Pinching is for flowers, not tomato plants. It does not slow growth merely encourages double the new growth - 2 shoots replace the one removed. Cooler temps can slow growth a little but not a month's worth.

The best solution in such a bad situation would be to take cuttings from the current plants when you return - assuming they survive while you are gone. Root those cuttings and use them as your garden tomato plants. Then pitch the rest of the original plants.

Many discussions here about how to root cuttings/make clones for planting.

Dave

It's unclear--are your plants already in the ground? Because that will make a big difference in how to approach the problem.

Good point GB. I had read it as still transplants rather than garden plants. If they are already planted out in the garden then there is little you can do now to slow growth. Perhaps the person who will be caring for them while you are away would be willing to pick and freeze for you as well as keep them in some order.

Dave

They are in the ground already, so I can't control the temperature. I had hoped, my roommates could take care of the plants, but they won't have the time or nerve to take care of all the plants as it will be a busy time of year for them. I kind of went a little crazy at planting time. I just love my homegrown tomatoes so much and there are so many varieties... I guess, I had just hoped, that by pinching off the very top of the shoots, it would take the plants a little while to come up with a new plan and that would buy me some time. If the plants do recover just fine from loosing their tips and if I would remove not just their growth tips, but also most of the suckers until leaving, that might keep them in check some? I'm not a very experienced gardener and I don't usually prune my tomatoes, so I just really don't know how the respond to it...

I would hate to give up on these plants! But taking cuttings may work. That way, I will at least keep the varieties, which I am really excited about!

Well, they're 18 inches tall. If they aren't in the ground, they ought to be! In principle, pinching off indeterminate flowers will delay fruit production. But that won't slow the vegetative growth. Topping the plants will just make them wider and bushier. You need some help.

Agree. You are in a no win position without some substantial help if you have to be gone that long.

"If the plants do recover just fine from loosing their tips and if I would remove not just their growth tips, but also most of the suckers until leaving, that might keep them in check some?"

You do that you'll lose most all your production. Not only with removing what you can the suckers make the top growth grow even faster. If you are going to top them then leave at least most of the side shoots (suckers).

Dave

Here's a thought: cage them.

At 18" tall, you should still be able to get nice large cages around them without doing too much damage. That way, you can have your roommates just go out once or twice a week while you're gone and stuff any vines they see escaping the cages back in and take off any ripe fruit. No tying up involved.

Monitor the weather in your garden from where you'll be, and if it goes a week without rain with no rain in the immediate forecast, tell your roommates to water the tomatoes with [x] gallons of water (whatever you think would be appropriate for that time of year. If they're afraid they'll mess up, they would probably be more willing to help if you make it clear that you'll let them know exactly how much to water.

And any tomatoes that come ripe can be picked and eaten by your roommates or given away to your neighbors.

Since your original plan was to try to keep the plants from bearing (not practical), you don't lose a thing if whatever fruit comes ripe is eaten by someone besides you. You just want to make sure that ripe fruit is being removed regularly to prevent attracting critters with rotting fruit and whatnot.

I suppose disease and pests are a concern, but they would still be a concern if you had tried your original plan of cutting back the plants (not recommended). Hopefully, the fact that your month away will be early in the summer means that you won't have to worry too much about disease. As for pests... just cross your fingers, I guess, since your roommates don't have the knowledge to do anything about them.

Or you could see whether a neighbor who gardens would be willing to look in on the plants in exchange for whatever tomatoes and other veggies come ripe in your garden while you're away or even offer to pay them.

In the interest of preventing a mess with foliage, cages are a good idea. But I do think that pinching off the flowers will keep the plant from bearing ripe fruit for a while. The question is whether that just postpones the bearing until they don't get pinched, or whether that actually eliminates a fraction of the total productivity. As in, there are only so many flowers that the plant will produce. For a determinate, variety, no question that's the case. But for an indeterminate variety?

As said by Dave, pinching the main stem will encourage more side shoots. It will make the plant bushy and fat, if that is what you want.

Few of my tomatoes this year lost their main stem to freeze but survived. Now they have multiple branches growing. I like to let them stay bushy, even though as indet they have viney growth habit ( Mortgage Lifter, Hillbilly ....).

So the point iis that pinching the main off, especially early in the game would make a bushy plant. I shall see . I could be wrong.

Sey

Thank you so much, for all the thoughts!

