Growing Tomatoes with 2 main stems

royg_2

Hi,

Interested to know if anyone has tried this or does this regularly - training 2 (or more) main stems develop on cordon tomatoes.

I ended up doing this almost by necessity last year.

I had a long motorhoming trip planned for key part of growing season (June & July) but couldn't resist sowing some toms even though I knew I wouldn't be around to care for if in greenhouse. When time came to leave I did a last minute plant out in a raised bed in garden - most of these were greenhouse varieties such as Floridity and as I live in Scotland I fully expected them to sulk or die by time I returned.

Six weeks later I came back to very healthy but bushy plants. I transplanted these to morrisons flower buckets and started pruning. It seemed a shame to waste some good growth and they were behind target height wise so decided to try keeping 2 stems with best flowering and grow these on to lower heights than a single stem.

This actually turned out very well thanks at least partly due to oood summer (although the best of it weather was past by time I replanted them). They were easier to maintain and had less hassle with damp from touching roof. I managed at least 3good trusses on each stem so exceeded my usual 5 I go or on sinle stem. Only real down side was extra space needed between plants due to width needed for 2 stems.

Not sure what to do this year and may try 50/50 split to test theory.

Anyone tried doing this regularly? Would love to know your thoughts.

Derky_2

What you describe is a common commercial technique. So my suggestion would be to continue to use this method. It has some advantages, mainly in that you will only need half of the plants, which in turn gives you half the cost or work.