Hi Anna,

I do not prune the tomatoes. I have them in large 6 foot high cages that are quite wide. If a branch starts to grow out into a walkway I tie it back. Pruning can be useful if you want the plant to ripen it's fruit sooner. Some people use kind of small cages or they stake the plants in which case pruning is a necessity.

Anna,

I don't prune my tomatoes, I built an 8 foot high wood tower out of 2X2's and hand fabricated a netting from scratch out of nylon string and hung that up from the top. I now also use the earthbox staking kit accessory they sell that comes with a net in the kit. I have to use a ladder to pick the tomatoes that grow way up above 8 feet.

Lou

Anna - Here in Florida we have to do a must pruning when we get diseased leaves, in the beginning of the season those are the only leaves that get pruned because the plant can not use them for any good purpose.

Later in the season if I have a lot of tomatoes planted I prune them for easy access for spraying, if I only plant a few tomatoes I would not do that because that will cut in the production.

Depending on the variety also will matter, like you would never prune a determinate variety like Florida 91 and others. I particular like short compact varieties that don't skimp on flavor or production.

Talking about short varieties, I saw last week at a nursery a 6 inch tomato plant with regular cherry tomatoes. I was thinking about it to put them in a basket because they look so cute, when I when to get them this week they told me that they killed them and will not grow them again and she did not know the name.-(

I did grow in Arizona a lot of dwarf plants, I will maybe try them again. I like to have a good combination of tomato plants.

Silvia

Thanks for your replies, bamboo rabbit, lou and silvia. I am confused. Last year I read that you should prune your tomatoes to put more energy into the fruit and less into the leaves. They showed videos on how to take the suckers off and how to remove any foliage under the first set of flowers. They said this leads to a few, strong stems and lessens excess foliage which shades each other and turns yellow. It also said it helps prevent disease. I looked at those videos again today and I wondered if that's the right thing to do. From seeing your plants, I now know that if you three don't prune, it must not be necessary, and I probably did more harm than good last spring. I am going to find one of the videos and post it here, and maybe you can tell me what you think. Thanks again.... You don't remove any suckers at all?

Here's one short video which summarizes. Please tell me what you think of this. Thanks.

Anna

Here is a link that might be useful: how to prune tomatoes

Anna,

People have different opinions and growing practices so there really is no right or wrong. I do not prune or pinch out any suckers, I want the plants big. I do remove leaves and the very bottom limbs when the leaves get diseased or start to yellow from age. The reason I personally do not prune off the side branches (suckers) is because 1. I do not like to create any injury that can let in disease or fungus. 2. I get more fruit if I leave the "suckers" to grow. 3. If you remove the "suckers" a lot more searing sun gets to the remaining foliage and fruit. I want the plant so the leaves somewhat shade each other, it helps cool the plant the same way shade cools us. In my opinion if you leave the plant intact disease is much slower to spread through the plant.

I have a neighbor that always prunes her tomatoes to the single stem. She and I share some seeds and I shared with her some of the Matts wild cherry seeds I bought.....she planted them and they grew great but she pruned them to a single stem and hers died off 6 weeks or so ago along with her other tomato plants. Here is a pic of mine from 4 days ago.

Now the rest of my tomatoes are done, ripped them out this weekend but they still lasted 6 weeks longer than hers did with many times the amount of fruit production. I am of the thought that if it isn't broken don't fix it. You could simply try doing plants both ways and see what works best for you as that is all that really matters.

Anna - In my opinion (I can be totally wrong, I don't claim to be an expert,lol) The video that they show is common practice for greenhouse growers and northern gardeners with different weather. For us it works the pruning of the leaves when diseased and old. I try to keep as much foliage as I can in the plants to prevent sunscald, when I planted in different cooler climates I trimmed the suckers to let the sun go through, especially in Mass where it was most of the time dark.

You just have to follow your instincts, like I said I have yet to see a claimed expert garden pictures with real results. In theory everything works, in reality is a different matter.:) When people in this forum post pictures it is nice because we can learn from them either that it works or not. And that goes for flowers, veggies or anything else.

Silvia

I tried pruning off all the suckers on my plants this year. Didn't seem worth the trouble. The plants got very tall very fast, since there was only one stalk. They produced some fruit, but not a great set. I beheaded them when they got too tall (around 10') to manage and some "suckers" closer to the base started growing. I am letting those take over as the primary plants and got rid of the spindly tall foliage. Those new shoots I am letting grow unchecked, no pruning. They are growing just fine and setting fruit. Don't seem to be getting as tall as fast, and it is a lot less work. Be interesting to see how much fruit this second growth produces. So far though, I think not pruning seems better.

Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you for your replies! Bamboo Rabbit that is one crazy big tomato plant! Wow.

I will definitely do as you all say. Only removing brown or diseased leaves as they happen and nothing more. I knew you would have the answers. I will let you know how it goes.

Silvia and BR, of course you are experts! It is a relative term and you are definitely experts in my book. Thanks again for your quick responses.

Hugs,
Ana

All I ever did was remove the bottom branches when they got yellow, also a few leaves so I could see into the stem... I think the plant needs as much green as possible in order to make fruit, sort of like roses.... all this of course, before whitefly ! ......... sally

I'm with Silvia, I only remove the lower leaves as they age and upper leaves if I start seeing blight and know I need more sunlight and air inside the plants but remember, I'm eight feet from the water and my plants are easily subjected to every moisture-related disease know to man....

Tom

Tom, your plants were GORGEOUS ! I just think you are a perfectionist and nothing would please you ! just my opinion, of course ----- but I came away with envy and a desire to do better, and aspire to be as successful as you are in the garden... cheers,......sally

Thanks, everyone, my new plan is to only remove leaves at the bottom that are old or yellow/brown. I am hopeful this will be a better season!

Anna