Several weeks ago, hornworms attacked our tomato plants while we were out of town. The creatures completely stripped our Lemon Boy and Black Prince plants, while doing major damage to the Better Boy and Sunmaster. Although I replaced the Better Boy, I decided to follow a different strategy with the others.
Since I didn't have any seedlings ready to replace the other damaged plants with, I decided to try and save them. So I continued watering the poor leafless things and pruned back all of their old branches, leaving only the main stems. Within a few days, shoots of new leaves began appearing from the bottom of the plants and from the junctions of the old branches and the main stem. Instead of pinching off these "suckers" as guides advise when doing regular pruning, I figured I'd let them grow. The results have been pretty good, as the plants' have recovered quite a bit of foliage and even put on a few blooms. I suppose you could call it their revenge against the hornworms.
Since I didn't have any seedlings ready to replace the other damaged plants with, I decided to try and save them. So I continued watering the poor leafless things and pruned back all of their old branches, leaving only the main stems. Within a few days, shoots of new leaves began appearing from the bottom of the plants and from the junctions of the old branches and the main stem. Instead of pinching off these "suckers" as guides advise when doing regular pruning, I figured I'd let them grow. The results have been pretty good, as the plants' have recovered quite a bit of foliage and even put on a few blooms. I suppose you could call it their revenge against the hornworms.
Sunmaster
Lemon Boy
Black Prince
