Click here if you missed “Grow your own beefsteak tomatoes – Part 2: Planting“
Most people are better at weeding and watering than they are at pruning. It can be confusing, for sure, but this post should clear things up for you. Beefsteak tomato plants are “indeterminate,” which means they require staking and pruning to grow properly. By contrast, many cherry and grape tomato plants are determinate and grow shorter, more like bushes, and do not require staking and pruning.
Staking
You’ll need to stake your plants once they look like they’re starting to bend toward the ground. And keep a close eye on them… tomato plants can grow really quickly. I use fairly heavy-duty 2×2″ stakes, sharpened at one end. Hammer them into the ground fairly close to the main stem. First, try to lean the tomato plant on the stake in a way that it’s standing up or leaning on it without being tied. Then use pieces of soft material to secure the plant to the steak in 2 or 3 places along the main stem. Don’t use wire or anything that will cut into the stem. I use soft twine or old socks or T-shirts torn into strips. Also, consider where on the plant you’re tying. Left unattended, a plant can grow quite a bit in just a few days and a misplaced tie can snap off a good branch as the plant grows. And don’t tie the stem tight to the stake, leave some room for it to expand and grow upward.
Pruning
Now that your plant has started to grow, clip off all the suckers, stems and leaves below the first branch that has flower/fruit clusters. Keeping leaves off the ground will discourage disease and pests.
Check your plant every few days. When you see suckers growing out of the crevices between the main stem and leaf-bearing branches, pinch them off. Use clippers if they’re too thick to pinch with your fingers.
In this image, the bottom two red circles show crevices where branches have been pruned away to prevent them from becoming new main stems. The top circle shows a branch that still needs to be clipped.
Never prune your tomato plants after it rains or while they’re still wet from watering. Humidity and water droplets can allow fungal spores and disease remnants to enter through the open plant wounds.
The tomato plant will continually try to grow new main stems out of the crevices between the existing stem and leaf-bearing branches. If you let them grow you’ll soon find that you need multiple stakes to keep the plant growing upward, and you’ll have a near-unmanageable mess on your hands. Keep a close eye on your garden and try to prune your tomato plants every few days. Leaving them for too long will make it difficult to know which stem is the true main stem and which needs to be pruned away. We maintain a plot at a community garden a few blocks from our house and I’ve learned the hard way that a week of neglect can be difficult to come back from.
Getting bigger tomatoes
Once the clusters of tomatoes start to grow, pinch off some of the smaller duds. Meaning, if you’ve got a cluster with 5 tomatoes growing, pinch off the 2 smallest ones, or the two that look the least promising. This will help the remaining fruit to grow bigger and faster. The same applies for diseased fruit or tomatoes that have been attacked by pests – pinch them off. Why waste your water and sunlight resources on fruit you’re never going to eat.
If you maintain your beefsteak tomato plants by adjusting the stake ties and pruning off new attempted main stem suckers, along with regular watering, weeding and fertilizing, they should grow to be 5 or 6 feet tall and produce some fairly large fruit.
FAQs
Beefsteak tomato plants are “indeterminate,” which means they require staking and pruning to grow properly. By contrast, many cherry and grape tomato plants are determinate and grow shorter, more like bushes, and do not require staking and pruning.
Do beefsteak tomatoes need to be staked? ›
Large, thickly fleshed beefsteaks are the biggest type of tomatoes, weighing 1 pound or more. Growing quickly to at least 6 feet tall, the late-maturing tomato plant will produce a bountiful harvest in about 85 days. It needs a sturdy cage, trellis, or stake to support its fruit.
How to stake beefsteak tomato plants? ›
Run the length of twine by the first tomato, in-between the two plants, then around the second stake in a figure eight pattern. Tie off the twine when returning to the first stake so that there is good tension for supporting the plants. As the plants grow, twine is added at 12 -18" intervals up the stakes.
What is the best fertilizer for beefsteak tomatoes? ›
Fertilize once a week again after each harvest, as long as you continue to pick fresh fruit from the plants. The best type of fertilizer for growing beefsteak tomatoes is one that contains a high level of phosphorus, along with some potassium.
