Pruning fruits to increase yields

Things are going great in Ghost House Farm’s production!

Last week, they told Orisha they had a low fruit load and it increased the 24h average temperature to 81’F.

The impact ? The stem is going back to the optimal size of an AA battery. This is our main indicator.

Good stem = productive, healthy crops :

1. Plants have set 3 new fruits, which is the weekly target.
2. Fruit load is now at 16 fruits per plant, despite a delay in pollination
3. Drew noticed that clusters are setting fruits faster than before.

If they can keep that stem size for the rest of the season, they will keep producing 1 cluster per week, which will tie 3 fruits per week.

At 7 ounces per fruit, that represents 7 lbs/sq.ft !! This year’s target is 5 lbs!

Recommendations:

Now is the time to let the plants grow and balance itself with the increasing fruit load.

Focussing on maintaining the stem size through the summer will make sure fruits grow to their 7oz caliber. At this stage, we can free up energy by pruning stunted tomatoes.

You know, when you have 2-3 big fruits on a cluster, and a tiny one that grows afterwards. That stunted little fruit won’t grow much and will never be sellable. It’s only an energy sucker.

To keep growing at this pace with a higher fruit load and the coming summer heat, we can’t afford wasting energy.