The tomatoes are caged and on drip irrigation. It is very unlikely it will rain here in San Diego in the summer, so the watering should actually be easy. Loosing some tomatoes really wouldn't be the worst. I just want the plants to stay alive and in a more or less manageable form, so I can harvest some fruit, once I'm back. My nightmare would be arriving to a huge sprawling jungle, that needs to be cut back severely first thing, eliminating all the fruits and flowers then, when I am finally ready to harvest! My thought was, that way, the plants would be way more shocked and harvest would be delayed much longer, than if I'd try to keep them in check early. But apparently, with tomatoes, there is no such thing, as keeping them from just growing wild even for a while. If someone would be able to enjoy the fruit while I can't, that would be great. It's just a bad time for everyone around here to have another project to have to take care of, so I was trying to figure out a way to keep the burden low. I guess I will have to convince someone, that yummy tomatoes are worth the effort of just sticking the branches back in their cage every now and then.

Would doing that about once a week likely suffice? How much does a mature tomato plant grow in a week?

Sey,

would you think, the plants that lost their tips early will recover fully later? I do have a long growing season, basically until disease kills the plants. So your comment makes me think, that I COULD delay growth and still have a normally growing plant a little later in the season. I won't be able to support even bushier plants, but if I pinch back the top and remove some of the side shoots at the same time, so the plant will only be able to grow 1-2 shoots for the ones I cut, wouldn't that produce a plant that will grow just as it would have but just a little later?!

owlfisch, I don't know the details of timing for your season. But, though I've only been there once, IIRC, San Diego has very moderate temperatures through the whole summer, correct? So you don't have issues like having to account for production shutting down during ultra-hot months? You also don't have heavy foliage disease pressure, at least, not early in the summer, correct?

If so, then the fact that you'll be gone for a month early in the summer shouldn't be that big a deal. What would you do normally? You'd mostly be waiting for the tomatoes to fruit and ripen. Early tomatoes and cherries might be ripening then, but I'm guessing that, even in a normal year, you wouldn't really be harvesting until about time time you're due back home anyway, right?

I think you might be overthinking this. Just have someone go out every few days, poke the wayward vines back into the cages, and take off any ripe fruit if there is any. Promise that person a bottle of scotch or something as a reward. If irrigation is automated or at least easy for your roommates to turn on and off on a schedule, then that's not a problem, either. Give the plants a good feed before you go. Unless you get a plague of locusts or something equivalent or freak weather, I'm guessing things will work out fine. You'll be back just in time to enjoy picking all the tomatoes that are coming ripe.

Hello hello? What about pinching off the flowers as the OP originally suggested? For a period of a few weeks, that should prevent ripe fruit. The question is, as I asked before, whether doing that would decrease the ultimate productivity of the plants. As in, flowers you pinch off now is fruit you're not going to get later. If the issue is harvesting fruit to keep the fruit from mouldering and getting putrid, that seems a sensible way to avoid having regular visits for harvesting. If the issue is keeping the foliage under control, that's just a matter of giving it a push now and then, if in a cage. If you're going to ask for help, the latter is a lot easier.

I don't know for sure. But I'm guessing that pinching the flowers off is no big deal for an indeterminate plant. Indeterminate tomatoes are stubborn things. They find a way to keep producing as long as temps, sun, water, etc. will let them. So, yeah, culling the flowers and immature fruits before leaving for the month is an idea. But you'd still have to have someone make sure the plants are staying in their cages, so why not leave fruit for that person to enjoy? Unless all the roommates hate tomatoes, in which case, sure, cull the blooms and have a fried green tomatoes party before you leave.

Sey,
would you think, the plants that lost their tips early will recover fully later..

------------------------

Yes I am sure.

One of those that lost its growing tip/stem, regrew and now is flowering. The rest of them have 3 shoots of about 8" tall or so. They are bigger and healthier than my second batch of tomato plants.

sey

Since everybody seemed to agree on indeterminate tomatoes being stubborn things that should handle some abuse just fine, I just cut off all the tips and all but 2 suckers per stem of those plants that are bearing larger tomatoes and I may pull and replace my early tomatoes before I leave. After all the information I got here, I am still assuming that besides probably not yielding the best results and overall production, it might delay future flowering and vegetative growth at least for a little bit, so my plants will be more manageable for the time I'm gone. Tomato monsters can be very intimidating for non-gardeners! And since I planted early this year, they WILL be monsters by the end of spring. So yeah: I am actually just worried about overwhelming my friendly helpers, that would "only" have to push the plants in the cages and pick the fruit, which can be a lot for people, that are just not interested in a new pet :) I hear you guys, that this may not be ideal for the plants, but we do have a mild and very long growing season, so they'll have plenty time to recover and my chances for arriving to happy plants and roommates do seem to be higher.

