Forked tomato plant

I wonder if anyone can help. The main stem of one of my Sungold plants mysteriously forked into two but they are big leafy side branches and clearly are not going to produce trusses. I wonder why this has happened and if there is any remedy or is the plant done for? Thank you.

 

Keep the strongest and remove the weakest.
It will carry fruits.

 

Thanks for your reply. Both look mightily strong but neither like a main stem, just a regular side branch with lots of big leaves. I attach a picture of one of them.

 

Looking at your first photo - that show a leaf on the left, with what appears to the the main shoot (that looks damaged) on the right. If there is no leading shoot at the top, you can wait for a side-shoot to appear close to the top of the plant and that will be the new leading shoot.
If you have removed the side-shoots, then just wait - one will appear from somewhere

 

Right, so just cut the left one off then?

 

From your second picture, that’s a leaf node you are holding. Not the best detail, but your first picture indicates you have damaged/removed the main top shoot. As @Pete8 says you can wait for new shoots to appear (likely 2) , nip one out and off you go again. Only problem will be the delay. So just leave it for now.

 

No point in doing that- the left one is just leaf.
Neither photo shows the top of the whole plant so I'm trying to use my imagination, but if the one on the right is also just a leaf then there is no leading shoot.
Any remaining side shoot can be used to for a new top of the plant - it doesn't matter how low down it is.
If there are no remaining side shoots and the plant has no trusses on it then you could replace it.
But if you wait long enough it will produce further side shoots in a few weeks that can take over as the growing top of the plant.

 

...It's generally worth remembering that it's the leaves which produce the sugar which fill your tomatoes.
I have an ongoing internal wrangling over my sungolds - how many side shoots or multiple stems do I leave or remove? For me it's a balance between having as much growth, leaf area, and as many trusses as possible, without it becoming a hopeless tangle of a greenhouse that I can't get into.
I'm not producing commercially so I can be relaxed about multiple stemmed plants - I think most of my sungolds end up with 3 or 4 main stems.
...and I'm interested to let a few sideshoots develop later to use as cuttings to overwinter, so I can use their sideshoots as plants next year...

 

Nope!

 

Pete 8, you're right about the main stem where the scarring is, I thought it was a sucker yet seem to have removed the main growing tip!

Neither photo shows the top of the whole plant so I'm trying to use my imagination, but if the one on the right is also just a leaf then there is no leading shoot.

There is no top to the plant and it looks like the right one is just a leaf.

I guess I'll just wait then and hope to see something emerge. We have had such a rotten spring and summer so far that my plants are growing very slowly....

Thank you everyone for your advice.

 

Yes, everything is late this year thanks to the weather.
My tomatoes are growing well but my peppers are nowhere near the size they should be.

At some stage your plant will produce a side shoot - even from a place where you have removed one - eventually.
When that happens treat the side shoot as the new top of the plant and cut off everything above it - even if it's quite low down meaning you remove most of the existing plant, the shoot will grow quickly and there may be enough time left for some tomatoes to form.

 

Right, thanks.

 

I would also add that we worry too much about side shoots at times, and with some toms it is really hard to tell the growing tip from a shoot. It is best to remove shoots as they appear, but I've seen me remove shoots over 30cm because I've missed them or been away for a while.