15 



EXPERIMENTS GIVING 'I'HE RESULTS OF DIFFKREN'J' 

 METHODS OF PRUNING TOMATOES. 



The pruning of tomato plants is quite extensively practiced in 

 various parts of the United States on outdoor crops, and it is excep- 

 tional when indoor crops do not receive pruning. Pruning is largely 

 practiced for restricting the growth of vines, and for the purpose of 

 obtaining larger and better fruit. At the same time better light con- 

 ditions prevail as a result of pruning and this is advantageous in 

 ripening the fruit. It is generally maintained, moreover, that the 

 maturity of fruit is hastened by pruning. In the greenhouse where 

 space is valuable it is quite essential that the largest and best crops 

 should be grown on the least possible area consistent with hygienic 

 conditions. 



Various methods of pruning and training are in vogue and they all 

 have special features to commend them. The various systems of 

 pruning accomplish certain results, although there is a difference of 

 opinion as to which is the best system to practice when some practi- 

 cal object is in view. Cultural conditions, such as arise from differ- 

 ences in the soil, moisture and light, available plant food, distance of 

 planting, depth of soil, etc., play a more or less important role in 

 modifying the results of experimentation, and the conclusions arrived 

 at in these experiments should be interpreted with these facts in mind. 

 We have observed a crop of tomatoes pruned to a single stem that 

 had stalks an inch or more in diameter, and which grew some 25 feet 

 or more long, that produced little or no fruit. This crop had practi- 

 cally run to vines. This was due to nothing more nor less than sup- 

 plying the plants with an abnormally large amount of water under 

 peculiar circumstances. The tomato plant, besides forming a number 

 of axillary shoots or suckers usually develops two or three strong 

 main stalks or branches. Most of the methods of pruning in vogue 

 consist in nipping out these axillary growths or suckers, thus allow- 

 ing the leader and one or more of the strong branches to develop, as 

 the case may be. This was the method of growing the plants employed 

 by us in these experiments. That is, in our two and three shoot sys- 

 tem, etc., we made use of the leader and one or more of the naturally 

 strong branches, but in no instance did we utilize suckers for bearing 



