Practical advice for pruning tomato plants
Knowledge on how to prune tomato plants is a useful tool you’ll want to have in your back pocket as a gardener. Although pruning tomato plants is completely optional to grow a bountiful harvest, there are many great reasons to try it this gardening season. First of all, tomatoes are very susceptible to disease and can be killed off or stunted early on if not cared for. By taking the time to trim away the diseased branches you could help spare your plants into producing for you for a much longer time. Additionally by pruning off the suckers, you can return the energy to the plant to produce fruit rather than to pour energy into growing more foliage.
Alternatively, if you choose not to prune your tomatoes the plants will fall over and actually root themselves into the ground with every branch that touches the soil. This creates the tomato to become this large entangled bush. This plant will still produce fruit but may be short lived depending on conditions.
Now that you have a little idea of where I’m going with this article let’s discuss a couple tools you’ll need to raise healthy tomato plants.
Tools for keeping tomatoes
Pick yourself a start little garden shears. I personally use Felco. Their signature red color and ergonomic design make pruning a breeze. I have pretty small hands so I use their classic size 6, but check out their website or look up reviews and tutorials to find out more.
Most of the time you’ll be able to use your fingers to pick off little suckers if they start appearing. If you let a few get away from you, it’s best to use shears so you don’t rip off part of the plant and damage the stem.
Next because the idea is to prune to a single stem, you’ll want to make sure you’re staking and trellising your tomato plants. I’ve grown my own tomatoes two ways.
One in a container with a tomato cage and the other along a trellis panel where I tied up the plant with twine as it grew.
This encourages the tomate to climb and reach, growing taller, and therefore producing more delicious fruit.
What part of the plant to prune?
Like I mentioned above, there are a few instances where you will want to intervene and practice pruning tomato plants.
Because tomatoes are prone to waterborne diseases, it’s important that we keep branches clear from touching the soil. If a branch lays upon the soil you may start to notice it turn yellow or discolored with spots. They can mold and get blight among others.
To prevent this, simply cut away damaged, broken, or fallen stems that could potentially spread or pick up disease. It’s ok to snip away most of the branches of your tomatoes within 12-18 inches from the base.
Next I like to cut away any branches that seem to be growing in the wrong direction. This can happen if the tomato falls for a couple days or is not properly trellised. Tomatoes are alway reaching up, meaning that if they tilt or fall over they can start growing crooked, therefore leaving weird shaped stems.
Lastly, stay on top of cutting away suckers.
What is a sucker you may ask?
A sucker is basically just another limb of the tomato plant. It grows in between larger arms to make the tomato plant bushier.
If let to grow on their own they would eventually grow up to be their own strong limbs and produce flowers. However, for the sake of growing using the pruning method, we don’t want the tomato plant to become bushy. Rather we ideally want the tomato to be structured by a single stem and unconstructed branches.
If the suckers you cut off are strong and healthy, you could use them to actually grow more tomato plants and extend your harvest.
Rooting suckers
To root suckers and start new plants you’ll want to trim off healthy, larger suckers.
I’ve been able to root them simply by placing them into the soil, but ideally you will want to place the lower inch or two of the stem in water. Keep the sucker in the water until you see roots start to grow and develop. At this point you can transplant the rooted sucker into its own pot.
Make sure to never let your baby transplant dry out! It’s important to keep them moist at this time.
If you have questions of transplanting tomatoes more in depth find my latest article here.
How often should I prune tomato plants
In the thick of summer, I’m convinced nothing grows faster than a tomato plant. I’ll walk out in my garden and a plant I pruned two days prior already has suckers to pick.
It’s better to prune as you go, rather than hacking up your plant every so often. By picking off unwanted suckers here and there you won’t stress out your plant. If pruned too heavily or damaged all at once, tomatoes can easily struggle and become stunted or fall victim to disease.
When to prune tomatoes
Remember earlier how tomatoes are susceptible to waterborne diseases? Well, this is also something to think about when deciding when to prune. It’s best to prune or plants in the morning or the evening and not in the heat of the day.
Also pay attention to check if there is dew on the leaves or if it’s raining. When pruning tomato plants you are leaving an open wound that must heal. If exposed to the elements it’s possible you could put your tomato plants at risk.
Tomatoes sound incredibly fragile… I know….
But actually, they are quite resilient and are very forgiving to the new gardener’s shears.
If you haven’t before, try growing tomatoes both ways as an experiment. Let one naturally go wild and maintain and control another and see for yourself the benefits of pruning your tomato plants.
