How can I prune my Tomato?

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.