Pruning Tomatoes?

Yes - pruning tomatoes. My Mom sent me this interesting article on pruning tomato plants and since all my tomato seedlings are growing like little weeds I read it with interest and thought I’d share it. Often I start out doing a bit of pruning only to get lazy and then the plants get out of control later in the season! This season I vow to stick with it!

This year I bought all my tomato seeds from Territorial Seed Company. I’ve purchased seeds from them before but never tomato seeds. I’ve always bought established plants – I have to say it’s been great watching them grow.  I just might need to get a greenhouse!

The great thing about growing my own is the incredible variety that I will be planting. Heirloom, yellow, cherry and best of all - they are all tested for compatibility with NW weather conditions!

This is the latest picture of them – I planted them three weeks ago! Let me know if you want a tomato plant (or Pumpkin for that matter) I’ve got plenty!

Enjoy - and thanks Mom for sending the article!

Jim

The Benefits of Pruning Tomatoes

By Michelle Smith

Pruning tomato plants is an experienced gardener’s joy and an inexperienced gardener’s wonder. The act of pruning is a divine decision-making process that allows a master to get the best yield from each plant, and everyone knows homegrown tomatoes have an incomparably better taste than store-bought tomatoes.

That’s probably the primary reason you are interested in growing them. Pruning tomato plants not only helps you to maximize that taste, but it also keeps your plants healthy. If you have been tomato gardening without pruning your tomato plants, it’s time to make a change.

Type Matters

Before you pull out your gardening gloves and pruning shears, know whether your tomato plant is determinate or indeterminate. Determinate tomato plants are compact or somewhat bushy. They have short branches with a cluster of flowers at the end. This type of tomato plant is full grown before bearing tomatoes.

“Determinate plants have a predetermined number of stems, leaves and flowers hardwired into their genetic structure,” wrote Frank Ferrandino in Kitchen Gardener. “The development of these plants follows a well-defined pattern.”

If you have determinate tomato plants you can put your gloves and pruning shears away and brainstorm a new pastime. There will be no pruning of tomato plants for you; not unless you want to waste time on your knees destroying them. Pruning this tomato plant merely wastes time and robs you of otherwise delicious tomatoes.

If your plants are more upright, then you have indeterminate tomato plants. The future is in your hands instead of in the genetic code of the plants. So now what?

Why Prune Tomato Plants?

The best way to manipulate the future of your tomato garden is by pruning, which serves two purposes. First, it maximizes photosynthesis, the natural process whereby plants use the sun as an energy source to produce carbohydrates.

On a perfect tomato plant, every leaf basks in the sun. When the leaves fill with sugar, leaf stems begin to branch off from the main stem. Still, all parts of the plant bask in the sun. Eventually the leaf stems fill with sugar and begin to flower. Tomatoes begin to grow, enjoying a healthy flow of sugar. But when tomatoes begin to form on the leaf stems, the plant produces side-shoots, which appear between the main stem and the tomato-bearing leaf stem. This creates two problems.

The first problem is that every new growth diverts sugar. So now the growing tomatoes are only enjoying a portion of the healthy sugar available. The results of limiting the growing tomato’s resources are they will be smaller and less tasty. The second problem is that side-shoots suck up sugar to produce a mass of unworthy leaves that block leaves that would otherwise produce gorgeous, plump tomatoes. Left alone, the side-shoots will become leaf stems, which will bear more side-shoots. This process continues until your tomato plants are dense, unruly and unsightly underachievers.

Think of a side-shoot like a parasite. It happily shares your nutrients, gets stronger and grows, but it also causes you to be less productive while it feeds on your goods. Eventually it will produce another parasite that will also help itself to your goods and eventually invite another.

Pruning presents the choice between better and more. Would you prefer 30 prize-winning tomatoes or 60 honorable mentions? A good gardener need not answer that. It is obvious that parasites (aka side-shoots) need to be removed.

The second purpose for pruning is to minimize the risk of being an overseer of diseased tomato plants. In fact, pruning actually helps improve your tomato plant’s health.

“The leaves of a pruned and supported plant dry off faster, so bacterial and fungal pathogens have less opportunity to spread,” wrote Ferradino. “Soil is less liable to splash up onto staked plants.”

Though they are separate gardening tasks, pruning and staking truly go together. If you prune your plants and wonderful tomatoes appear, but the plants are not staked, you have wasted your time. The plants will tumble to the ground and end up with the same problem as unpruned plants. All of the leaves will not receive the needed sunlight and the plants will run a high risk of disease.

The Cornell University Vegetable Growing Guide says that tomatoes were originally desert plants. This is the reason they are so susceptible to diseases in humid conditions. On the other hand, the guide also confirms that pruned plants produce fruit earlier than unpruned plants. Isn’t indulging in your love of homegrown tomatoes the ultimate perk of pruning?

So how do you prune them properly?

First, decide how many fruit-bearing leaf stems you want your plants to have. (Pruning is much about having a vision.) Each of your main leaf stems will bear flowers and fruit, but make sure they are all at least one foot from the ground. Any lower and the fruit or leaves will touch the dirt, attract bugs and slugs, and you will be left with rotten tomatoes. Throughout your tomato plant’s life you should remove any side-shoots that are below your lowest flowering-leaf stem.

The best time to remove side-shoots is when they are about 3 to 4 inches long. Plants can be pruned with your fingers. Simply peel the side-shoots back and snap them off. If you have allowed them to grow to the point of needing pruning shears, or if you just prefer using tools, make sure they are clean and sterile.

You want to remove enough leaves so that the area around the base of the plant does not look crowded. However, you must also leave enough leaves to cover your growing fruit. Don’t fall for the myth that tomatoes need direct sunlight. If you do not have some foliage covering them, your tomatoes will suffer sun scald.

About a month before the first frost for your area, prepare for your final harvest. Remove the side-shoots as usual. But this time remove any flowers as well. They will not have time to bloom and ripen and you don’t need useless matter stealing precious energy from your last harvest.

Pruning tomato plants sounds relatively easy, but it is actually labor intensive. It is also a matter of trial and error, so don’t expect to master it immediately. Some people urge tomato gardeners not to worry about it at all. Pruning is not necessary they say. It’s completely optional, they declare. And these things are true—pruning tomato plants is not necessary and it is optional—unless you want the best tomatoes.