Q Our compost bin’s wooden lid has rotted. How to Prune. There is one big catch: You should only prune indeterminate varieties , which produce new leaves and flowers continuously through the growing season. This publication gives both consumers and small vegetable farm growers options for providing support to their tomatoes in the vegetable garden. As a rule, pruning is most helpful for indeterminate tomato varieties — large plants that continue to grow taller and produce fruit until killed by frost.Determinate, or bush tomatoes, tend to be smaller and more manageable.. Prune out dense foliage from the tomato stem . Prune sparingly to retain the shape, cutting back the longest or widest branches to the stem or a suitable junction rather than trimming it all over. How to Prune Tomatoes . You may need to move the piece back and forth until it loosens enough to break off. Bend gently until the stem snaps.   If left unpruned, these suckers will eventually grow into full-sized branches—adding lots of foliage and, eventually, a few fruits. Don’t use a knife or pruning shears, and don’t use your nails as … There are several ways to prune tomato plants, depending on the type of tomato and the support you use. Pruning tomatoes is an essential activity during the maintenance of the tomato crop. Most sections of the plant should be easily pinched off. Look for the tomato "suckers," which grow in the "V" space between the main stem and the branches on your tomato plant. To prune tomatoes, you simply remove lateral stems when the plants are about 300 mm or a foot high and the laterals are about 30 to 50 mm (or one to two inches) long. How to Cut Tomato Leaves to Produce More Fruit. How to Prune Tomatoes. To properly prune an indeterminate tomato, prune all suckers from the ground level up to the second flower cluster. To reduce this, prune out new sprouts that emerge from the main stems. See diagram 2. Tomatoes tend to grow more thickly than is necessary, reducing air flow and producing more foliage than their immune systems can support. After clipping the affected leaves, dispose them far away from your tomato plants. Pruning tomatoes encourages larger fruit production at the top of the plant. If you decide to prune, it's really a very simple process. It also makes leaves more efficient because fewer leaves are shaded. Taking Care of Tomatoes - If you’re like most growers, tomatoes are one of your most important crops, either because you make the most money from them or because your customers demand them. Pruning tomatoes ensures that the energy is … Such an essential crop deserves special treatment to enhance flavor, appearance, and yield. 6. The best way to improve your tomatoes is to prune and train them. Bland, store-bought tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum) can’t beat the sweet, juicy taste of vine-ripened ones grown in your backyard. Hold the part of the plant between your thumb and index finger before gently snapping the piece away. Follow the same instructions as for determinate tomatoes. Pruning allows the plant to focus plant sugars on making fewer, but larger tomatoes. Most tomato pruning can be done by pinching off whatever part of the plant needs to be removed. Pruning tomato plants is an optional technique that some gardeners use to keep plants tidy, manipulate fruit size, and even speed ripening. You should prune tomato plants if you are growing large slicing tomatoes on indeterminate plants. Just as the plants should be trellised every week, so should each tomato plant be pruned in order to obtain maximum yields. The circular covers the basics of how to successfully use different systems of staking to support tomatoes, how to prune and manage tomato plants for a healthier crop, and the benefits of pruning. 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