October 29th, 2008 · No Comments

The Question:

“Erik,

The information you provide is fantastic. I love hearing a scientific explanation as to why a product works instead of just “BIG BUDS!”. I grow tomatoes in dutch buckets with coco coir and perlite outdoors, and my girlfriend is pretty adamant that the plants don’t block the view of the roses in the backyard. After hearing you talk about carboload, I was wondering if I was right in taking away this thought; I can prune my plants more, and there will still be enough energy to produce lots of tomatoes. I wouldn’t strip them, but I wouldn’t feel as bad removing all the suckers and extra foliage, thus providing a better view of the roses. By the way, I live in southern California, so the growing season is nearly year round. Thanks in advance for insight into using carboload. Also, from another episode on hydroponicssecrets that I saw I left thinking that periodic blasts(within reason) of P and K would really provide what’s necessary for extra flowers, is this correct?

THE ANSWER:
Thanks for the feedback, and glad to hear the info is helping out.

Stripping the plants of “sucker-stems” allows more chemical energy to be channeled through the better producing and more dominant branches and flowering sites. This often contributes to higher yields and better individual quality flowers and fruits of greater consistency.

Frequent pruning may stress the plant, as large sections of the plants chemical energy system are being removed, changing the flow and levels of important internal concentrations.

Training the growth pattern would be preferred to keep the plants stature in your desired shape and size. Netting and support systems can be used to create a screen of green, or espalier, trellises, etc of fruits and flowers. However, even when training growth patterns, occasional pruning is recommended and can be used to help direct or shape growth.

Carboload will help the plant with it’s chemical energy needs, and the plant will need to balance it’s internal chemistry on it’s own, which may require. Basically, plants need recovery time with major prunings.

A balanced dose of P and K will help to stimulate flower production, and facilitate ripening. Some growers spike their plants at the onset of flowering with a relatively high, but reasonable dose of P and K to signal a stronger flowering response, and then back off a bit. Levels are then gradually increased to achieve their peak values in mid-flowering, and then gradually decreasing towards ripening.

Highest Regards, Erik B

Thanks!