Are you supposed to prune tomatoe plants?
Question:I have 4 tomatoe plants, and although they are staked up they are still growing wild and crazy. I had heard that ur supposed to prune the non blooming stems. I have never heard of that and was wondering if it is true or not.
Answers:
Oh, please do. I'll swear by it.
What I do is cut off *every* single leaf and stem that does not have buds, flowers or fruit growing on them by now. I basically *peel* the plants. I keep them stalked or caged, though.
My results are larger tomatoes ripening sooner, instead of bunches of little ones everywhere taking forever to ripen.
Don't forgtet to throw some grains of epsom salt in the soil and spray some fish emulsion foliar every few weeks! They love that stuff. Also give them bone meal to grow strong roots and fruit...
PS: Another use for that is preventing viral infections. When air circulates between the plants, you don't have to worry about the cooties getting to your gardens in periods of rains. Also, fewer, unnecessary leaves means fewer areas for bugs to attack. So you end up winning either way!
You don't have too, but you can. Just pinch of the suckers that grow in the elbows of the stem. If your not sure what those are then picture this Y and it would be the branch growing between the V part of the Y. I hope I didn't confuse you. Anyhow, I tried it one summer with one of my tomatoes just to see if there was a difference and I really didn't notice one except that I could get to the fruit easier. Hope this helped.
no
Yes, you can but don't cut the ones with blooming stems, Only cut the large non-bearing ones. I have had gardens for years, and it really did not make much difference in getting larger or more veggies. Also if you cut back to much, you will allow the plant to be damaged buy the sun's intense heat, which could result in the plant wilting and could die especially in hotter locations.
Hello Debi. No you don't prune them. But to stimulate main growing stems, you pinch out the laterals. These are the little growths that start in the crease of each growing stem. I do mine at the bottom mainly, so I get better top growth.But just keep them well staked.I grow mine on a trellis, and I can get heaps of tomatos that way.Good Luck!
If you want bigger tomatoes than I would. If you want a bigger plant with smaller tomatoes then no. It is not required to do either way.
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