Beef Tomatoes.

Hi chums. In the greenhouse I have some beef tomatoes, Fawyort or something ? Any road up, how many trusses and how many to a truss should I go for ?
Cheers...freddy.

 

I think number of trusses in a greenhouse is based on two things:

1) If the plants hit the roof then you either have to "stop" them, or "lay" then - lower them down, along the ground, and then up the next cane/support along, or skip a support and up a support two further down; this is, in effect, what they do commercially - they train up string which is held on a special peg (i.e. twisted round it to hold a ball of string) which is on a training wire, a bit of string is unwound and the peg/ball of string moved a bit further along.

2) "Stop" the plant one month (say) before the first frost, to give time for the remaining fruit to ripen. I'm guessing one month is about right.

I think the whole idea of "grow N Trusses" is flawed because it depends on when the seed was sown, and how well / fast the plants have grown, whereas in fact they will produce fruit continuously until the temperature gets too cold ...

 

Hi Kristen. Do you therefore say that the same applies to beef tomatoes ? Having just checked elsewhere (before I saw your post) it SAYS to stop after 4 trusses. It didn't however say how many to a truss.
Cheers...freddy.

 

I think a truss is a truss - it holds however many fruit "set". I don't grow Beef Toms, so I don't know for sure, but I've never heard of thinning a Tomato truss (thinning grape bunches, yes, but I can't remember reading of thinning anything else)

It may be that a Beef Tomato plant can't successfully hold more then 4 trusses, but I think the norm for seed packet instructions is to decide on a number of trusses that represents a "normal average gardeners growing season" - which we all know is a very wet-finger-in-air approach!

Hopefully someone more knowledgeable on Beef Tomatoes can confirm if the plant needs to be "restricted in output", or "stop well before first frost"

 

hi freddy this is last years crop i had 6 truss on mine

 

Hi there. Those look like Marmande. I thought they were meant ONLY for outside growing ?
Cheers...freddy.

 

I've grown beef toms but like JWK, not too successfully. The first truss would always have a few decent sized tomatoes and it was downhill from there on. :hehe: So limiting the trusses to three or even two and thinning them makes sense. I also think they are hungry feeders and need more frequent liquid feeds and of course lots of water. Good luck.

 

Interesting thread guys, please keep it going, as I have some "Armish Paste" growing for the first time and I think they tend to be a bit large beefish type.
robert

 

I have put a note on the door to feed my beefy toms tomorrow! I have loads of small green toms on it at the moment, not usually a variety that I grow but thought I'd try this year. I have italian plum tomatoes and oodles of gardeners delight - they are always a failsafe option.

 

Hi folks. My 'gut' feeling is to restrict it to 4 trusses and 4 per truss. If no-one says otherwise, that's what I'm gonna do :thumb:
Cheers...freddy.

 

Well, that can't do any harm :thumb: - other than "cap" your yield. Better to get some decent fruit though, I reckon.

 

Just checked Dr Hessayon and for the beefsteak variety "Big Boy" he says "The most popular giant, producing fruit which weighs 1 lb or more. For this sort of size disbud to three fruits per truss"

Of Beefsteaks Joy Larkcom says "Rarely performs well outdoors in cool climates"

 

There is so much data in there, so succinctly presented, that it takes some reading to extract all the nuggets. A good memory would probably help - at least you know where your copy is :D