Prune Tomatoes - wikiHow

How to Prune Tomatoes

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

When growing tomatoes, the ultimate goal is getting the maximum yield of crops, with the best flavour possible. If you're growing indeterminate or "vining" varieties (Big Boy, Beef Master, most "cherry" types, Early Girl, most heirloom varieties) pruning your plants to remove unwanted shoots and leaves can be an important part of ensuring that all the nutrients are going to the fruit.

Steps

1. Remove all suckers and leaves below the first flower cluster.[1] The aim when growing a tomato plant is to have a single stem. This should ensure that the majority of the nutrients are sent to the fruits, instead of being wasted on the unwanted growing tips.To remove a sucker, grab a growing tip by the base between the thumb and forefinger, and bend it back and forth until it snaps cleanly. This should ideally be done when the shoot is young and supple. The small wound will heal quickly. This is called "simple pruning".Alternatively, you can try "Missouri pruning" which entails pinching out just the tip of the sucker, leaving one or two leaves behind for photosynthesis and to protect developing fruit from sun scald. The drawback is that suckers will develop from the stem that you leave behind, which will require additional pruning, but this technique is better when you're dealing with large suckers--if wound becomes diseased, it will be further away from the main stem, and leaving a few inches on the sucker reduces the shock to the plant.[2]
   
2. Allow four or five fruit bearing trusses to grow from the stem, then pinch out any additional side shoots, leaving the plant's top shoot intact, known as the terminal shoot.
   
3. Remove leaves. As the plant begins to mature, the lower leaves will naturally begin to yellow and wilt. This is perfectly normal, so pull these from the plant when they appear. It will keep the plant fresh, looking good, and help ward off disease.
   
4. Top the plant. To get the best out of the last growth of the season, it is necessary to "top" the plant. About a month before the first expected frost, or when the plant hits the roof of your greenhouse, remove the plant's terminal shoot. At this point in the season, the tomatoes currently growing will have a limited time to reach maturity, so all nutrients must be directed straight to the fruit.
   

Tips

• Determinate or "bush" varieties do not need pruning (or staking, for that matter). They are bred to grow to a compact height, produce one "wave" of fruit during a two weeks period, and then die, unlike indeterminate varieties also called "vining" tomatoes which grow as tall as people and produce and grow all season long. Common determinate varieties are Rutgers, Roma, Celebrity (called a semi-determinate by some), and Marglobe. Common indeterminate varieties are Big Boy, Beef Master, most "cherry" types, Early Girl, most heirloom varieties. [3]
  

Warnings

• To avoid infecting your tomato plants, always prefer fingers over blades for removing shoots (the resulting wound can be easily infected). However, for older, tougher shoots, you may have to resort to using a blade; if so, sterilize your cutting implement thoroughly for each use.
  

• If you smoke, wash hands thoroughly with soap and water before handling tomato plants. Tobacco smokers can easily infect tomato plants with 'Mosaic Virus."

Things You Will Need

• Growing tomatoes
  
• Clean hands
  
• Sterilised cutting implement if using (hands preferred)