Beefmaster Tomatoes, How Tall is Normal?

Sat Jul 28, 2012 7:27 pm

We had a real cloudy, cool May and June again this year with no summer weather until July 4th. I started Beefmaster tomatoes from seed last March, got them in the garden in May and suckered them as they grew. Now they are over 6 feet tall with a lot of blossoms at the top. Some misshapen tomatoes are growing near the middle. I'm afraid they are going to grow even taller but maybe the plants will put their energy into fruit instead.

How tall will these guys grow? My mom says to cut them off near the top but that is where a lot of fruit is going to form and besides I'm afraid that will stun or weaken the plants.

My Roma and Golden Jubilee tomatoes are normal height and planted adjacent to the BMs with the same soil. I only added compost, a bit of alfalfa meal and a little fertilizer to the soil, the same amount to all of them.

Sat Jul 28, 2012 8:14 pm

I would hill the bottoms of the tomatoes. It seems to give them extra strenth like 6 inches. You can bend the tops down and tie them to a lower pole just watch you don/t beak them! The hot weather caused the flowers not to take. next time I would leave several suckers grow .. I like to let the suckers get the fist set of flowers and cut above the flowers! and that will give you more early tomatoes!

Sat Jul 28, 2012 8:41 pm

8 - 10 - 20 feet if you are lucky.

Don't top them they won't grow anymore. At leasat from that point, you could get suckers, but just leave them be. If you can afford to let them go crazy , do it. I always do even with some massive triming at times.

I only trim the dead stuff and for access, cause I have had 12 ft + plants before. All I can say is do what you think is best. It is hard to tell someone else what to do. You need to feel it it. The way I see it if it isn't causing a direct problem than leave it be.

Do you have any pics?

Sat Jul 28, 2012 8:52 pm

gixxerific wrote:8 - 10 - 20 feet if you are lucky.

Don't top them they won't grow anymore. At leasat from that point, you could get suckers, but just leave them be. If you can afford to let them go crazy , do it. I always do even with some massive triming at times.

I only trim the dead stuff and for access, cause I have had 12 ft + plants before. All I can say is do what you think is best. It is hard to tell someone else what to do. You need to feel it it. The way I see it if it isn't causing a direct problem than leave it be.

Do you have any pics?

I have the same problem with my "Sweet Millions" cherry tomato plant. I had no idea that cherry tomatoes could grow this tall lol!

Sat Jul 28, 2012 9:01 pm

exactly mmmfloorpie I really wish someone would remind me next year not to plant so many cherrys again. I do it every year.

Sat Jul 28, 2012 10:01 pm

gixxerific wrote:exactly mmmfloorpie I really wish someone would remind me next year not to plant so many cherrys again. I do it every year.

One year I planted 4 plants. They were only about 4 feet tall but I had cherries coming out of my eyeballs!

This year I just planted the 2 and they are a different variety than I'm used to.

The one in that picture rocketed up so fast this summer. But the other one (to it's right) was just a stubb of a plant until a couple weeks ago. It's finally started to take off but it's more bushy than the other.

All of the fruit seems to be growing at the top so I'm having real trouble keeping everything staked up. Those are like 9 foot stakes, and the plants are upwards of 8 feet tall... Keep in mind about a foot and a half of the stake is below ground!

Mon Jul 30, 2012 4:08 pm

Sorry, I don't know how to post a photo in this forum. There is no upload photo link...[/img] :oops:

Mon Jul 30, 2012 5:12 pm

ShadeZone wrote:Sorry, I don't know how to post a photo in this forum. There is no upload photo link...[/img]

I If using photobuket just copy the img tag and paste here. Otherwise I am not sure. But you could copy the URL and copy and paste that between the img tags in the upper section of your reply form.

Got questions just ask or PM me.

Here is the sticky on how to post photos, this should help.

http://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/v ... php?t=3724

Good luck, again PM me if you have problems.

Dono

Mon Jul 30, 2012 8:10 pm

These Cherry Tomatoes have to be getting close to 11 feet now. The green pole is 8 feet and I had to tie a bamboo pole to it because it just keeps growing. I even had to trim the tree because it grew into it.

Good fruit though.

Mon Jul 30, 2012 9:23 pm

Okay, thank you for the information. Here's a photo showing 3 Roma tomatoes in the foreground with the 3 Beef Masters behind them. They climbed out of their tomato cages long ago and are supported by 5 ft. steel fence posts with horizontal wood slats wired on. I put bands of cloth strips around them to help prevent the vines from breaking when the fruit comes. Looks ugly but works. Kind of hard to see much detail in the photos. Lots of green.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Tue Jul 31, 2012 3:35 am

I do clip the growing tips off mine when they are getting too big. To me it keeps them from getting so tall and helps focus the plant on making tomatoes not just getting bigger and bigger.