Hey everyone! I'm curious about tomato pruning. I've watched a few YouTube videos but haven't really done any pruning myself, usually just cutting off the bottom leaves. I tend to end up with more tomatoes than I need anyway, but I'm wondering if those pruning techniques really make a difference in how the plants grow and produce? What do you all do?
3 Answers
I usually prune indeterminate tomatoes in two main ways. For big varieties like oxheart or beefsteak, I go with a single stem by removing all suckers. For medium-sized ones, I keep one sucker just below the first flower cluster and make it a second stem, but I prune the others. As for cherry tomatoes, I leave them unpruned. Have fun experimenting with your approach!
It really depends on the type of tomatoes you're growing. If you're after maximum yield, some folks swear that pruning all the suckers to grow a single tall stem is the way to go, especially for indeterminate varieties. Personally, I prune my cherry tomatoes a bit since they can get out of control, but for regular ones, I don't bother much because they usually keep it simple with just a few branches. I aim for a manageable harvest, like 5-10 tomatoes per plant, not 30!
I tend to grow around 75-100 indeterminate plants each year since they produce all season. The first year, I let them grow wild without pruning, and they got so huge that they tore down my trellises! So now I’ve built much stronger trellises and manage to prune them enough to keep everything in check. I learned that it's essential if you want your garden to stay organized!