Question 1

Be Careful About These Things When Pruning Tomato

Accepted Answer

When pruning your Tomato, be careful not to damage any nearby stems. Using fingers to pinch or break off pieces of the plant instead of cutting is one way to avoid unintentionally damaging it. If you are using a cutting tool, clean the tool before starting and when moving between plants, to avoid transmitting disease.

Do not remove more than one-third of the foliage from your Tomato, as this can allow the fruits to develop sunscald or even kill the plant completely.

Wear gloves and a long-sleeved shirt when pruning tomato plants. Tomato contains a mild toxin that can cause skin irritation.

Question 2

Do I Need to Prune My Tomato?

Accepted Answer

Some types of Tomato do best with pruning, while others do not need it. There are two categories, determinate and indeterminate, that have different growth patterns. Determinate varieties have been adapted to stay compact and put out all their fruit at once, so they shouldn’t need pruning in most cases. Indeterminate varieties can keep growing and producing fruit over the whole growing season, so pruning is useful to keep them at a reasonable size and to produce larger, more delicious tomatoes. By removing extra shoots and leaves, the plant is able to use all of its energy toward the fruit it produces. While a sprawling Tomato will likely produce a larger number of tomatoes, they will be smaller in size and less flavorful.

Pruning improves air circulation around your Tomato and reduces the chances of disease, and also makes it easier for you to spot any pests or signs of disease on your plant. And, pruning makes tomatoes ripen faster. So, while you technically don’t have to prune, in many cases you will get the best results if you do.

Question 3

How to Prune Tomato?

Accepted Answer

There are a few different types of pruning that you may want to do, so each one will be covered below.

Any kind of plant in the garden can benefit from regular maintenance pruning. Tomato is attractive to insect pests such as aphids, worms, caterpillars, and leaf miners. It can also develop viral and fungal diseases easily. You should keep an eye on your plants for signs of disease or insects and prune off any portion of the plant that is affected (i.e. No more than one forth of the plant size). For this type of pruning, use a set of sterilized garden shears to cut back to where the growth is still healthy. Be sure to throw away the debris after pruning to keep the problem from spreading to nearby plants.

Removing suckers (sometimes called side shoots) helps indeterminate varieties focus energy on developing fruit. Suckers are small stems that grow from the junction where the main stem meets a leaf. They are not harmful, but they do compete for resources with the rest of the plant. Since suckers are small and soft, they can be pinched or snapped off with the fingers easily. There is usually no need for any tools for this type of pruning, but if the suckers get too large, you can use your garden shears or a knife.

Indeterminate Tomato stems can also be pruned when one plant has too many stems, the plant is getting too large for the available space, or when you want to encourage fewer but larger fruits to develop. A single plant should generally have no more than 4 stems to optimize the harvest. Pruning off the excess stems allows the plant to produce larger fruit. Cut the whole stem off close to the base when the plant is still young.

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Be Careful About These Things When Pruning Tomato

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