Tomato and Potato Question

[Taiji]

This year am growing both Red Norland and Red Pontiac potatoes. In previous years I've mostly grown Red Norland which, for the most part, haven't bloomed for me. I noticed the Red Pontiacs are blooming though. Was wondering if one should remove the flowers because maybe they drain nutrients that could be going to the tubers? (this has probably been asked before)

One of my tomato plants (Abraham Lincoln I think) is having a tendency to fork at the top producing 2 main stems. I'm not talking about suckers. So, I debated about choosing one stem to remove and leaving the other then decided to cut one off. Now, a few days later I noticed the one stem I left is forking again. Guess there's nothing to do but leave it this time. Or, is it even a good thing to choose one stem over the other? Maybe not a big deal?

[jal_ut]

Potato flowers? Just ignore them. You don't need to do anything with them.

About hilling potatoes. The reason for hilling is to cover up the developing tubers so the sunlight doesn't hit them. They are just under the surface and as they develop the soil cracks and the sun hits the tuber. The problem is that a tuber exposed to sunlight turns green and gets a strong flavor. So You hill them up to avoid this. You only hill them once, two or three inches of soil pulled up around the plant.

Tomato? My way is just plant the darned things and stand back. Let them do what they will. Others, will fuss with them, trellis them, prune them, and whatever else they do.......... I guess you will just have to decide what you want to do? Have fun!

[Gary350]

I know Red Pontiac potatoes are hot weather potatoes. Don't worry about blossoms. They should be a 3 month crop. I don't know about your other potato. Just keep covering the plant with soil about 6" of soil then wait.

If the top of your tomato plant could have broken off then the plant will grow a fork not a big deal. Don't worry about suckers let them grow. I have experimented with letting plants grow across the ground vs being stakes up in cages. For some reason tomato plants that lay on the soil produces about 50% less than tomato plants that are staked up in a cage. I think tomatoes on the ground are easier lunch for rabbits, turtles, possum, skunks, and other animals that might be why the crops are smaller.

[applestar]

Tomato — If the split vines appear to grow normally—no different than a main stem and a sucker —I suppose this could be a benign mutation or deviation, kind of like the mega fused blooms creating fused fruits. It would be better than fused stems.

I’m thinking unless you are trying to grow largest fruits that the variety can potentially grow, it would be OK.

Is this from your own saved seeds? I wonder if you saved seeds, its offspring will have same tendency....?

[Taiji]

Thanks for the responses. No, this tomato plant is one I bought here in the U.P. from a local grower. I think I'll just leave it alone now, but am wondering if each stem that splits in 2, will produce 2 more stems that split in 2, and so on? This will be interesting to watch.

[Vanisle_BC]

Tomato: I find it interesting to watch how different varieties grow, and I enjoy experimenting with various ways of training them. With some I have difficulty identifying the pattern of branching & suckering. Sometimes a growing tip looks more like a sucker than a leader.

I train my tomatoes clipped to strings that hang from overhead supports; Used to leave the suckers to grow but that can create an impenetrable mess, depending on variety, spacing etc. Mine are in fairly restricted raised beds so now I remove most of the suckers; try to limit the growing stems to 2 but the plants often defeat me. I try pinching out the tops of 'extra' stems if they already have flower-bud clusters, but again they sometimes beat me.

Potato flowering: Some of mine do, some don't. Maybe they all would if I left them longer in the ground. My 'seed' potatoes came from all over and I don't know their names & whether they're supposedly early or late varieties.

Some that flower will make a little "fruit" - a marble-size ball full of seed. You can grow from that seed - people call it TPS (True Potato Seed.) I have a few tps plants growing now in a pot, from I-don't-remember-what-plant last year. I expect to get very small potatoes that can be re-planted next year, but what kind of spuds they will be is anybody's guess; quite possibly all different.

Have fun with your garden!

[Taiji]

Thanks.

Here's a follow up question. Does anyone remove the branches below the fruits on the vine? In other words do those branches suck nutrients from the fruits? So, as the bottom most fruits on the vine are harvested, should one take rest of the branches off up to the next set of unharvested fruits? I can't remember where I heard this.

[Gary350]

I never remove suckers and I still get about 50 lbs of tomatoes from each plant every year. Feed plants K & calcium it makes lots of fruit. Lower leaves near the soil always turn yellow then brown and die so I strip them off of the plant soon as I notice the leaves looking bad. My plants seem to do better with dying limbs stripped off I think the plants use energy trying to keep dying stuff alive. Anything that looks dying no matter what caused it gets stripped off of my plants.

[applestar]

Some people call the entire main stem of the compound tomato LEAF “ branch “, which is incorrect. But if you are referring to the suckers which ARE branches, YES my understanding is that it is best to remove all suckers/branches from below the first fruit truss BECAUSE they will divert /steal nutrients from the fruits and delay maturing/ripening.

