How do I support heavy beefsteak tomatoes?
Mary Chriscoli, by email
Stefan says: Yours is a fairly familiar story; you have taken over the vegetable growing since your husband died, but without the knowledge he had. This year, a major problem has arisen with your beefsteak tomatoes. They are too heavy for their supports. You confess, however, to not having been as efficient as you might at removing the sideshoots. I feel that is the problem.
The reason for removing sideshoots is to encourage the plant to develop on one strong stem and not several. I grow two or three of the large beefsteak tomatoes by ring culture in the greenhouse every year: ‘Costoluto Fiorentino’, ‘Gigantomo’, ‘Brandy Boy’ and so on, and by limiting the plant size and number of tomatoes, the fruit remain well-supported.