Do tomatoes produce new fruit after topping and harvesting?

2 years ago

Hi, so I am trying something new, by growing some tomatoes in a grow tent! I am in the UK with a short summer which normally means I can grow a plant to fruit just in time for winter. One single fruit session.

I will normally let it grow to the point where it has enough fruit branches (4 or 5 yields plenty per plant!) on the vine and then top, which will ripen the fruit and that's it, until next year. Mainly because it gets cold and it snows!

However with a tent I can create a permanent summer and an indet. variety will just 'keep growing'.

My question is this: Once I have grown the plant to around the size and fruit bearing that I want, I assume I top it normally (my plan is to keep a single main stem and remove suckers, the tent isnt huge!) and the fruit will ripen as normal. But what happens then? Will the plant try to flower again/more? Does it need the main stem to create new leaves or will new fruiting branches and suckers appear below where I topped? My sense is the plant will be 'used' once I top it and will not grow any more flowers/fruit below where I topped? My work around would be to simply start a new plant about a month later (sticking a sucker in the ground seems to work!) but I will start to run out of space with 10 plants all in varying stages of growth. First prize would be that the original plant just keeps growing tomatoes even though I have topped it!

I apologise if it's a stupid question but what can I expect from a plant that is grown to a certain size, supported/trellised and topped, AFTER the first fruit has been taken from the plant? Will it continue to make tomatoes? Remember I will have already removed the top/main stem at about the top of the tent at this stage, we can't keep going up indefinitely! :)

I have good quality lights and humidity/temp control so in theory if the plant is happy to keep banging out fruit, will it?

Thanks in advance! Neo.

Comments (3)

Labradors
2 years ago
It will have to spend a lot of time and energy growing new branches but, yes, it will continue to bear fruit - that's assuming that it's indeterminate not a determinate variety (which fruits all at once and then stops).

Here's a thought. Have you tried growing dwarf or compact plants in your greenhouse? They would not need topping and you would get a continuous harvest all season long, however long it is in your toasty greenhouse :). There are lots of dwarf varieties available these days, thanks to the Dwarf Project. They need 5 gallon containers to grow in. Compacts are much the same. Bulgarian Triumph is a favourite of mine, as is EM Champion (if you can find seeds). Some can even grow in 3 gallon sized containers. I love Maglia Rosa for that, and it's an early one too :).

Linda
Neo P
Original Author
2 years ago
Hi Linda!

The main contributing factor is the size of the grow tent, its not an actual greenhouse its the shiny on the inside 'boxes' used for more popular *cough* herb growing and I have about 10 plants in it already, so having a number of plants each growing at different stages isn't practical only because of space.

In a perfect world I would like 2-3 plants, each standing maybe a metre high, all producing fruit at their own pace. There isn't any huge pressure to have them generating boxes of tomatoes, just a bunch every now and then. I guess my question is if its possible, I would have no choice but to just keep recycling them from small to grown but this sounds like a lot of work.

My common sense thought was once you top it (as I said this is a limitation on the actual size of the growing tent, it only stands about a metre tall from floor to roof so the plant is going to have to stay inside that space!) thats it. Top it and it doesn't make any more fruit. From what you say, while it will not be as pronounced as the first crop, with light and warmth and food it will continue to make fruit?

I have a friend who has had a cherry tomato plant on his kitchen windowsill for about 5 years and it quietly just keeps making them, so theres something out there like it!

I'll look at the dwarf suggestions though, see what there is available locally. Thank you for your reply. Neo.
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Labradors
2 years ago
You are welcome Neo! If you want something a metre tall, look for Maglia Rosa. One of the benefits of this variety is that it tastes good at any stage of ripeness, so it can be enjoyed at first blush. A few others in that size range would be Russian Cherry, Pipo, and Jagodka which all do well in 3 gallon containers and stay about 3" tall. You could even investigate micro tomatoes which can grow in 1-gallon containers. Red Robin is a good one.

Linda