A critical tomato growing decisions is – when to pinch out the growing tip.
Taking out the growing tip spells the end of Apical Dominance.
It seems irresponsible to wave such a wand and not know its meaning, so I thought I’d find out.
The apical bud/terminal bud/growing tip refer to the same thing. The bud found at the end of the apex/stalk, the top most bud on a stem.
The apical/terminal bud that determines a plant’s growth pattern is the one found at the top of the main stalk.
It achieves this power by producing a substance called Auxin which controls shoot growth lower down the plant. Auxin moves down the stem,accumulates in the axillary buds and by doing so, inhibits their growth.
The axillary buds are those located lower down the stem in the leaf axils. It’s from these buds that lateral shoots grow.
How much Auxin gets produced and therefore how much the axillary buds are inhibited from growth, varies by plant species.
Once the growing tip is gone, so is the source of Auxin and with that, the end to lateral shoot growth inhibition. At that point presumably, lateral growth gets to party.
I haven’t worked out how this is for tomatoes. I can’t square it with the fact side shoots have to picked out when the growing tip is still there.
But I think I’ve got my head round what Apical Dominance means at a theoretical level.
(and if nothing else, I’ve realised its not ‘auxillary’ bud as I’ve been ‘misreading’ it . It’s axillary – which of course makes complete sense given that it’s a bud in the axil….duh! )
