Pruning Tomato Plants
The majority of home gardeners grow tomato plants. Tomatoes are easy to grow,
and are prolific producers. While many tomato gardeners do not give pruning
a thought, this simple garden technique can result in bigger, better tomatoes,
and a healthier pant that will produce far longer, than a plant that is not
pruned.
Why Prune Tomato Plants?
It's kinda funny, as gardeners, we practice the technique of pruning roses
and many other flowers. We even prune some of our garden veggies. But, when
it comes to tomatoes, we often just "let 'em grow!"
Before we get into how to prune them, here are some reasons why we
SHOULD prune them. The benefits include:
-
Produce bigger tomatoes
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Higher yield (quantity and weight)
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Plant Health - minimize plant disease, provide more air circulation and light.
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Re-invigorate plant growth...new leaves and branches grow faster.
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To limit plant size of indeterminate vine types.
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Aesthetics - to remove dead , weak, or unsightly branches.
TIP: If you are trying to grow a truely giant tomato, prune plants
heavily, and leave only one or two tomatoes growing on a vine.
Record Giant Tomato
How to Pruning Tomato Plants:
Pruning tomato plants is easy. All you need is a sharp hand pruner
TIP: Wear gloves and a long-sleeve shirt when working with tomato
plants. The plant leaves and vines have a mild toxin, that can irritate your
skin.
When the plants are young, about 12" tall, snip off the bottom two branches.
This will direct the plant's energy to growing taller, and keep lower vines
from creating too dense of a foliage. There will be no vines off the main
trunk below 5 - 6 inches. This allows easy access for weeding and fertilizing
at the base of the plant. As the season progresses, continue to remove suckers
in this area.
Allow 2-4 branches (vines) to form. These are the main branches that will
continue to grow all season long.
Be watchful for suckers, a few are okay. Too many suckers will result in
a plant that is too bushy.
Thin out bushy plants. When a plant is too bushy, air circulation and sunlight
can not reach all of the leaves. If sunlight does not reach the inner leaves,
it will be yellowed and serve little purpose. Also, a lack of sunlight and
air circulation provides a place for plant disease to harbor and grow.
Remove any broken, dead or damaged leaves and branches as they appear.
Snip off and remove any infected branches and leaves as soon as you spot
them.. Dispose of diseased plant material, so the disease will not be allowed
to spread.
Topping off plants- While some growers will top their plants off at a certain
height, we do not encourage plants to be topped off. Cutting off the growing
tips, will limit the plants production of flowers and fruit.
TIP: Staking or caging tomato plants is all but a must. It helps with
plant health, and keeps the fruit from rotting on the ground.
More on Caging Tomatoes
Learn all about growing Tomatoes:
A Tomato Press makes fast work preparing
sauce and juice for canning tomatoes .
Buy Now
Garden Tomato Recipes: May we suggest:
Other Resources:
Tomato
Mania In-depth information and advice from Garden
Hobbies
Problems
with Tomatoes
Buy Tomato Seeds for Sale Online Now
Veggie Cages Throw away the wire and hoop tomato
cages. The Veggie Cage has revolutionized the world of staking tomato plants.
This easy to use cage, expands a whopping 7ft! Stores flat in almost no space.
Try them on sweet peas, tomatoes, pole beans, and other climbing climbing
flowers and other vegetables.
More on Veggie
Cages
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