[colin120]

Hi all
       My tom plant is getting very tall, & has not got any flowers on as yet shall I snip the top of the plant to stop it growing any higher & to help to produce the flowers. also where do I snip it  off.

This tom plant is in my garden my other tom plants  I transferred to my allotment are half the size of this one but have flowers starting to open ??

Thanks for your feed back
Colin

[3759allen]

i'm not sure why you haven't got any flowers yet. but i would say that they have plenty of growing in them yet, mine are 6- 8 feet tall and still producing flowers.

when was the plant sown? looks relatively young.

i take it that it's being grown outside?

what is it being grown in?

[snowdrops]

Just leave it, I can see some flower buds on it, first picture in front of the fence post but at the back of the plant, looks like it has 2 main stems

[mumofstig]

and it probably shouldn't have 

Have a look at how to prune tomatoes on this thread......
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=115907.msg1338838#msg1338838

[colin120]

Just leave it, I can see some flower buds on it, first picture in front of the fence post but at the back of the plant, looks like it has 2 main stems

yes it does have two main stems, my other five tom plants at the allotment also have two main stems but are half the size, they all was sown at the beginning of May, all I know is they are vine toms

[mumofstig]

and vine toms should really only have only 1 stem ...........

[colin120]

and vine toms should really only have only 1 stem ...........

I will sound silly here but how did they all get two stems then ?? my first time growing toms, my first time growing anything

[colin120]

My other toms at the allotment

[mumofstig]

and vine toms should really only have only 1 stem ...........

I will sound silly here but how did they all get two stems then ?? my first time growing toms, my first time growing anything

Because you didn't pinch out the side shoots, look at the pruning video in the link above - then you'll know what to do next time a side shoot grows

[Headgardener22]

and vine toms should really only have only 1 stem ...........

I know that the accepted wisdom is that we should grow indeterminate tomatoes as a single cordon BUT, in North America they grow them outdoors in cages and pick what's available AND last year my heaviest cropper had three vines (because I forgot to take off the sideshoots).

So this year I am trying an experiment to grow some as single cordons and others allowing two, three or four stems from a single plant.

So far there's no obvious disadvantage, I've got more flower trusses (still got 4/5 on the main shoot and 1/2/3 on sideshoots).

I am suffering from aborted flowers but that's on all of the plants (not just the ones with multiple stems) because I'm not being able to control the temperature in the polytunnel very well and its going up to 45/50 in this bright sunny weather.

My expectation is that I will get more tomatoes with multiple stems but I might also get more green tomatoes as they are flowering later than the plants with only one stem.

[spuriousmonkey]

At home I grow my indeterminates as a single vine. On the allotment they can do whatever they want.

It works both ways.

But there is nothing prettier than a single-vined indeterminate tomato plant on a string.