One of my favorite jobs on the farm is pruning and trellising our tunnel tomatoes. I find it to be very relaxing and therapeutic in a way. Maybe it's because I have some degree of control over how the tomato grow in a year and occupation where things feel out of control. Maybe it's because the results are so immediate and rewarding. Maybe it's a combination of the two. All that aside, I thought I'd share with you our tomato prune and trellis strategy.
The first thing you need to know about tomatoes is that there are two growth types of tomatoes: determinate and indeterminate. Determinate tomatoes grow to a set size and then stop growing further and focus on their fruit set. Indeterminate tomatoes just keep growing until they're killed by disease, frost, or pests. Indeterminate tomatoes are what we grow in our tunnels. Henceforth known as tunnel tomatoes.
Our tunnel tomatoes also put out suckers (also called runners) that almost always grow where a leaf protrudes from the main stem. Each of these suckers would develop into a long stem and would also start putting out suckers. As you can imagine, the amount of suckers would exponentially grow if nothing were done. Thus, every week we go through our tunnel tomatoes and prune every sucker we see so that the tomato only has one main stem. This allows the tomato plant to focus on growing larger fruit and improve airflow which reduces disease pressure. Additionally, every 2-3 weeks we prune back the lower leaves up to the current fruit set. This further improves airflow and makes it super easy to see and pick the tomatoes.
Since our tunnel tomatoes grow until the first frost we need a way to support them and keep them off the ground. Tomatoes on the ground is usually bad because many of the diseases that affect tomatoes come from the soil. So, every tomato in our tunnel gets a trellis rope that's attached to a steel cable that runs the length of the tunnel. Then, every week after we're done pruning we use these handy tomato clips to attach the main stem to the trellis rope. Our tomatoes are already about 7 feet tall and it won't be long before they reach the top of the tunnel!
