Densely packed leaves take longer to dry, inviting all manner of bacterial and fungal intrusion. Allowing the sun to bless all of the leaves is the goal, especially in our relatively short growing season.
How Do I Prune? As the tomato plant grows, little side shoots suckers sprout up in the crotches, or axils, between the main stem and leaf branches. Each one of these has the potential to grow into a fruiting stem but the result would be a tangled mass of foliage with small fruit slowly ripening in its self-imposed shade. The ideal is to limit the plant to no more than stems. Gently pinch off, the little suckers when they are small and easy to remove. If you turn your back for a day or so, they can quickly grow to shocking proportions, so be vigilant!
Cut o ff all side stems below the first flower cluster then allow only the next two or three suckers above the first cluster to develop. Suckers higher up the plant will be weaker, so be sure to remove those later-developing ones. If you have limited garden space or a lot of tomato plants that need to be planted close to each other, then limit growth to only one single vining stem, and tie it to a stake. This long lower stem will grow roots, and the bigger the root system, the better the plant.
Or lay sideways in a trench, it will straighten itself out! What About Staking? This is probably the easiest way to remove them and it also results in the least damage to the tomato plant.
Examine the plant every week or two from top to bottom and remove all the new main steps as described above. If you are growing cordon tomatoes for the first time we recommend pruning exactly as described above. If you are a little more adventurous you may want to try a variation on the above method which may, in some circumstances, results in a larger crop over a slightly longer period.
The principle is to allow more than one main stem to grow, a good number would be three but definitely no more than four. Treat all three main stems as if they were the main stem as described above. Having explained all the complexity of pruning cordon tomato plants correctly, every year my partner annoys me by doing absolutely no pruning to her Alicante tomato plants but producing masses of healthy tomatoes every time!
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Adjust all dates to your locality UK, Ireland, France. Click here. This site uses cookies. However, if your plants are not regularly bothered by leaf spots or other fungal issues, you probably don't need to worry about pruning. Additionally, if your tomato plants are lying on the ground, you might want to prune them.
When leaves are forced into permanent shade, such as when the bushy plants are on the ground, the amount of sugar they produce is reduced. Instead of pruning, you can also stake your tomato plant to keep the leaves off the ground. When a tomato plant is pruned properly, all of the foliage receives adequate sunlight, and the plant is able to photosynthesize more efficiently, boosting growth and fruit production.
Not all types of tomatoes need to be pruned. If you are growing determinate tomatoes , you don't want to prune. Because determinate plants develop all of their fruit at one time, pruning may cause you to sacrifice tomatoes for no reason. If you're growing indeterminate tomatoes , which produce fruit regularly over the course of a season, pruning is essential. This helps keep the commonly huge vines in control, and it encourages the plant to produce several large tomatoes instead of lots of foliage and many smaller tomatoes.
To fit more plants into a small space, you'll want to prune your indeterminate tomato plants regularly and keep them staked or caged. This will prevent your plants from getting too large and bushy. However, indeterminate plants will still keep growing taller, and you'll keep getting fruit as long as the plant is growing. Look for the tomato "suckers," which grow in the "V" space between the main stem and the branches on your tomato plant.
If left unpruned, these suckers will eventually grow into full-sized branches, adding lots of foliage and, eventually, a few fruits. This will also result in a tomato plant that quickly outgrows its space in the garden. Suckers under 2 inches long can simply be pinched off with your fingers, but with larger suckers, use a pair of clean pruners, disinfecting them as you move from plant to plant to protect against spreading diseases. Whenever possible, remove the suckers when they are small.
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