Not all tomatoes need pruning. Actuality some should not be pruned aside from the base leaves and conceivably toward the finish of the growing season. Some gardeners choose not to prune, and some prune a lot. Whatever you choose, here are a few things that are great to think about when pruning tomato plants.
There are two main varieties of tomato plants: Determinate and Indeterminate. Make sure to check the seed package to know for sure. Later in the season you can see if it is a bush type tomato or a huge, still growing, vine type plant.
Pruning will give you earlier and better fruit, but be sure to know what can and what should not be pruned. Use clean hands and clean pruning shears for pruning. If your plants have any diseases, disinfect your working tools with hydrogen peroxide.
Determinate tomato plants
Determinate plants are shrub type plants. They just develop to a specific height, produce their fruits regularly at the same time, and die off.
The image above demonstrates a determinate plant that is higher toward the start of the season than the indeterminate plant alongside it. In a month, the determinate will be about double in width and the indeterminate double in height. That is only the developing example of determinate tomatoes, they develop into a bush.
Determinate plants prefer a cage to support them. They grow suckers just like all tomatoes, but do not need to be pruned. The reason is that the suckers will also not get bigger than the plant is, and in fact give you more tomatoes. Do not prune determinate bush type tomato plants.
Determinate tomato plants generally grow sooner than indeterminate. They are extraordinary for new gardeners, containers, and for short growing seasons.
Indeterminate tomato plants
Indeterminate plants develop throughout the entire season. In the event that every one of the suckers are left on, it will in the end be an enormous bush, with the distinction that the suckers develop endlessly too. So in the event that they are not pruned, they certainly will require genuine help.
Some tomato growers like to cut indeterminate tomatoes back and let the suckers develop to a restricted height. That way it transforms into a wide bush. On the off chance that space isn’t an issue it is a fascinating method to try growing.
You can also try pruning indeterminate tomatoes to a solitary stem. That way you can develop more plants in a small space, vertically. Use tomato clips with a string for support.
Dwarf tomato plants
Dwarf tomato plants remain little regardless of whether they are indeterminate plants. You don’t have to prune dwarf tomato plants at all. Instead you can start a couple of dwarf plants early and plant them in a pot. This way you will have the first fruits early on – before the rest plants are ripe.
How to prune indeterminate tomato plants
Just indeterminate, not dwarf tomato plants can be pruned. Pruning will give you early and better fruits. By pruning the plant to a solitary stem you can develop more plants in a small space. For a cool climate, it may be the best to prune indeterminate tomato plants in order to collect ripe tomatoes as soon as the summer starts.
A sucker is the easily overlooked detail between a leaf and a stem that resemble a little plant. You can pinch it off with your fingers, or cut it back with clean pruning shears leaving a little stem. The stem will eventually die back but it will buy you some time till a new sucker can grow in its place.
Pruning should be done consistently, generally the little suckers will develop into a branch. Also, you can grow another plants from these suckers.
How to prune leaves or fruit clusters
Tomato plants do require loads of sunlight and air circulation so as to be healthy. For uncertain tomatoes, every one of the leaves under the main fruit cluster are not required any more and can be taken off. For determinate tomatoes, remove every one of the leaves that are lying on the ground. Likewise any leaf that looks sick or yellow does not help the plant, remove it. If any plant has a lot of leaves so that there is virtually no air circulation or light can come through, take some off.
How to prune plants at the end of the growing season
About a month before the growing season is over you can clip the growing tips off all your tomatoes (determinate and indeterminate), and take new flowers off. The plants will need to focus the energy into growing and ripening what is there.
This is particularly essential if the greater part of the tomatoes are as yet green and genuinely small at this point in the growing season. It will grow the fruits so at any rate the vast majority of them can mature before the first frost date.
Regardless of whether you choose to prune or not to prune tomato plants is up to you, the tomato grower. Be that as it may, in a cool climate and a short growing season it would be the best idea to think about pruning. You will get earlier and bigger fruit and healthier plants.
