Tomato and Onion questions...

[Beekissed]

1. Tomatoes: Do you guys sucker anyway if the sucker has bloom forming? Even my small, new suckers seem to be sprouting bloom! I've never had them set bloom until they were sizable. Up til now, I have left them on the vine if they were big enough to bloom....but this is a whole new situation! I have had some very fine tomatoes grow on sucker branches in the past, but was wondering just where to draw the line?

2. Onions: I have planted Walla Wallas and Candies and was wondering what is the tallest of these that you've ever seen? I have had no experience with these since I was young and can't remember back that far. I have some planted between the tomatoes in a SFG spacing and was afraid that they would get too shaded by the tomatoes (on a teepee trellis) eventually. It appears they are fighting for sunlight....they are a couple inches shy of a yard tall right now!!! How tall can I expect them to get? Does too much top growth mean little bulb growth or does the bottom grow accordingly? As we still have alot of growing season left, was wondering just how tall they will get????

 

[bunch-a-chickens]

i can't really answer your questions, but do you know where all the little shoots come off the walla walla onions? about a half an inch above that is where you can clip them when they're young so that they produce more root and less shoot(and seeds)

 

[Grow 4 Food]

I never prune my tomatoes. However my DW grandpa had 24in across cages that his grow in. If it sticks out he cuts it off! Never tucks anything back into it and always has more than he know what to do with.

Onion = couldn't tell you. That is one of the few things that I have never been able to grow.

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

Removing suckers is only done for two reasons. One, to ensure optimum fruit size and two, to keep the plant contained. Suckers will produce fruit but this may make your overall harvest larger with possibly smaller fruits. IME, it really doesn't make that much of a difference unless you're trying to grow a 3 pound fruit for show. As far as keeping the plants contained, well that's entirely up to you.

Our onions get about 2-3 feet tall too, so I wouldn't worry too much. You can see the base right? As long as the base stem is thickening up it shouldn't be a problem.

Good luck

 

[Beekissed]

So, OCF, does this mean the onion's bulbs will grow along with the rest, or is the top growth stealing from the bulb? I would prefer to have big bulbs than big tops!

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

So, OCF, does this mean the onion's bulbs will grow along with the rest, or is the top growth stealing from the bulb? I would prefer to have big bulbs than big tops!

You can always use green onions

I want to say yes, you shouldn't have a problem because I haven't ever had one or heard of someone not yielding good onions from good tops. As long as they were planted early enough there should be a problem. I have heard of people cutting the tops to encourage root growth but I'm not sure how effective that could be.

They also may just be growing tall to get to the sun.

How long have they been in the ground? Are you noticing bulb growth?

 

[Beekissed]

They've been in the ground since the middle of May and I haven't checked the bulbs yet....didn't want to jump the gun! The tops are very thick and dark green! I don't particularly like green onion tops, myself, so am anxious about the bulbs. Hope to store some for winter. I will check the bulbs tomorrow and see if they are developing but don't know just how big they should be in correlation to the tops at this point of growth. Do you?