I knew that I had to do it, but I still didn’t like it. Luckily, there wasn’t any fruit on the stems I cut, but STILL! Her tomatoes were SO pretty!!!
Here’s the bad news. ONE STEM PER SQUARE FOOT. I know, I know, but there has to be air circulation and if you do it, you’ll get more tomatoes per square foot of garden space than someone growing the the traditional, multi-stem, cage route. (Now, notice I didn’t say more tomatoes per PLANT. If you want more per plant, do it the multi-stem row garden way, but it will take up WAY more garden space. And THIS is where I got that little piece of info. (I should just have a hot key that links him, I use it so much…)
Everything below the first set of flowers (or maters) has to go. Like these:
Now if you just have to save a second stem, (I understand, I do it too…) stake it and treat it like a separate tomato plant. This is a good thing to do if you have a square where something didn’t work out. Just pull a stem over and stake it.
Now for more bad news. Pinch the suckers. Suckers are the little leaves growing between the stem and the established branch like upside down armpit hair. It’s easy when they’re young, but once you have a branch there, it’s too painful for words.
http://sustainable-gardening.subto.us
The summary of tomato pruning…do it often so you don’t have to cut off something gorgeous.
Ivory
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So all those yellow leaves can go?! I was getting worried about them. I fed them with the fish emulsion / beer potion Tuesday evening and they don’t look any better. I am afraid I’ve been paying TOO much attention to them. I currently have 2 little green grape toms on it and several flowers that I’m hoping become toms soon. I’ll do some serious pruning this weekend and hopefully we’ll have red maters soon!
Thanks bunches!
@ Nancy, you’re welcome!
AHHH. I read this in All New Square Foot Gardening and I didn’t do it. Now my tomatoes are huge and I am not sure how it will work out. I am sure they will still climb, but they do seem too bushy. Is it too late to prune them? I mean for the plant. I can work up the heartlessness if I have to.
Thank you for showing pictures of what the plants should look like. Every time I read about pruning tomatoes I think “Really? Surely I’m misunderstanding. Don’t they need more leaves for photosynthesis?”
I guess they really should be mostly-naked stalks! Thanks for clarifying.
I’m almost convinced that cutting all those stems and leaves off makes the plant realize “Holy eff, I’m going to die! I better reproduce!”
My Cherokee didn’t start developing flowers until I hacked it way back (and stopped feeding it nitrogen!). I think they’re deciding to bloom now!
And, as an added bonus, I have those cuttings rooting in a cup of water–it has been a few days and some already have roots!
You can grow them indoors during the winter, too, so next spring/summer, you’ll get a gigantic jump on the season.
Auuugh! ONE stem per square foot???!!!! AAAugh!!!!!!!!! That’s going to be like
right-arm amputation in my little garden bed!!!! I was leaving two branches per plant and so many of them have buds and babies on them!!! Poo!!!!!!!!
Here’s a question for you – the bell peppers in my beds are forming perfectly beautiful little flowers, then in the next day or two, the flowers (and tiny stems attatched) are yellowing, wilting and falling OFF!!!! This happened to me last year and I never did figure out what I was doing wrong – can anyone here help me???? Please, PLEASE!!?
Well, I just came back in from doing radical surgery on all my tomato plants – poor babies! Holy cow – you’re right – that was seriously hard!!!! Some of those shoots had BLOSSOMS on them! *sob!* Well, beloved Ivory, I hope you’re right and that my babies are happier and more productive with their new “haircuts”. Otherwise I’m sure you’ll be able to hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth coming from all the way here in Minnesota! ;o) You Girls have always been right before – praying that my faith in you pays off! lol!
I’m also doing what Kenneth Moore did and am going to attempt rooting some of my biggest cuttings in water. But then what do I do with them??? Stick them in a pot with soil? Stick them in the garden? What? As you can probably guess, I’m pretty new to this “real gardening” stuff – hence all the questions and frantic behavior over my girls’ “trims”. ;o)
Thanks so much, TL and Ivory – I really do always enjoy your blog and follow your advice to a “T” – usually (although I did leave a couple large shoots on one or two tomatoes )
God bless!
Has anyone seen “bloom set” for sale ? Ya spray it on those little yellow tomatoe flowers and it ”sets” the bloom to be a fruit. No bees necessary. I can’t find it at my local gardening stores or any where for that matter. It guaranteed that every flower turned into a tomatoe, or a pepper, or a squash. I remember using it when I lived in an apartment and had a patio full of container gardening. I had tons of fruitful plants!. Or is there something we can mix up at home that will do this??
Wow, looks like I need to get pruning too! I don’t have any tomatoes in my raised bed, but they’re spread out in the area immediately adjacent. They have plenty of room to sprawl, but if this will make them healthier then I’m all for it. Thanks for the photos!
thank you, ivory, for guiding us so patiently thru the learning curve of tomato growing! i’ll be pruning today, although what you suggest seems more radical than what is usually recommended.
javalady, i think what you are looking for is called “blossom set”, not “bloom set”. you should be able to find it at a good nursery or online.
Oh ooh ow ow ow…that was awful. Not sure who had more trouble doing the deed–my husband or me. We still have a little more pruning to do after reading the other readers’ posts. Back out there. And someone, do fill us in on the rooting gig. Thanks TL/Ivory and everyone!
I know. It scares me, but it’s what Mel says and he grows them up single strings.
If you have the room, just trim at the bottom to let air circulate, you don’t have to be drastic like me if you have the room.
Are we going to have that same blight we had last year where once the tomatoes were almost ripe they developed black stems and went bad real quickly.
francis….gosh I hope not!
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