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Suckers: getting the most out of your tomato plants
They say:听Pinch out side shoots for a good tomato crop
This depends on which of the two types of tomato plant you have: determinate or indeterminate.
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All plants grow thanks to dome-shaped bundles of cells called meristems that make new tissue. The main shoot of a determinate tomato plant doesn鈥檛 grow upwards indefinitely. After a while, its meristem switches into reproductive mode, makes a flower, and the plant sends out a limited number of side-shoots 鈥� called suckers. They grow from the inside of branches, usually at a 45-degree angle. You can leave them be in determinate plants. They shouldn鈥檛 become too numerous or reduce your crop.
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But in indeterminate tomato plants, the main shoot鈥檚 meristem never makes a flower. Instead, the shoot just carries on growing and the plant keeps sending out new suckers. Indeterminate plants are good for trellising but they can become large and unmanageable, so you may want to prune off the meristem from the top of the main stem and remove some suckers.
Just how many you should remove comes down to a delicate balance. The more suckers your plant has, the more opportunities it will have to flower and make fruit. But all this growth can use a lot of energy, which may mean you get smaller tomatoes. Having said that, if it has more leaves, it should be able to make more energy by photosynthesis, so it may be able to compensate.
The best advice is to prune bit by bit, and observe the effects. Over the years, you will get a feel for how many suckers you will need to remove to get the right balance between the number of tomatoes and their size.
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Partners in grime: companion planting
They say:听Choose your mix of plants correctly so they encourage each other鈥檚 growth and keep pests at bay
Nasturtiums are said to be a sacrificial plant, protecting beans from aphids and cabbages from cabbage white caterpillars; mint may deter some beetles, flies and aphids from damaging a range of vegetables and roses; French marigolds have a pungent odour that is supposed to keep whitefly away from tomatoes鈥� Sadly, these pairings are a charming idea with very little evidence to back them up.
Decades of research have thrown up conflicting results. Back in 1979, a study of cabbage pests found that pennyroyal, garden nasturtiums, peppermint and French marigolds made no difference. Other studies have suggested that peppermint and African marigolds offer some protection against onion fly and cabbage root fly. Contrary to folklore, found that this isn鈥檛 because of their smell. Instead, pests appear to lay fewer eggs on their target hosts if they are distracted by other plants.
The roots of African and French marigolds release chemicals that may suppress some nematode pests. But effects vary and the same marigold could deter some of the pests and boost others. There are 15,000 species of nematodes out there, so it is unlikely that you will know exactly which species is a problem in your garden.
In the end, it鈥檚 all a bit fuzzy. Companion planting may work, but is probably just too complicated to put into practice.
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Squashed: Frankenstein gourds
They say:听Don鈥檛 grow melons and squash next to each other because they can generate hybrids
Some members of the melon family (cucurbits) do cross-pollinate, but this is rarely a problem. You needn鈥檛 worry about plants that belong to different species, like honeydews and cucumbers. But pumpkins, courgettes, gourds and some other squashes all belong to the same species. A bee could pollinate one with the pollen from another.
Despite this, you will still get the fruit of the mother plant. If courgette pollen fertilises a pumpkin flower, for example, you will get a pumpkin. You will only end up with weird hybrids if you collect the resulting seeds and plant them the following year, or if one falls on the ground and self-propagates.
Decorative gourds have become pretty fashionable, so you may not mind a hybrid or two. And none of this matters if you buy new seeds each year. If, however, you are collecting seeds from your prize cucurbits and want to protect their genetic heritage, you probably shouldn鈥檛 grow different varieties within a kilometre of each other.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淕rowing skills鈥�
