I'm delighted that my Sweet 100s, that were awesomely productive in the spring (as they just about always are), are starting to produce some tomatoes again, as indeterminates should. They tried to flower in August, but of course it was much to hot for them to set fruit. This is the first year that I've even tried to keep them alive through the summer and, with the weather we've had, I'm impressed that I managed to do so with any of them. Now, only about four of the dozen I had did survive, but still ...

I'm wondering about optimal strategies for getting fall tomatoes on spring plants. My problem is that these vines got to be about six or seven feet long (as they usually do), so what I'm seeing now is mostly, but not entirely, greenery and flowers at the end of bare, thick, six or seven foot vines. I would like to believe that the plants would be better off if the stems were shorter, such that they didn't rely on pumping water and nutrients so far.

So, how do you do it? How do you manage your plants in the spring and summer to keep them ready to produce best in the fall? Should I trim them, to keep the vines shorter and encourage sucker growth, such that there are more vines from each plant that are shorter in the fall? Is there a way to encourage the thick, tough vines in the fall to sprout suckers down low? If I chopped them off now, they'd just die.

Advice for next year, from folks who routinely try for fall tomatoes from spring plants, would be very much appreciated.