THE EFFECT OF STAKING AND PRUNING ON TOMATO PLANTS

Abstract

The fact that these trials were established under irrigation by the furrow system must be clearly emphasized. In this way it seems that the possibilities of increasing the amount of unmarketable fruit in the unstaked plants are greatly favored because a large percentage of the fruit clusters lie in direct contact with the water soaked soil when irrigation is practiced. The main argument offered, by vegetable growers' who stake and prune their tomatoes is that such cultural methods tend to increase marketable yields because the fruit clusters develop high above the soil, free from dirt. Nevertheless, the two trials conducted at the Isabela Substation show conclusively that pruning and staking tomato plants reduce considerably yields of marketable and total amount of fruit as long as the same number of plants are kept constant in the different practices compared. These results are in accord with the abundant evidence presented by Thompson (7) on these practices with trials he conducted in New York State and with the profuse, literature he has reviewed on this subject. In the trials conducted in Australia Strickland (6) concluded that staking and pruning of unstaked plants were of doubtful value, except on limited areas.