I usually saute it. Even tonight, I put a shit-ton of sliced up mushrooms in some butter, olive oil, and butter, and then just cook them down so they shrink, release most moisture, and then just start to dry out. Add 2 sliced Vidalia onions, and the chopped Swiss Chard stems, then continue to cook. Added some chopped up tomatoes and garlic, cook some more. Add some balsamic vinegar, then add a ton of chopped up swiss chard leaves, and saute until the leaves are shrunken down and cooked. Had it with some nice tenderloins. Great meal!
Sorry to flood the thread, but I had to share. Spinach will get to about the size of a shovel if you let it. I burned the early leaves (you can see some marks on these) with my overzealous application of neem. This is Renegade Spinach https://parkseed.com/renegade-hybrid-spinach-seeds/p/05780-PK-P1/
@bewildered @Nettdata or anyone else; how long do you guys usually trim the lower branches of your tomato plants? I've got these two that are both just over a foot high at this point with one already having a couple of flowering spots. Should I still be pruning the lower ends to keep stimulating upward growth, or just let them go and run their course at this point?
I trim all suckers off. That is priority #1. Those are branches trying to grow out of leaf crotches. Let them get big enough to be sure it is a sucker and not a flower cluster. As you become more experienced you will be able to tell immediately. I leave the leaves alone until the plants are about the size you have or a little bigger and then only trim off leaves that make contact with ground. You can selectively trim as the plant gets huge to promote air flow but I err on the side of less trimming. Other than making energy the leaves protect the fruit from subscald. There may be some natural forking in your plant, but get rid of the suckers.
Oh man, I scalped my fuckers. And they're growing in all the better for it. This was them just about a week ago. Today (no pic) but there are flowers on just about all of them, and they've grown a lot. We also had a medium frost that killed a bunch of leaves as well, so take that into account.
The one thing I wish I did with the aluminum frames I welded up was to put some rods right down to soil level. New seedlings don't have support, so I ended up picking up a bunch of plastic coated, 4' metal rods that I just jammed in there to help support the seedlings. Once they get big enough, the frame will take over for support, but until then, those green stakes make all the difference.
Personally, I'm taking anything below my lower support off, and trimming those that are above it ruthlessly. Last year I didn't trim at all, and just about everything grew into leaves, minimal fruit. This year I'm trying to ensure that as much energy as possible goes into fruit.
I had decent yields last year but it is going better this year due to a better start. I will give heavier trimming a try. Might do some reading to find out how many leaves are needed to support the fruit.
Thank you both for the feedback. I'm probably asking a dumb question, but what do you mean by a 'sucker'? Either way I'll get to the trimming in the morning it seems.
Yeah, I'm just kind of winging it... but I want to keep the lower stem/stalk nice and clean to be able to easily weed/fertilize things. My thinking is let it grow as much as it wants, but trim anything below or above the supports off.
Ha. "Tomato pruning is more trial and error than precision, so look at it as a learning experience. When you first start pruning, do less rather than more." I'm fucked.
Uh oh! Heh. I figure the plant needs the leaves to produce energy for those 'maters. When I was good about suckering, I had a nice fat stem with alternating leaf and fruit cluster all the way up. So really just a couple or 3 leaves per cluster, which might have 5 or more fruit.
Although, the growth on my indeterminate san marzano was fascinating. Some clusters had 5-8 tomatoes, the end. Some had the tomatoes and then became a regular stem again that draped down, producing more leaves and fruits. Really neat to watch.
Yeah, I plan on having a bunch of leaves, but not the overabundance that I had last year. I want as much energy to go into fruit production as I can, without limiting it.
Some base trim. You can see where I took off leaves and some suckers, and where suckers are coming back. Suckering is a weekly if not daily task. They will grow back from places you removed them from. Soon...
https://sustainablefoodcenter.org/latest/gardening/tomato-pruning-bigger-fruits-healthier-plants Scroll down a tick and read the pruning principals. I agree with their guidelines and rational. I have had some leaves shade others in the past and will be better about preventing that this season.
Thanks for this. I definitely went and pruned off a bunch of lower hanging sections because of this and now have been looking and finding new suckers almost daily, even though it's only been two days.