But this was in reference to first truss to mature. I have not heard to continue to remove suckers as the plant grows and lower fruits are harvested.

Another reason to remove lower suckers is they are subject to same splash-up disease infection as leaves. If spotting has occurred to leaves and were removed, young suckers at the same level and lower are also likely to become infected.

[Vanisle_BC]

Like Gary I remove dying leaves; Unlike him I do take off suckers but nothing else unless it's to increase ventilation. I go with the theory that generally more leaves = max growth (although I think I've seen pics of commercial operations where the plants were virtually reduced to a single stem - ??? )

50lb from a single plant? Wow.

[Taiji]

Thx. I guess I should have said "limbs" instead of branches. I think I'll just stick to removing those that are close to the ground or are diseased.

[jal_ut]

Leaf, branch, sucker.......... whatever........... Just let them be. Plant them and stand back, let them do their thing!

[Gary350]

Do an experiment, remove suckers from 1 plant and leave suckers on a different plant then see which plant does best. An even better test assuming you have 10 plants, remove suckers from 5 plants, leave suckers on the other 5 plants, see which plants do best.

[Vanisle_BC]

Do an experiment, remove suckers from 1 plant and leave suckers on a different plant then see which plant does best. An even better test assuming you have 10 plants, remove suckers from 5 plants, leave suckers on the other 5 plants, see which plants do best.

The second suggestion is much better I think. In my own garden 2 adjacent, supposedly identical plants, can behave quite differently. Comparing their performances based on whether or not suckers are removed could be inconclusive.

[Brettmm92]

I second Gary350s experiment idea. That is becoming half of the fun in my own garden.

[Gary350]

I learned something from a seller at the Farmers Market. He said, Red Pontiac potatoes produce about 2 times more potatoes than white potatoes. He planted 18 white potato plants and got 86 lbs of potatoes. He planted 22 Red Pontiac potatoes and got 188 lbs of potatoes. I already knew Red Pontiac grows very well in TN hot weather I grew them many years ago but we like white potatoes better so I don't grow Red Pontiac anymore. Do not remove flowers, shovel soil on the plants as they grow to keep the sun off new potatoes, let plants grow until they die then dig potatoes.

UPDATE. I talked to this farmer again today to ask how many eyes he has on each potato cutting. He said, "I look for potatoes with 6 or 7 eyes they are better than potatoes with 3 or 4 eyes." He said that he cuts each potato so each cutting has 2 or 3 eyes then he put about 10 cuttings in each hole about 2" deep and 2" apart. He said his holes are 2 ft apart with about 22 eyes per hole.

That is now not how we did it when I lived in Illinois.

[jal_ut]

"Here's a follow up question. Does anyone remove the branches below the fruits on the vine? In other words do those branches suck nutrients from the fruits? "

Do not prune the plant. The plant needs its leaves to collect sunlight to make food to produce fruit. Just plant the tomato plants, water and weed as needed, then as you get some red tomatoes, enjoy! I like to put down some newspaper around the plants then cover the paper with grass clippings. Other than that no pruning, no staking, just let them grow and sprawl out.

[jal_ut]

I like the Red Pontiac potatoes. About cutting potatoes for planting, it seems that the tubers have 6 to 12 eyes and they are concentrated on one end. I like to try to cut them to one or two eyes per piece, but sometimes a piece will have 3 or 4 eyes close together. Any way once the taters are cut plant them about 2 inches deep, spaced one foot apart, in rows spaced 30 inches. Weed and water as needed and when the plants are about ten inches tall, hill up the plant. You only hill it one time. Just scrape up some soil from around it and drag it in to the plant to hill it up a bit. This is to keep the developing tubers from seeing the sun. If they see sunlight they turn green and develop a strong flavor. Have fun!

[Taiji]

Jal, I am going to dig up the bulk of my potatoes near the end of my stay here in mid October and then take them back to AZ. When you dig up your potatoes and you want them to last the longest period of time in storage do you wash off all the dirt, or is it best to leave a layer of dirt on there? Thx!

[jal_ut]

" YES my understanding is that it is best to remove all suckers/branches from below the first fruit truss BECAUSE they will divert /steal nutrients from the fruits and delay maturing/ripening."

I won't buy this. Any leaf, branch, sucker, or whatever name you may give it has leaves which catch sunshine and can provide for the plant what is necessary to make fruit. Like I said earlier, Just plant the tomatoes and stand back and let them do their thing. I may put some newspaper around them and cover it with grass clippings, but I never prune nor trellis tomatoes.

[jal_ut]

Never wash the potatoes. A potato pit or cellar is the best way to keep them.

[Taiji]

Thx. I kind of suspected that it might be best to leave unwashed to get the longest storage time.

[jal_ut]

Gary350: " An even better test assuming you have 10 plants, remove suckers from 5 plants, leave suckers on the other 5 plants, see which plants do best."

I like this. We learn to do by doing.