Tomato Container Gardening: The Easy Way to Grow Tomatoes in a Small Space by James Paris

Author:James Paris
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Deanburn Publications
Published: 2012-05-19T06:00:00+00:00

General Plant Care

Pruning

Tomato plants, like most plants, need regular pruning or other care if you are to get the best out of them. Fortunately with the tomato plant this is quite a simple affair. With the vine tomatoes particularly, they tend to send out side shoots or suckers between the stem and the leaf; these shoots have to be trimmed away otherwise the precious sugar that should be going to the fruit is diverted to these growing shoots. Leaving these shoots to grow will mean that the plant will get over-loaded and the crop will be poor. Be careful when doing this, that you do not cut away the fruit bearing branch by mistake.

A top tip here. If you like you can let one of these shoots grow out for about 6 inches or so, then cut off carefully and plant in some wet compost. This will produce another plant that can be used elsewhere or as a replacement in case of disaster.

Once the plant has grown to full height or about 6 trusses from the ground you can trim the top and halt the upward growth. This will allow the nutrients to be used to feed the tomatoes instead of going to encourage leaf growth. In fact the commercial growers tend to strip away the leaves more than half way up the stem when the plant is full grown, in order to get a better tomato crop. Trimming away the leaves like this also helps stop or prevent tomato blight on the leaves.

The bush tomatoes generally do not need this kind of pruning as they are developed to grow bush-like and have a shortened growing and fruit-bearing season. Any signs of tomato blight however can be treated the same way, by stripping of the affected leaves, and removing them from the scene.

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