Winter tomato pruning question

[Bob M]

5 weeks ago I planted out 4 new to me varieties of tomatoes as well as all of my other garden plants. Most were about a foot tall and no staking was needed when I left for a 2 week vacation. I returned to find an overgrown jungle and have worked hard to trim and stake them all up. Most plants are now over 4' tall and all are doing incredibly well but I've a question on pruning two types.

Brad's Atomic Grape and Barry's Crazy Cherry's have me stumped on whether two treat them as normal cherry tomatoes and not prune out suckers or
leaves, or treat them as a beefsteak indeterminate. What has been your experiences with them?

[pepperhead212]

I can't imagine leaving my tomatoes for 2 weeks, when they are a foot tall; in fact, I can't imagine leaving them for 2 days! As for the cherries, while I haven't grown those, I grow a lot of cherries, and I don't trim any of them early - just weave them through the trellises, and let them grow wild. All the suckers produce more fruits, and since they are small, it doesn't really matter, as it might with much larger fruits, in my experience. After they've produced is when they get trimmed, as with any indeterminate.

[Mark_Thompson]

I don’t know Brad, but I know Barry, and that one I wouldn’t prune, let it go hog wild

[mama_lor]

Pruning is mostly a matter of how much weight per cluster can a variety produce. Is the max weight very small? Than it would greatly benefit from having more stems. So cherries and other smaller varieties with little fruit per cluster would fit in this category. Atomic grape does like 8-10 per cluster so certainly don't prune too much. Barry can be pruned to one stem no problem.

There's then a second consideration, imo less important than the first, and that is how much green mass can the roots of a certain variety support. Which is why cherries of all kind can generally get away with less pruning than bigger varieties.

[bower]

The only stems I prune on a cherry or small fruit are the ones at the bottom of the plant or near there. I don't find those suckers produce as well, they tend to be more of a foliage tax, and they have the risk of getting rots by contact with the ground.
My favorite suckers to keep are from a foot above ground and upwards to chest height. Above that I will prune them too because they are going to be too sky high for easy maintenance or pickin. But the alternative of hooking them down and training horizontal also works if you want to fill a huge space with one plant. Cherries are monsters.