How do you know which branches to prune on a tomato plant? ›
To grow the strongest tomato plant possible, prune side stems below the first fruit cluster. As a tomato plant matures, its lower leaves begin to yellow. Pinch or prune yellowed leaves to prevent disease, improve the tomato plant's appearance, and help the plant keep its energy focused on fruit production.
What is the best way to support beefsteak tomatoes? ›
Most beefsteak tomatoes are vining and need strong, tall cages or stakes to keep their copious stems and heavy fruits in check. Even with cages, their stems will outgrow their bounds. This is why pruning is essential. Good pruning may reduce the number of fruits, resulting in larger tomatoes.
How many beefsteak tomatoes does one plant produce? ›
The highest yielding indeterminate beefsteak tomatoes will give you 25+ pounds of fruit if you do everything right. That means buying the latest Dutch hybrid seeds, grafting onto rootstock, lowering and leaning, etc. The average gardener will get less than 5 pounds from each plant.
Is it better to stake or cage tomatoes? ›
A better choice is to stake your tomatoes. There are stakes available as long as 10 feet. They come in different materials like wood, bamboo, plastic and metal.
What is the cheapest way to stake tomatoes? ›
A single stake is a simple, low-cost method for keeping plants upright in small spaces. The best method for how to stake tomatoes this way is to use a 5-foot-tall sturdy wood or metal stake for determinate tomatoes and an 8-foot-tall stake for indeterminate tomatoes.
How much room do beefsteak tomatoes need to grow? ›
Plant tomatoes in the ground 24 to 36 in. (60 to 90 cm) apart in rows. Each row should be spaced 48 inches apart. It's very tempting to put them closer at planting time, but if you get them too close you'll only increase the chance of disease.
They have deep roots that may go down 5', but most of their feeder roots are in the top 2'. Tomatoes can be quite successful when grown in containers. Your container should be fairly large, at least 24-48" deep and 18-36" in diameter for most varieties.
What is a companion plant for beefsteak tomatoes? ›
Nasturtiums. These edible flowers will repel aphids, whiteflies, squash bugs, and beetles. We consider nasturtiums one of the best companion plants for tomatoes and many other vegetables.
What is the best homemade fertilizer for tomatoes? ›
Banana peels make the perfect natural tomato fertilizer as they are packed with nutrients, including potassium, magnesium, phosphorous, and calcium, but contain almost no nitrogen. The best way to deliver it to tomato plants is to chop the banana peels into small pieces and dig into the soil around the plants.
Is 10-10-10 good fertilizer for tomatoes? ›
If only one type of formulated fertilizer is used, it's best to choose a balanced product such as NPK 10-10-10. When should I fertilize my tomato plants? You should fertilize your tomato plants just before or during planting, around two weeks before bloom begins, and again when the first tomatoes are small.
Do you remove side shoots from beefsteak tomatoes? ›
Removing leaves, shoots and suckers from tomato plants has several advantages. With beefsteak tomatoes, pruning prevents side shoots from developing heavy, large fruit that the plant cannot bear and would just break off.
What tomato plants should not be pruned? ›
Determinate tomatoes, AKA bush tomatoes, produce fruit all at once. After that, they're done. These varieties are basically self-pruning because they're meant to only grow to a certain size and then stop. This is not the type of tomato we're talking about when we debate pruning the suckers.
How to care for beefsteak tomato plants? ›
Tomatoes need a warm sheltered site and a minimum of 6 hours of sun daily. Any less and they won't produce very well. These deep-rooted plants are quite drought tolerant and don't really need a lot of water once they are established. In fact, keeping them dry encourages strong root growth.
How tall should tomato plants be before pruning? ›
Plants are usually ready to prune once they reach 12 to 18 inches in height. Photo by Julie Martens Forney. To do the Missouri pruning technique on suckers, pinch off the growing tip, leaving only the two lowest leaves.
