Cherry Tomato Update

My first four Cherry Tomato plants have been in the ground for six weeks now.   

The plants have been growing well, with lots of leaves and flowers.

The growth has been somewhat uneven.  The picture at the top shows, from left to right, a Sugar Snack, a Sun Sugar, a Sun Cherry Extra Sweet and a Sun Gold. The Sun Sugar and the Sun Gold plants have grown much more fuller than the Sun Cherry Extra Sweet and the Sugar Snack.  I think this is due to genetics, as last year my Sun Sugar and Sun Gold plants grew to be giants.

One thing different this year is that I am not pruning the side shoots from the Cherry Tomato plants.  In the past, I had use Tomato Cages that I had bought from Home Depot.  These Tomato cages were cone shaped and were only 1' foot in diameter at the base. 

I had to prune the side shoots so that the Cherry Tomato plants would not escape the boundaries of the 1' foot diameter and lose their support.

This year, I am using Texas Tomato Cages that are 2' feet in diameter from top to bottom.  The Texas Tomato Cage easily contains the side shoots.  All I have to do is occasionally tuck the shoots back inside the cage if they escape.

As a result, I have much more flowers than I had last year.

I realize that eventually even the Texas Tomato Cage will not contain the side shoots.  But the shoots at the bottom of the plant will yield more fruit than shoots at the top, so it will not matter much if I need to prune the side shoots at that time.