[John]

They grow Piccolo here https://www.thanetearth.com/our-products/tomatoes Jambop, and flog them to Tesco! I did challenge them a couple of years ago, as they claimed that their tom stems reached 8 metres!

When I have less time, I'll see if they altered that...;0)

When I visited Flavourfresh back in 2008 they had stems that long. Combination of climate control, enhanced CO2, computer controlled hydroponic growing feed solution and grafted plants. I'm sure 27 trusses per plant was mentioned.
Picking was done from lifting platforms.
Incidentally, the bio-security rivalled a hospital (pre-pandemic) to prevent viral diseases getting in.
https://www.allotment-garden.org/garden-diary/236/visit-to-flavourfresh-tomatoes/

[jambop]

I grow my Picollo F1's as bush plants. Then in a normal season produce about 15 trusses of perfect really sweet tomatoes... this year they are late and have a touch of blight but I still hope that we will get some nice trusses. My Roma and San Marzano have some nice trusses but they are all green so I am hoping for some summer weather soon to bring them along. I usually conserve all of those so lateness is not a problem provided the ripen and blight is not an ongoing problem.

[Growster...]

Hellfire John, that's a heck of a size plant, but just checking their site they actually claim a stem length of 15 metres, that's nearly fifty feet - six storeys on an average house!

I'm sure their greenhouses aren't that tall, so have to assume that they drop the lower parts of the stem when each truss has finished!

I don't really mind of course, as they are doing a great job in Thanet - you can see their greenhouses for miles!

[mumofstig]

I'm sure their greenhouses aren't that tall, so have to assume that they drop the lower parts of the stem when each truss has finished!

Yes, they do, pictures somewhere of the stems laying down, bending round at the back end of the row and growing back up again in the next row...

[John]

Commercial growers do drop the strings as things go on but those glasshouses are pretty big. I reckon the roof was about 12m to the peaks, but that's a guess.

[Kleftiwallah]

A slight deviation from the discussion.
I should like the 'vegetable scientific manipulators ' reduce the gap between trusses on the tomato plants, (In my greenhouse anyway).

Cheers,   Tony.

[snowdrops]

I’m intending on trying to lower the strings on my tunnel toms this year,  fingers crossed, first time  for everything as it’s my first year with the tunnel (think the roof  is 2.4 m, hubby informs me). I’ve got gripple wires from crop bar to crop bar & the strings are tied to the gripple wires.

[John]

Be careful lowering the plants - too fast and you may snap the stem, which I've seen done.

[Growster...]

Some soft fruits, like rasps like being bent over at the top, and it's said that they fruit better that way. I think I agree, but I used to just tie them horzontally along a wire about 4 ft off the ground. I don't bother now, as Joan J are so late and flourish well anyway, but why not consider doing this to toms?

Our GH toms are right up into the roof of the GH and the decision now, is whether to move them around, or cut one's losses and pinch them out...

A good chum lets her toms go well into the late autumn, with some at 10 ft or more, but then, she has a GH as big as the Albert Hall...

[John]

I find that the humidity here being in wet Wales near the coast means we're battling fungal disease at the end of the season. So keeping them going too long is pointless

[jambop]

I find that the humidity here being in wet Wales near the coast means we're battling fungal disease at the end of the season. So keeping them going too long is pointless

With normal conditions I can keep my plants until the start of October and sometimes near the end but this year we are getting some very strange weather. Today it is really quite chilly for the time of year probably about 22 max today. Tomatoes will grow in these temperatures but we need some sunshine to get the plants growing. I am quite concerned because I like to get my tomatoes bottled with a good sugar content you need some sun for that.

[Growster...]

I find that the humidity here being in wet Wales near the coast means we're battling fungal disease at the end of the season. So keeping them going too long is pointless

I'd not considered that, John. As we still have a doxen or so frozen bags of toms from last year, We may well need them for the coming season...

[John]

The other thing to consider is light levels fall off and winter daylength reduces - more so as you go north.  But we get longer midsummer days
Light levels do affect tomatoes a lot - hence the huge investment into glass houses rather than polytunnels by commercial growers looking to extend the season.

[jambop]

The other thing to consider is light levels fall off and winter daylength reduces - more so as you go north.  But we get longer midsummer days
Light levels do affect tomatoes a lot - hence the huge investment into glass houses rather than polytunnels by commercial growers looking to extend the season.

The daylight thing is funny down here. We get much less in terms of long summer evenings but in the winter we get much longer daylight hours in winter it does not get dark until about 5.30pm. So it is good in the spring for getting seeds germinated and things in the ground growing in early February but in the summer it is usually dark by 10pm . I am sure we get our fair share of light it just comes at different times
At the moment I have a lot of tomatoes growing on the vines and if I can just get them ripened I will have plenty for bottling for the winter. Summer salad use is going to be late though mid August probably

[John]

I am sure we get our fair share of light it just comes at different times

I'm sure you do but our summer days are longer and winter shorter whereas your daylengths are more equal. The weather variations seem to be getting wilder, something the met office and climate scientists agree. Summer weather early in spring, cool summer suddenly changing to heatwave all confuses the plants as much if not more than the gardener!