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Tomatoes...
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Message 1.Â
Posted by Blue&White (U12843252) on Wednesday, 3rd August 2011
During a conversation in the garden with my dad, he said i should now be removing all the leaves from the tomatoes so the fruits can get the light??? Ive not heard this anyone heard anything like this? or have i just had my head stuck in the sand and its common practice?
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Message 2
Posted by Italophile (U12516505) on Wednesday, 3rd August 2011
Nope. Tomatoes themselves don't particularly need light. The plant does. Toms don't even need direct sunlight to ripen. They need a warm temperature. And taking off too many leaves will interfere with photosynthesis, the means by which the plant prospers.
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Message 3
Posted by mikearrowgate (U3396156) on Wednesday, 3rd August 2011
I am sure that you know more than me but I thought that you did remove the bottom few leaves to encourage ripening and/or give greater air flow.
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Message 4
Posted by Italophile (U12516505) on Wednesday, 3rd August 2011
Removing leaves doesn't encourage ripening. Temperature dictates ripening. But, yes, there are cases for removing foliage in limited amounts.
I keep a gap of about 12" between the lowest branch and the soil for sanitary reasons. Fungal spores can fall from the leaves to the soil and splash back up onto the leaves when watering. The gap helps against that. Other than that, I sometimes remove a branch if it's heavy with foliage, creating a foliage jam, working against air circulation, creating a happy environment for fungal spores.
The OP's Dad suggested removing all the leaves. Remove too much foliage and you (a) interfere with photosynthesis and (b) remove protection for the fruit from hot sun which can result in sunscald (sunburn). -
Message 5
Posted by As_Iff (U13951957) on Wednesday, 3rd August 2011
My uncle bill grew delicious tomatoes, and he always took some leaves off, I still do this too, but it`s a thing that seems to have gone out of fashion these days. I don`t know anyone else who does it.
I do it because that is how I was shown when I was young. -
Message 6
Posted by mikearrowgate (U3396156) on Wednesday, 3rd August 2011
I didn't read the first post properly in that "ALL" the leaves should be removed. Like you I just remove the lowest ones, which also helps putting the water in the pots and not over the leaves!
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Message 7
Posted by londonplantmad (U2392946) on Wednesday, 3rd August 2011
If the plant is thick with leaves its a good idea to thin them out a bit to allow air to circulate, I do this every year and my plants seem to keep healthy.
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Message 8
Posted by londonplantmad (U2392946) on Wednesday, 3rd August 2011
If the plant is thick with leaves its a good idea to thin them out a bit to allow air to circulate, I do this every year and my plants seem to keep healthy. All varieties are different some produce more foliage than others.
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Message 9
Posted by BaraGwenith (U14257539) on Wednesday, 3rd August 2011
I only remove the leaves that are dying off. You can tell which ones because they snap off very easily when you lift them.
Poor old tomatoes, I can't think of any other plant where anybody suggests it is a good idea to remove their leaves. Dying or dead leaves - fine, but useful leaves, why? -
Message 10
Posted by johntheeng (U12092015) on Wednesday, 3rd August 2011
I remove the bottom leaves to ease watering and also remove any that I think are in the way higher up but not many. The majority are left well alone
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Message 11
Posted by thedogcody (U14659366) on Wednesday, 3rd August 2011
This thing of stripping the leaves is an old school idea- my father in law did this and my neighbour of 80 does as well
The modern advice is just to remove some of the lower leaves and if italiophile says that - and italiophile you may take this as a compliment
- it is the correct advice !!. -
Message 12
Posted by Italophile (U12516505) on Thursday, 4th August 2011
Bara, tomato plants are very high on the list of plants vulnerable to fungal problems because of their abundant foliage. Unless you adopt a preventive spraying program - every week to ten days from planting out, more often when it rains - your only other preventive option is housekeeping. A tom plant won't miss a leaf or two or even the odd branch in the cause of air circulation, about the only non-spray preventive option available.
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Message 13
Posted by BaraGwenith (U14257539) on Thursday, 4th August 2011
Absolutely agree with you but the OP did say ALL the leaves. It is only just August, several months to go yet especially if they are indoors. I would not attempt to grow them outside where I am, not really warm enough, too much rain, wind, blight risk, etc, etc.