So thanks for supporting my trust into these plants probably being just fine!

How long did it take that plant to grow and then flower again after the frost topped it? just curious, what kind of damage I just did to my poor little plants :)

Well, thought I'd report back: I don't think pinching the tomatoes made any noticeable difference in the growth of the tomato plants. It hasn't even been two weeks and I really can't even tell where I pinched the plants anymore. They have grown A LOT in the mean time. Pinching the tips DID delay flowering quite a bit, though. Which is at least part of what I wanted to prevent rotten fruit while I'm gone. But these plants seem to be very resilient against trying to slow their growth and keeping them a little more compact. Of course, I don't know how these plants would have done without the pinching...

I guess the advise NOT to pinchi tomato plants here where spot on. Doesn't seem to do much to the plants besides loosing the flowers of something like a couple weeks worth of fruit. Which is, again fine in my case, but usually not something one would want...

Thanks for reporting back. I wasn't clear on the original question, was it you wanted to suspend growth (vegetative and flowering), or just suspend flowering. It seems to jump around between the two ideas. The best non-destructive way I can think of to slow indeterminate growth is not to pinch anything except a few tip ends that might get messy if allowed to grow, sort of the normal pinching some do to keep it manageable and direct the plant's energies. Then the only way I know is to encourage fruiting by giving the plant extra care and optimal moisture, pollination, etc. Then rather than removing the tomatoes, it is the exact opposite: develop them and let the caretakers have them. Because I read this that you want to slow down the plants and the best way is to give them a full fruit load. Then just before you go, remove a few of the large leaves below that get full sunlight, the ones we love best, and you have cut your plant's energy source drastically. That will give the lull of the time you need if the objective is to have plants that grow the least mess by the time you're back. All the other suggestions were focused on removing plant load but keeping the plant on its roll. Big difference to me. Otherwise, and I don't recommend this but just through it out there to stir the pot. Get a trowel and make an equilateral triangle (three insertions) about 4 inches away from the stem as deep as you can go, covering about 25% of the arc. That will stunt and shock the plants and perhaps they will never be all they can be, but more than likely it will get the desired effect, because you have disrupted (and shocked) the logistics of production. This is all taboo to do, but then again, so is leaving big tomato plants unattended for a month which you have slaved over and filled with TLC... (I recommend going the fruit load route). Oh, as far as tucking in cages frequency, I have to do it every second day or risk snapping side shoots. I have six inch square hole mesh. This frequency will depend on your hole size, but I could never get away with a week during peak growing time. More like four days and a 33% break ratio for my set up at this point. However yours will be about 2 1/2 ft I think, and mine are about 5 now, so twice a week would be my guess. Then again what do you care if a few growing tips get broken as they tuck the longer guys. That is the idea anyways if I follow :-)

Cheers

PC

This is some really great information, PC!

My goal was keeping the plants as manageable as possible for the month that I'm gone. It seemed to me, that having no rotting fruit would would be the least I could do and slowing growth would be ideal. There is a lot of fruit on the plants now and I will stop pinching the flowers from now on and then remove the lower leaves before I go as you suggested. Disturbing the roots does seem to make a lot of sense, but I am unsure if I can get me to do that. Maybe just not quite as drastically...

Thanks a lot for all the ideas. I really don't know much about the growth of tomatoes, but what you said all made perfect sense to me!

Olga

Hi Olga,

The best approach is a combined approach I think. I thought I'd add that you might try a combined approach keeping in mind that early season tomatoes including cherries from blossom opening to ripe fruit are generally over 30 days in nice sunny conditions and later seasons are from blossom opening to ripe tomato are 45 days or more. For the specific varieties and conditions and places it is hard to guesstimate how long things will take but San Diego is a pretty mellow sounding place and you could guide yourself by taking the Days to Maturity (DTM) and subtracting 14 days from the fast maturing tomatoes and 21 days or more from the larger tomatoes from the DTM to get a ballpark of how much time you have too plan with. Lots of people criticize DTM's as being inapplicable to individual plant outs in home gardens with an infinite number of variables out there, but if you are worried about when the actual tomatoes start to be over mature add another week to the numbers. So a Sungold (DTM ~56) which is quite fast from freshly opened flower to overripe fruit will not happen in less than 40 days. A Better Boy (DTM ~72), perhaps 48 days. Then they have a week they can stay on the plant before making a mess, varmints aside... Just to get an idea of what you're dealing with, of course!

Good Luck!

PC