Strip tomato leaves for a better crop - (2024)

FAQs

Strip tomato leaves for a better crop -? ›

Once you've got a few trusses of green tomatoes on your plants, it's a good idea to strip off some of the excess foliage. This will help the plants to focus on fruit and ripening which might be a good idea if this slightly cooler weather continues, as they may struggle more than usual with ripening!

The advantage in removing the lower leaves is that the plants energies go into producing fruit rather than a lot of foliage. Also the lower leaves tend to get powdery mildew so it is good to remove them to stop disease spreading.

Remove flowers until plants are 12 to 18 inches tall, so plants can direct more energy to the roots. Remove all leafy suckers beneath the first fruit cluster so they won't slow the development of the fruit.

Summary of how to prune tomatoes:

Check all leaf axils of the shoots from top to bottom. Break or snap off small side shoots with your fingers; cut off larger ones with a clean knife or gardening shears. Keep the wounds dry when watering the plant. Repeat roughly every two weeks, depending on growth.

To Prune or Not To Prune

For example, it would be fair to cut 2 leaves from each branch of a tomato plant with 18 branches that have 6 leaves each, leaving the plant with 4 leaves per branch. This will guarantee that the plant doesn't get too crowded or bushy and has enough leaves to keep on producing fruits.

It is possible to get overzealous and wind up with an over pruned tomato plant, but removing dead, diseased, or just unnecessary leaves and stems from tomato plants increases the fruit.

Once you've got a few trusses of green tomatoes on your plants, it's a good idea to strip off some of the excess foliage. This will help the plants to focus on fruit and ripening which might be a good idea if this slightly cooler weather continues, as they may struggle more than usual with ripening!

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.

When should I prune my tomatoes? Start pruning in late June or early July when the first tomato flowers are open and easy to identify.

What leaves do you pinch out on tomato plants? ›

Removing the side-shoots is simple – every time you water, check the plant for any shoots sprouting just above each leaf, from the joint between the leaf and the stem. Pinch these out or snap them off.

Most tomato pruning involves removing suckers -- the shoots that form in the axils where side branches meet the stem. Remove suckers when they're small by pinching them off with your hand or snipping them with pruners. If your goal is to maximize the harvest, prune suckers sparingly.

Some growers prefer to use a high-phosphorus fertilizer, indicated by a larger middle number. You can also keep things simple with a fertilizer especially formulated for tomatoes – usually with a ratio like 3-4-6 or 4-7-10. Most importantly, don't over-fertilize.

If there are more branches on the plant that are not producing fruit, there is more energy being directed to that part of the plant instead of to the fruiting part. By pruning away excess foliage, you can produce larger fruit earlier in the season and protect your plants from pests and diseases.

Leaves are important for photosynthesis and transpiration so if they are removed the rate of photosynthesis and transpiration may reduce and all of certain the plant may die. Most of them immediately start regrowing leaves. In a week or two things are almost as they were before.