Skiny Tomato Plants

balloo_2

Why do my tomato plants seem to reach the roof of the greenhouse with not many branches on them. I have been looking at other peoples plants and the stems are thicker and lots of tom's on them. I have a Norfolk (Ultra) Greenhouse double doors no windows so not much ventilation could this be a cause? how do I overcome this Thanks

laurel7172

You need to pinch out the growing top when they get to three feet or so tall. That way they put their energy into fruiting rather than height.

balloo_2

laurel7172 thanks for that, but if I pinch the tops at 3 feet I will hardly have any toms. I get 2 branches at about 3ft.

laurel7172

Hmmm. I guess they must have had leaves as they grew that have dropped off. Over watering? Or underwatering? Leaves turning yellow and dropping off is usually the latter in our house! However, I have a double-doored greenhouse with a vent and an automatic window, and I still leave a door open when it gets warm, so you might be right about the ventilation/temperature.

Are you planting them in growbags or in the soil? Soil is the best if possible, apparently. I use long tom pots or growbags, but if I use growbags I set large plastic pots/florists' buckets with the bases cut out into the bag and fill them up from another bag. It gives them more room to grow, and me more wiggle room with the watering. They dry out awfully fast when there are three to a bag.

And if all else fails, try non-cordon varieties

djohn2002uk

The problem you have I'm afraid has nothing to do with pinching out the growing tip but more likely to be a lack of light. I know Norfolk greenhouses do not have glass so lets in less light also are your roof panels clean? The symptoms you describe are very similar to leggy seedlings.
Mine have 20 sets of leaves or branches as you call them by the time they reached the eaves and another 8 when I stopped them just before the ridge. There are 6 trusses of tomatoes at the eaves and 4 more at the ridge. I have only stopped them because we don't have enough time left now for growing to a decent size and ripening. I'd rather they now put all thier energy into the fruit already there. I only ate my first one today, a very juicy and tasty seedless one http://www.burpee.com/vegetables/tomatoes/slicer/tomato-sweet-seedless-hybrid-prod001016.html

annie123

balloo wrote: »

Why do my tomato plants seem to reach the roof of the greenhouse with not many branches on them. I have been looking at other peoples plants and the stems are thicker and lots of tom's on them. I have a Norfolk (Ultra) Greenhouse double doors no windows so not much ventilation could this be a cause? how do I overcome this Thanks

Could be lots of things including the variety. For example sub artic are leggy toms. Which ones are you growing?
Your toms could be reaching for light, is there too much shading on it maybe? Over fed nitrogen? underfed potassium?

And cordon toms don't get pinched out at 3', if you're going to pinch out the top wait till there are at least 4 trusses of fruit.
It's common practice to pinch out the arm pit ( the bit that grows between the stem and the branch) but that's done to stop them getting bushy and heavy.
A picture of the toms would help a lot, along with their name.

annie123

djohn2002uk wrote: »

Mine have 20 sets of leaves or branches as you call them by the time they reached the eaves and another 8 when I stopped them just before the ridge. There are 6 trusses of tomatoes at the eaves and 4 more at the ridge.

I'm so jealous, but the amount of footballs from the park at the bottom and the shade from the trees make it a really daft idea for me to have one again, but I will when we move eventually

balloo_2

djohn2002uk wrote: »

The problem you have I'm afraid has nothing to do with pinching out the growing tip but more likely to be a lack of light. I know Norfolk greenhouses do not have glass so lets in less light also are your roof panels clean? The symptoms you describe are very similar to leggy seedlings.
Mine have 20 sets of leaves or branches as you call them by the time they reached the eaves and another 8 when I stopped them just before the ridge. There are 6 trusses of tomatoes at the eaves and 4 more at the ridge. I have only stopped them because we don't have enough time left now for growing to a decent size and ripening. I'd rather they now put all thier energy into the fruit already there. I only ate my first one today, a very juicy and tasty seedless one http://www.burpee.com/vegetables/tomatoes/slicer/tomato-sweet-seedless-hybrid-prod001016.html

Roof panels are like corrugated plastic not clear but clean. the variety is Alicante and others mixed, my nephew, brother-in-law we all share and theirs are nice strong plants. I feed with tomorite watered twice a day automatic drip feed. Thank you all, just needed to know the cause before I changed my greenhouse for no good reason.:o

eyeinthesky

Did you feed before the first truss was set with fruit? Are you growing in bags, pots, or border? Alicante is a reliable variety, although I prefer Moneymaker, because they seem to be more forgiving if you forget to water. I live in the south east, and have been eating my tomatoes for ages. I would guess that I have had around 12 pounds of fruit so far, from 9 tomato plants, and still going strong. I usually stop the plants when they hit the roof, maybe 5/6 trusses.

I have just thought, have you shaded the greenhouse? It is necessary to shade from late May onwards, and provide ventilation. Even with shading and 2 automatic vents, the temp in my greenhouse can easily go over 40 C in this years hot spell.

annie123

balloo wrote: »

Roof panels are like corrugated plastic not clear but clean. the variety is Alicante and others mixed, my nephew, brother-in-law we all share and theirs are nice strong plants. I feed with tomorite watered twice a day automatic drip feed. Thank you all, just needed to know the cause before I changed my greenhouse for no good reason.:o

You can see from here http://www.thompson-morgan.com/vegetables/vegetable-seeds/tomato-seeds/tomato-alicante/281TM that they are a tall but thin type but I suspect that they are reaching for light. I've grown these many times outside and I've not found them to be very leggy toms.
But John will know better than me how they do in a greenhouse.
I've never liked tomorite, I prefer phostrogen, good balance of NPK and micro nutrients.
And I hope your not feeding them every time with the twice a day watering?

djohn2002uk

annie123 wrote: »

But John will know better than me how they do in a greenhouse.
I've never liked tomorite, I prefer phostrogen, good balance of NPK and micro nutrients.
And I hope your not feeding them every time with the twice a day watering?

I have grown Alicante alongside Moneymaker and found very little difference between the two. Moneymaker is what I described in my earlier post and I would expect Alicante to be very similar. So I would agree with Annie when she says they are probably searching for a bit more light. I use both Tomorite and Phostrogen and now I am feeding using them alternately twice a week.