Well this is my first time using Better Boy's. They are holding up pretty well despite the torrential rainfall and now the heat they are dealing with. I have been pruning the suckers off of them since I first planted them in the garden. It's producing some excellent size tomatos. Much larger than my beefsteaks last year thank god..however, I read online that you dont need to prune the suckers off the plant since its indeterminate and it can actually cause the plant to go into shock and die. Does anyone else prune their better boys or should I stop while Im ahead?
Better Boy Tomato Plants
- Thread starter Patrick M
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If it works don't fix it. Here in Texas with our intense sunlight it is not recommended to prune anything except at the very bottom of the plant in order to improve air circulation and help reduce effects of Early Blight. Be sure to heavily mulch all around the base of the plant in order to keep the soil off of the leaves during heavy rain, keep the soil cooler and reduce watering
Chuck thank you very much for your advice! I must say, so far pruning the suckers have done pretty well. The plants are still somewhat relatively small, about two and a half feet tall. But my strongest plant already has about nine tomatos on it, but I think once they get a little larger, I may do as you said and stop pruning the suckers. Maybe it will help provide a little more shade once the heat really kicks into full effect. Ill be running to home depot tomorrow and getting more mulch, I thought I had put enough down but once everything settled It can definitely use some more. Thanks again!!
Thanks for the reply IcyBC! Last year I didnt prune the suckers either, my super sweet 100's produced more than me and the fam could snack on but my beefsteaks did horrible. Come to find out beefsteaks dont really do too great in my neck of the woods so that is most likely why. I'm going to stop pruning too and just start letting them do their own thing. I figured they know better than me what they need lol
If I prune my tomatos, in my climate, I get a lot of sunburned fruit.
I often raise Betterboy tomatos, as it is a reliable tomato in Kansas, and I simply never prune them. Ever. I want the foliage to cover the fruit.
I often raise Betterboy tomatos, as it is a reliable tomato in Kansas, and I simply never prune them. Ever. I want the foliage to cover the fruit.
That makes a lot of sence. I think my tomato plants have seen the last days of pruning lol
Sometimes a person's climate does count: in an area that is humid and overcast it is wise to prune to allow air circulation. Where I live the late summer is hot, sunny and dry and so I do not prune so that the fruit gets some shade.
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Having done years of experimenting with literally dozens of tomato varieties the best large tomato variety I have found so far are Cherokee Purple for this area
Yea I agree, where my garden is located it gets hardly any wind so air circulation worried me a little bit. Especially since I have such a small garden to work with at the moment. In the summer we normally get upwards of 100-110 degree heat, so I think the shade will help alot.
Last year I produced no tomatos during the summer because of the heat, had a terrible case of blossom drop. It had plenty of shade too since I did not prune, this year I think I will try to make some sort of shade cover for them. Something to help prevent the pollen in the blossoms from getting too hot. I have full sun where they've and in the texas summer that can be rough
I really want to try those but trying to get my wife to eat a tomato that isn't the normal color is a little bit of a task lol. I think next year I will plant some, and just plant her some of the normal maters.
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I'm the opposite of your wife - I look for "not normal" tomatoes to grow every year! Right now I have Cherokee Purple, Lemon Boy, Pineapple-Something (green skin and orange flesh), Mr Stripey (green and yellow pretty striped tomatoes) and little yellow pear cherry tomatoes in the ground. Last year I had some variety of black cherry tomatoes that produced amazingly well...my avatar shows some of last year's harvest, come to think of it. Many of the funny-colored tomatoes are low acid and very sweet. I experiment with different ones every year.
As to the pinching and pruning - I don't. I'll pinch off the very lower-most leaves at planting and occasionally during the growing season but otherwise I let the plants do their thing with minimal intervention. I don't live in a wildly-sunny region so don't have issues with sunburn. The last couple of years were very rainy and I had issues with splitting tomatoes from too much water and late blight on a couple of the plants.