140 
The Garden Magazine, November, 1920 
Pruning and Training 
T O LET a Tomato plant spread on the ground and grow as 
it will is wasteful. During the past ten years perhaps a 
dozen different methods of growing pruned plants have been 
tried out. The fruit produced under such natural conditions is 
inferior in size to that of the pruned plant, is frequently ill-shaped 
and of uneven ripening; and the fruit that does develop normally 
is subject to rot and attack by insects. My records over a num- 
ber of seasons show the average loss of fruits from such causes 
to be about 25 per cent, of the whole. 
The Tomato is an exceedingly rank grower, and unless its ten- 
dency to make a big plant is checked and directed into other 
channels, it will make about ten times as much herbage as is 
necessary. Different methods of growth, of course, necessitate 
different methods of staking. 
Under truck-growing conditions it is not practical to tie the 
individual plant to an individual stake. The most widely prac- 
tical way is to drive a stout post every fifteen feet along the row, 
and to stretch three lines of wire twelve to eighteen inches apart 
between the posts. The plants are generally reduced to the 
main stem, and the strongest branches. Setting the plants 
about two feet apart in the row with three-and-a-half feet be- 
tween the rows allows for the maximum crop with horse cultiva- 
tion. After the plants have reached the top wire cultivation 
stops. Strawy manure spread between the rows prevents the 
evaporation of moisture and the hardening of the soil. At Liv- 
ingston’s extensive trial grounds, where part of the plants are 
handled in this fashion, it was demonstrated that late cultivation 
among rows of staked Tomatoes so severely pruned the ever 
spreading roots that the crop was affected. 
Under home garden conditions the general practice is to pro- 
MANYFOLD, PRUNED TO FOUR STALKS 
Displays a vigorous response to proper treatment, which 
varies, of course, according to the requirements of differ- 
ent Tomatoes. The heavy-fruited Ponderosa, for example, 
must be much more rigorously pruned as the weight of 
fruitage any one plant can sustain is of necessity limited 
When he has raised a crop like this! Bonny Best has again 
proved itself a successful blight-resister; its scarlet fruit, 
medium in size, is excellent for table use and for canning 
vide a six foot stake for each plant and to reduce that plant early 
in its life to the three strongest branches. This is all right with 
most varieties but there are exceptions. For example, Ponder- 
osa, the strongest and rankest growing of any, should not be 
allowed more than two branches for the simple reason that the 
plant is not strong enough to support all the fruit that three 
branches would bear. 1 have seen heavy clusters of Ponderosa 
ripped down the stems, because the weight was too great for 
the branches to support. On the other hand, the smaller fruited 
varieties (Manyfold, for example) may have four branches 
trained up the stake. 
About Blight Resistance 
T HIS summer (with its great contrasts of very cool weather, 
followed by short hot spells, and long wet spells followed by 
intensely cool dry spells) brought an excellent opportunity to 
study the relative blight resistance of what 1 consider the best 
and most distinct types. In order of their merit, they are: 
Globe, purple; Bonny Best, bright red; Manyfold, bright red; 
John Baer, bright red; Stone, bright red; Coreless, scarlet; 
Beauty, purple; Magnus, purple; Ponderosa, purple; Earliana, 
scarlet. 
This would seem to indicate that on the whole, the scarlet 
varieties are more blight-resistant than the purple ones, with the 
exception of Livingston’s Globe which, as a blight resister, is in 
a class of its own. Globe is really the variety that has made 
Florida famous as a producer of perfect tomatoes in recent years 
— growers in that state some fifteen years ago were about ready 
to give up growing tomatoes for northern markets. Wherever 
blight affects the home tomato crop this variety should be given 
a thorough trial. Incidentally it may be added that Ponderosa 
proved to be a most susceptible variety — but it has size! 
Milliners and members of the artificial flower trade at all 
events will be glad to learn that the “red Poppy of France” 
has been selected bv the American Legion as its official emblem 
to be worn on Armistice Day, November eleventh! — A pretty 
bit of sentiment but Papaver Rhoeas has the unfortunate 
habit of flowering in midsummer! 