In the greenhouse they do not require any spraying, and I just remove the leaves as they yellow and die off.
Times move on and different techniques become the norm. I can't see up-thread from here but I think some posters mentioned what their dads and grandfathers did. What do comercial growers do, growing under glass or plastic? I should imagine they remove the leaves for ease of picking, but I think they spray and feed very heavily because they allow the plants to have very many more trusses than the amateur would attempt.
PS. What I will be doing in August is removing all the flowers that have not been fertilized yet and in September I will remove all the tomatoes that aren't going to make it. I am not a fan of Green Tomato Chutney. -
Message 14
Posted by Italophile (U12516505) on Thursday, 4th August 2011
The big commercial growers do just about anything to maximise their crop. They often harvest mechanically and usually prior to maturity. The toms are usually harvested unripe to allow for storage and transport and often gassed to ripen them. They're also the source of some of the most terrifying hybrids - bred to achieve the same size at the same time for ease of harvesting, tough-skinned enough to survive harvest, storage and transport without bruising. A mob in America developed a tom that could be dropped eight feet onto concrete without bruising. Flavour is the last consideration.
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Message 15
Posted by Barney_pl (U13897738) on Thursday, 4th August 2011
A mob in America developed a tom that could be dropped eight feet onto concrete without bruising. .Â
Gosh! That sounds ... Words fail me!
How would one eat such a thing???? Would the human digestive system deal with it???? -
Message 16
Posted by Italophile (U12516505) on Thursday, 4th August 2011
People eat them if they're the only toms available to them. Or if they're unaware of alternatives. It's just part of the fruit and veg mass production machine. Just as worrying, in Australia, supermarkets reject, eg, carrots from suppliers that aren't absolutely symmetrical and cylindrical. They're concerned buyers won't touch them. So carrots are now bred to be absolutely symmetrical and cylindrical. Taste like nothing, but they look nice. Here in Italy, despite EU edicts, carrots in the shops are as lumpy and bumpy as they come out of the ground. And taste like carrots.
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Message 17
Posted by BaraGwenith (U14257539) on Thursday, 4th August 2011
This is interesting as the supermarkets claim it is the customers who reject non-cosmetically perfect fruit and vegetables. This is of course rubbish as the customers get what they are given; it is the s'market buyers who demand perfect stuff. My OH and I eat everything that comes out of the garden, perfect-looking or not.
This has been going on for quite a long time as it must be over twenty years ago that we bought reject potatoes and carrots for our cows. There was apparently nothing wrong with the vegetables that we could see.
I am told that the small, unripe nectarines - why does anybody buy them? - in the supermarkets are a result of not pruning the trees and picking the fruit totally unripe. -
Message 18
Posted by Italophile (U12516505) on Thursday, 4th August 2011
I think the truth is that the supermarkets don't want anything misshapen in their shiny stores. Heck, the loose spuds here at the supermarket and the local fruit and veg place usually come still caked in dirt.
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Message 19
Posted by londonplantmad (U2392946) on Thursday, 4th August 2011
I cannot remember the last time i bought a nectarine peach or plum that tasted good. This week i picked my plums off my own tree and they tasted like plums. My carrots and tomatoes also taste good. Of course mine are all different shapes as nature intended them to be but they beat any supermarket for taste. Why do we allow ourselves to be dictated to by supermarkets vote with your feet and do not buy this rubbish. While people keep paying they will keep dishing it out.
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Message 20
Posted by Italophile (U12516505) on Thursday, 4th August 2011
True. I suspect the bulk of their customers either aren't aware of the notion of growing their own or think they don't have the space or time. Or just couldn't be bothered.
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Message 21
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Friday, 5th August 2011
I've been tickling mine like Ital said and i just live in hope.
I had a bumper crop in early September last time I grew them in about 1983.
Perhaps i won't do too badly this year.
I have not put tomato fertilizer down and I am not convinced that the bush plum tomato that I chose is ideal. I may still do well. There plenty of flowers..... still.
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