With tomato season fast approaching it's time to talk about how to train those unruly veggies.
Ben Stanton talks with Iowa State Assistant Professor and Vegetable Extension Specialist Ajay Nair about the best way to keep your precious plants upright, and alternative support setups for larger-scale systems. They also discuss the importance of pruning, and how to spot the difference between determinate and indeterminate plants.
"When we prune our plants, the fruits are bigger and the plants are more productive in terms of yield and performance," Nair said.
"If there is too much foliage, the plant is not able to partition the nutrients in a very productive way. So it will spend a lot of energy sending the nutrients to the leaves, which should be going to the fruit."
On this edition of Talk of Iowa host Ben Stanton talks with Ajay Nair and ISU Extension Horticulture Expert Richard Jauron. Nair and Jauron talk stalks and answer listener questions about soil and tomato cages.