The other day I tweeted about pruning and maintaining a certain number of tomatoes per bunch and a certain young man asked me why. He was especially interested in why one should bother removing extra fruits or flowers. I answered him to the best of my knowledge and I know he learned something at the end of the day.
The question made me realize the knowledge gap out there when it comes to tomatoes. We have many young people with passion and resources but handicapped when it comes to management of tomatoes. You can of course hire someone to do it for you but even bosses have to know the basics. That is precisely why I started this blog. And today I’m going to share with the rest of you this crucial tomatoe management tip.
I always say tomatoes are among the most sensitive crops. It needs special attention from the nursery to the last day. You have to be gentle with it like a toddler. It’s fragile, so while staking and training you have to make sure it doesn’t snap under your fingers, and pests and diseases love it. A customer once asked me why the tomato seeds are much cheaper than the onion seeds which are sold exorbitantly in our local agrovets.
This is what I told her: apart from the fact that most of the onion seeds we buy in Kenya are propagated somewhere else and then imported into the country which impacts the prices unlike tomatoes seeds which are made in the country, tomatoes require much more resources to grow than onions.
Back to the topic, from the basic agriculture, pruning is among the essential field practices in all crops. You need it to get rid of extra vegetation which might harbor pests and hinder penetration of pesticides while spraying, and the extra unnecessary vegetation such as suckers lead to smaller fruits. It also ensures only strong, healthy parts are left. This among other reasons I haven’t named here. Tomato being a fruit crop, is no difference. It requires pruning.
In tomato pruning we remove extra suckers and leave out a maximum of three depending on the size of fruits you want. The size of fruits of course depends on your market. So if you only maintain one main stem or with an extra sucker you’re likely to get big sized tomatoes because there’s no competition for resources among the suckers.
To the tomato bunch management which equally plays an important role in determining the fruit size, you need to maintain a certain number of fruits per bunch as well depending on your clientele. For bigger fruits, maintain less than five fruits.
To tomato farmers out there, I hope this post helps you in achieving your desirable quality of tomatoes. To young farmers planning to get into the business, I hope you’ve learned something. Leave your feedback to let me know your thoughts on the matter. You can leave a comment or reach me by email: lazarusmarson@gmail.com. On Twitter: Money in Agribusiness @lazarus_marson