you do not, your plant will not develop or give it's best yeild. I understand it is a hard thing to do at this time, but in the long term it will be better. If they are really big use a sharp knife and cut them as low as possible at the joint, or all you will get is lots of foliage and plenty flowers, but the fruit setting will suffer.

[haza1981]

I'm confused, so if one of my sideshoots becomes healthier than the shoot it armpitted I should cut the head off my whole plant?

[Snadger]

I'm confused, so if one of my sideshoots becomes healthier than the shoot it armpitted I should cut the head off my whole plant?

Yep...............as long as sideshoot is supported well and doesn't break away!
The strongest sideshoots develop just below the flower trusses. If yours has growng bigger than the main stem I would nip off the main stem allowing one leaf above the original flower truss, if that makes sense? and use the sideshoot as your main stem!

[Tomatoking]

Only if the head is damaged and not strong enough, you said it is bent over. If it is just bent and you can straighten it then save it, but try this before you cut the stong shoot off, just in case the head snaps while trying.
But yes one stong shoot can take over from the main stem if it has to.

Hope I have not confused you even more.

[haza1981]

Ah, No not stronger than the main stem..no stranger than the other side shoot it armpitted so you have the main sten and then a shoot at a 90 degree angle...then a shoot grows between them at 45 degrees. That shoot then then becomes stonger than the shoot at 90 degrees and the 90 degree on starts to droop. Do i still pinch out the 45 degree sideshoot or the 90 degree one? please say I still dont cut off the main head???

[Caro]

Haza,

reading over the thread, i think TK thought you said the "armpit" shoot was stronger than the "branch" off the stem, rather than it being stronger than the stem itself, hence him saying to take the "branch" off - not cut the stem. i think anyway, I'm sure he'll be back to clarify. Don't chop the main stem yet!

[Snadger]

Ah, No not stronger than the main stem..no stranger than the other side shoot it armpitted so you have the main sten and then a shoot at a 90 degree angle...then a shoot grows between them at 45 degrees. That shoot then then becomes stonger than the shoot at 90 degrees and the 90 degree on starts to droop. Do i still pinch out the 45 degree sideshoot or the 90 degree one? please say I still dont cut off the main head???

You lost me after ah! (I'll have a look for ya tomorra if you like and give you my two penneth!)

[Tomatoking]

It sounds like you have some very big shoots which might be confusing you.

Keep the main head, do not cut it off if it is healthy, which it sounds like it is, and cut off ALL the shoots no matter how big they are or which angle they are growing.

Here is a thread Big Mally started, it might help, as you can see by his pictures, he had some very large shoots.

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...tal_49356.html

[haza1981]

Wow reading that thread from me TK has left me more confused than ever. Im sure snadger will come and help me tonight. I thought the main shoots from the main stem where trusses and then the bits in between the truss and stem where sideshoots. Never even heard of suckers before. See whats happening on mine is I had a sideshoot coming between what I thought was the first truss and the main stem. But the first truss started to dip and the sideshoot was quite strong. I wanted to know wether it was ok to remove the first truss. Now I'm wondering if it was a truss at all and if they both need to be removed. Oh dear its a confusing life

[womble]

This seems to have become a little confused

If you have a sideshoot that is more dominant than the main growing point, you can pinch out the growing point and use the sideshoot as the main growing point.

But you can also leave sideshoots as a one truss sideshoot, ie leave them to produce one truss then pinch them out, they will probably need extra support unless they are cherries.

Take the total amount of trusses on the plant as the total, ie, don't think, Oh 5 trusses on the main stem and then forget about the two you have on the sideshoots.
I'm still experimenting with the way the plant thinks about the sideshoot trusses, but it seems to think of them as normal trusses, although it is definitely different, I just haven't worked it out enough to write anything down yet.

[womble]

Never even heard of suckers before. See whats happening on mine is I had a sideshoot coming between what I thought was the first truss and the main stem. But the first truss started to dip and the sideshoot was quite strong. I wanted to know wether it was ok to remove the first truss. Now I'm wondering if it was a truss at all and if they both need to be removed. Oh dear its a confusing life

Ignore suckers, they are talking about sideshoots that have grown from "armpits" under the soil.

You don't remove flowers, you just don't, that's what you are working towards.
If you have flowers, keep them, if you get leaves on the flower truss, take them off.

If you have sideshoots and don't want them, take them off, it really is that simple.

If you can and are still confused, post a photo.

[Tomatoking]

Wow reading that thread from me TK has left me more confused than ever. Im sure snadger will come and help me tonight. I thought the main shoots from the main stem where trusses and then the bits in between the truss and stem where sideshoots. Never even heard of suckers before. See whats happening on mine is I had a sideshoot coming between what I thought was the first truss and the main stem. But the first truss started to dip and the sideshoot was quite strong. I wanted to know wether it was ok to remove the first truss. Now I'm wondering if it was a truss at all and if they both need to be removed. Oh dear its a confusing life

Sorry to confuse you Haza . trusses are what the tomatoes develop on and grow off the main stem.
Side shoots grow between the main stem and a leaf.
Suckers are shoots that grow from the base of the plant.
I have done a section on my blog now which might help.
I would appriciate if anyone could send or post some pictues of overgrown cordon tomatoes, so I can point out what to cut and what to leave and post it on my blog.


Link to blog post
Mr Tomato King: How to prune cordon tomatoes.

[Davyburns]

I missed some sideshoots, especially from the base of my plants, but not only, and have been really brutal this morning, to the point of taking off shoots with good healthy trusses on. It went against the grain, but it sometime does when following good advice

[womble]

I missed some sideshoots, especially from the base of my plants, but not only, and have been really brutal this morning, to the point of taking off shoots with good healthy trusses on. It went against the grain, but it sometime does when following good advice

I don't understand why you would do that. If you have trusses, you have trusses, doesn't matter whether they are on a sideshoot or the main stem.
The plant has already used all that energy to grow the sideshoots and trusses, you might as well use it.