Should I customize my pruning to each variety?

Never found it necessary myself. And with some open-pollinated types I wouldn't want to do any pruning since production on a few of them is low anyway in my garden.

Cherokee Purple is never a huge overwhelming plant. Old German, Sun Gold, and Sweet Million can be huge but I don't know the effect it would have on Old German. So I suppose if you needed to keep Sun Gold and Sweet Million in line you could try it on them (not that I am recommending it).

Honestly, I function from the point of view that fruit production is the goal. So IMO if one needs to control/limit a huge plant for some reason, to try to force it into fitting their needs rather than the plant's needs, then it is their plant spacing and their method of support that needs to change, not the pruning.

When garden space is severely limited and simply can't be expanded then less plants or different varieties solve the problem. When using containers then larger containers with better supports solve the problem.

JMO

Dave

Thanks Dave. So pruning is simply a matter of controlling the plant size/shape? For some reason I thought it was also supposed to help with the quality of fruit, and the number of fruit that reach maturity. My space isn't a problem really, especially with so few plants. So maybe I'll just leave them alone. Thanks again, I appreciate all the help you offer on this board!

or some reason I thought it was also supposed to help with the quality of fruit, and the number of fruit that reach maturity.

Number of fruit to reach maturity is a length of season issue. Those in cooler zones with short growing seasons may prune the plant top late in late-season to speed up ripening of fruit already on the vine. Whether that works or not is debated, Root pruning is more effective IME.

Quality of fruit is a growing conditions provided and genetics of the variety issue and is not affected by pruning. If the growing conditions are optimal so is the fruit.

Size of fruit may be affected by some pruning. Some claim it results in larger fruit but most of the studies I have read say the increase is minimal and overall production is sacrificed to get it.

So yes, IMO the primary reason some choose to prune (other than those that still mistakenly believe that all "suckers" must be removed because they steal energy from the plant and/or never produce fruit anyway) is plant size and shape control. We get all kinds of "my plant is too tall for my cage/stake" and "my plant has run wild" posts about it.

This excludes of course removing the lower branches that drag the ground, removing any infected or damaged foliage, and the limited selective removal of leaf branches to insure good air circulation within the plant but most don't consider that "pruning".

Dave