If you are a gardener and you like growing fruits and veggies you might want to begin growing tomatoes. The thing about tomatoes is learning the right way when trimming tomato plants. As surprising as this may sound, there is a little bit more to it then just snipping a few leaves here and there.
In addition to trimming tomato plants properly, it important first begins with knowing what variety of tomato you will be growing. Knowing the type of tomato plant will consequently help you decide how it should be trimmed for max bloom.
Let’s get into learning how to trim a tomato plant the right way and what you need to pay attention to yield fruitful tomato plants.
What is Pruning or Trimming?
If you like to keep a tidy home and you begin to garden it’s most likely the case you will want to keep a well kept and tidy garden. And that is where pruning comes in. Pruning, or as some also call it… trimming is a method some gardeners use to keep the garden, clean, and presentable.
What pruning also does is create a better opportunity for better and bigger fruit size. On top of that properly trimming tomato plants will quicken ripening.
There is one caveat when pruning tomato plants, however. You must only indeterminate varieties of tomato plants. Which leads us into the next area of discussion.
What Variety of Tomato Plant Are You Growing?
Knowing the variety of tomato plant is extremely important. Why is that? you may be wondering. And that is an excellent question.
Depending on the variety of tomato plant determines if you should trim it or not. There are two types of the tomato plant.
- Indeterminate
- Determinate
The indeterminate tomato plant produces leaves and flowers often. And, should be trimmed throughout the season. Therefore, if you don’t trim indeterminate plants your tomatoes will not have room to grow fully for maximum bloom.
Conversely, determinate plants are self-contained, meaning they grow straight. Their energy is spent on producing fruitfulness with minimal work and intervention. But… if you decide to start pruning a determinant plant you may lower your harvest because it is not necessary for you to do.
The valuable tip here is to know the variety of tomato plant you’re dealing with. Trimming tomato plants doesn’t have to be complex, you just need to start with knowing the right information.
When Do You Begin Pruning?
There a few signs to know when to begin trimming your tomato plant. One case is when you inspect the leaves on the plant and you see they have been begun to turn yellow in color. You can start pruning then.
Tomato sucker is a term known is the gardening environment for when a plant has tiny branches growing at the location where a branch and stem connect. Again, this is only on the indeterminate plant. If you see these you want to remove them. They suck the life and energy out of your tomato plant.
If left to grow it will cause tomatoes plants to produce smaller less attractive fruit. But trimming your tomato plant by removing the suckers will allow you to bear large tomatoes all season long.
Bonus tip: It should be mentioned even though you don’t usually prune determinate tomato plants if you notice a sucker on any type of tomato plant, it needs to be removed.
The differences in Suckers?
Remembering to remove suckers are important details to trimming tomato plants for max bloom. To add some more detail to the mix is knowing which suckers to remove and which ones to leave.
That’s right… there are two kinds of suckers. There are small miniature suckers and there are thicker and fuller suckers.
The full suckers should be left alone to grow on your tomato plant. Then it can be pinched but not removed. The only caution to remember is leaving larger suckers can produce smaller suckers as well, leading to more pruning so keep that in mind.
Removing flowers and Yellow Leaves
Little flowers can and will grow on your indeterminate tomato plants. Yellow leaves almost inevitably grow. When you any of these you must remove theme. Trimming at the right times promotes energy for your plant. And instead of the plant having to waste energy growing other branches, leaves, and flowers; it takes that additional energy and places it into your tomatoes, making them larger and more appealing.
How to Prune Your Tomatoes
When you are first starting to plant your tomatoes, remove the lower flowers when your planting. This allows you to bury your plants really deep in the soil.
During the early, to mid-seasons, you want to remove any flowers, suckers. During the final weeks of your harvest, there may be some fruit still growing because of your trimming. If you want to speed up the ripening of your tomato plant, simply remove the growing tip of each and every stem. This form of pruning is also referred to by green thumbs as Topping.
When you remove the growing tip, you speed up the process of ripening. Most often this is done about four to five weeks before the fall months.
In Summary
When trimming tomato plants keep these tips in mind.
- Always know the type of tomato plant you have.
- Pruning will result in a better harvest and fruit growth.
- The differences between tomato suckers and which ones to remove.
- When during the growing season you should focus on pruning and what to look for.
