Where to Prune the Tomato Plant for a healthier larger harvest and Fruit

For many of you, perhaps except in Canada where we are still waiting for Spring to arrive LOL, you have already gone to the nursery and purchased your tomato plants, and are eagerly getting them into the ground or planter. This article will focus on how to prune back your tomato plant.

First of all I should reveal why it is important to prune your tomato plants. It is important to protect the plant from diseases. When you remove the leaves this allows for more air flow in between the plants so after a watering or rain the leaves will dry faster so that it is less likely for disease to spread. Do not prune your tomato plant when the leaves are wet. Pruning your plant at the right time sends the energy toward creating and ripening fruit instead of making more leaves. The best benefit of all is that the fruit will ripen faster when pruned. Less leaves allow for faster ripening. It is very important to remove the flowers of the plant until they are at least 12 inches in height, this way the energy is directly sent down to the roots. You will also want to remove any leaves that are touching the soil to avoid disease spreading from the soil.

Next it is important to learn the parts of the Tomato plant. There is the basic flower cluster, then the stem, then the leaf all basic components of the plant, but then there is this thing called a SUCKER. That is the one you want to familiarize yourself with.

This is basically the piece that you want to remove. Remove all leafy suckers beneath the first fruit cluster so they won’t slow the development of the fruit. Try to remove suckers when they’re small enough to pinch with your fingers, so you don’t leave a gaping wound on the stem. Near the end of the growing season or about 3 weeks before the first frost you should be topping your plant, this is done by clipping off the tops of each growing tip from each main stem, this allows the plant to stop flowering and producing fruit. Most of the tomato plants that you find at the Nursery are the variety that you should prune however there are some more exotic types that you really should not prune. Word to you, when purchasing, ask your Garden center if this breed of tomato should be pruned. Hope this was helpful and I hope to see lots of recipes for homemade Salsa and stewed tomatoes from all of you. I will post my Homemade Salsa recipe with pictures in the fall.
Happy Trails

Photo credits http://www.gardenfocused.co.uk/vegetable/tomato-outdoor/prune.php
Photo credits http://blog.gardeners.com/2013/05/how-to-prune-tomatoes/