Training and purning

 For growing tomatoes, training and pruning are also most commonly adopted practices. Pruning is the practice of removal of unnecessary side shoots at very early stage of the shoots to increase production of the tomato fruits. The practice of pruning increases success in growing tomatoes. Training of tomato plants is meant for giving the tomato plants support by tying the shoot(s) to the support to make the most of the foliage expose to sunlight.

For growing tomatoes, the gardeners must be careful for timely training and pruning of the tomato plants. Even if they are growing tomatoes in their vegetable garden, they must be careful to train and prune the tomato plants in time. The operations of training and pruning depend on the growth pattern of the tomato cultivars. For growing tomatoes successfully, the gardeners must understand growth pattern of different types of tomato plants. There are three types tomato plants based on their growth pattern. They are indeterminate, semi-determinate and determinate.

If the gardeners are growing tomatoes of indeterminate kind, they must understand that the plants are requiring enough support. They must train the tomato plants to the support by tying shoots. The supports are skates or trellises. The plants are trained on stakes or trellises or in different way. For growing tomatoes of indeterminate type, the tomato plants require enough labor for pruning and training.

If the gardeners are growing tomatoes of semi-determinate or indeterminate kind, side shoots eat the plant nutrients for their growth. As result of which less and less nutrients will be available for setting, growth and development of the fruits in the tomato plants which finally lower the yield. So, we must do timely pruning of the tomato plants to save plant nutrients for increasing the production and make the occupation of growing tomatoes lucrative.

If the gardeners are growing tomatoes of indeterminate or semi-determinate kind they should maintain single or two shoot in the tomato plants. Extra shoots should be removed immediately once the main shoot starts to initiate the extra new shoots to prevent the loss of nutrients. For growing tomatoes, timely identification of the vegetative branches or inflorescence depends on short experience of the gardeners through regular watching of the plants. So the gardeners must watch carefully about the initiation of inflorescence and vegetative shooting buds in their vegetable garden. For growing tomatoes of semi-determinate type, the plants necessarily require vigorous and rigorous training and pruning. But the training and pruning require enough laborers for growing tomatoes in large commercial scale. The gardeners who are growing tomatoes must have the important point that the growth, development and yield of the tomato crop depend on the soil fertility, soil moisture availability and prevailing weather condition including temperature.

If the gardeners are not growing tomatoes of indeterminate kind but growing tomatoes of determinate kind in their open field, they must understand that the tomato plants of determinate kind set fruits over a brief period; it is about forty days. If the gardeners are growing tomatoes of determinate kind as ground crop in dry climates, the determinate bush is left in the ground for the fruit production.

If the gardeners are growing tomatoes of determinate kind in wet season, the tomato plants are staked or trellised in the season or place when or where rainfall occurs. For growing tomatoes of determinate type, the crop of tomato is grown as a ground crop on raised bed for processing purpose. Trickle irrigation is commonly adopted for growing tomatoes outdoor. By the way, it is recommendation that farmers grow the tomatoes of determinate type in open field condition for processing purpose.

In United Kingdom the gardeners are growing tomatoes in commercial green houses with average fruit yield of 250 tons per hectare. In Europe farmers are growing tomatoes in hydroponics in commercial greenhouses. Growing tomato in hydroponics requires precise control of mineral composition and concentration (McGlasson, 1993).

Reference McGlasson, B., 1993. Tomatoes, in Encyclopedia of Food Science, Food Technology and Nutrition (R. MaCrea, R. K. Robinson, and M. J. Sandlers, ed.), Academic Press, New York, p. 4579.

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