Dean-End Tomato Plant

landarch 6/19/2012, 6:52 pm

I have been pruning my indeterminate tomatoes into a single vine growing on cattle panel trellises (first year doing this and it's working very well), however with one of my plants (Jetstar pictured below), there is no longer a main leader...the plant has dead-ended into nothing but blossoms. Will a leader eventually grow from the blossom stems or will I need to let a new leader grow from the nearest "crotch" (not pinch it off) and let it keep going? Dean-End Tomato Plant Dead_e10

GWN 6/20/2012, 11:01 am

I would let the nearest sucker take over.
Apparently when they first form the buds with the lead, they can be mistaken for a sucker?? Could that have happened.
Some suggest removing only suckers below the buds for that reason
I find it takes a day or so to tell the difference some times so I wait when I am unsure

landarch 6/20/2012, 11:52 am

I don't think I removed a sucker from the top...hopefully another sucker will take over. I am finding that the plants are growing so quickly that removing suckers is almost a daily activity.

Thanks for your reply...

floyd1440 6/20/2012, 7:41 pm

landarch wrote:I don't think I removed a sucker from the top...hopefully another sucker will take over. I am finding that the plants are growing so quickly that removing suckers is almost a daily activity.

Thanks for your reply...

I made the same mistake and am still wondering how? I have 12 tomato plants and for some reason I took off the top of my tomato plants as in your picture. Fortunately a sucker has grown and I will let it become the main stem.

Sometime it is best to let the plants grow for a week and then pull the correct suckers off..IHMO

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