Tomato plants annoyingly naturally tend to produce lots of leaves and relatively fewer fruits.
However, there is a way to balance the leaf and fruit production and even improve the taste of tomatoes, and that’s through pruning.
Gardening expert and founder of Tree Vitalize Fern Berg claims that by directing your tomato plants’ energy into fruit production rather than leaf production “you get the benefit of bigger and tastier fruit”, but “this is not the only benefit of pruning tomatoes”.
Pruning will also allow more sunlight to penetrate your tomato plant to promote energy production through photosynthesis, which can be “converted into lovely tomatoes for you to eat”.
Allowing sunlight to reach more of the plant will also create stronger and straighter stems and an “overall healthier plant more able to withstand pests and diseases”.
Before knowing how to prune your tomato plants, it’s important to know when there right time is. Fern said: “When it comes to timing, you should begin pruning your tomato when the plant reaches about one to two feet in height, then once a week throughout the growing season.”
Make sure your garden shears are clean and sharp, this will help prevent disease transmission so that your good intentions are not wasted.
To prune tomato plants, begin by removing any diseased leaves, these might be brown, yellow, or spotty.
Next, identify the tomato plant suckers, these are side shoots that grow in the “V” between the main stem and branches of your plant. Fern said: “These are what you will be pruning off to control the size and shape of your plant.”
Gardeners can opt to remove all suckers, leaving just the main stem, however, this is often considered an “extreme option” and “may reduce the plant’s productivity” and also “cause stress” to the plant.
A process of selective pruning may be more beneficial to the plant and overall fruit production, claimed the expert.
Using this approach, you can allow a few suckers to grow and become main vines. Fern highlighted: “A good rule of thumb is to keep two to three main vines. Select suckers that you can train to attach to your support structure, and trim away all others. This is the method I use in my garden.”
Fern urged gardeners to never remove more than 20 to 25 percent of the plant at once. Weekly pruning sessions should assist with this as you are working with the tomato plant as it grows.
The gardener warned: “If you let it get away from you, your tomato will waste a lot of energy on growing leaves and stems that are ultimately going to be removed anyway.”
