- Ideal tool: two pointed fingers
- Cocktail tomatoes on a trellis - there is no need to skimp
- tips and tricks
Like all tomato varieties, cocktail tomatoes strive for lush branching. If you prefer to harvest tasty fruits, you can decide to use them regularly. We reveal how it works and present an alternative.
Ideal tool: two pointed fingers
A little attention and two pointed fingers are all you need to properly cut out cocktail tomatoes. It starts immediately after planting outdoors, in the greenhouse or on the windowsill. The tomato plant diligently forms an abundance of superfluous stinging shoots that branch out into an impenetrable thicket. These superfluous side shoots have to give way if tasty cocktail tomatoes are to develop. That's how it's done:
- remove the small stinging shoot in the leaf axil from a size of 3 to 5 centimeters
- between two fingers and break out to the side
- preferably carry out this care measure early in the morning
Leave stinging shoots that are too long on the cocktail tomato because they cause too large a wound on the plant. In this case, pinch off the shoot tip without further ado, so that at least no energy-sapping flowers develop.
Cocktail tomatoes on a trellis - there is no need to skimp
Where a cocktail tomato is allowed to grow airy and loose, there is no need for regular pinching. Cultivation on a trellis is an excellent option. The tendrils of the tomato plant find sufficient support and can be guided upwards at a sufficient distance. In this way, practical ripening floors are created on which each region is supplied with sufficient light and air.
- Plant the preferred cocktail tomato in a 12 liter pot
- insert the first module of the trellis
- place the lower tendrils over the supports and tie loosely
- add the second module after a few weeks of growth
Each individual shoot is thus relieved of the weight of the cocktail tomatoes and gets out of the thicket of leaves and into the sun.
tips and tricks
Prudent hobby gardeners treat even the smallest wound after pinching cocktail tomatoes with an onion skin extract so that the dreaded late blight has no place to attack. To prepare the tincture, 20 grams of onion skins are soaked in water for 3-4 days and strained. The solution is applied with a fine, disinfected brush.