Pruning Tomato Plants – A “How To” Guide

Pruning Tomato Plants – A “How To” Guide

Article by Jack Griffith

Pruning Tomato Plants – A “How To” Guide

If you love large, juicy, show-stopping tomatoes, then you need to know the proper method of pruning tomato plants.

Determinate and Indeterminate Tomato Varieties Require Different Pruning Methods

Determinate tomato varieties are plants that produce all of their fruits in one fell swoop. In other words, they produce fruits that mature at the same time. If you have determinate tomato plants, you’ll notice that at a certain time, all of a sudden they will stop producing leaves and the green tomatoes will ripen.

Determinate tomatoes are varieties like sandwich and beefsteak. Roma and Celebrity tomatoes are determinate.

Indeterminate tomato plants are those typically used for salads like cherry tomatoes, Big Boy and Early Girl. These tomato varieties continue to grow and will produce fruits that ripen in a progressive pattern, not all at once.

Both tomato varieties need different pruning techniques for best performance.

Use Your Fingers for Pruning Tomato Plants

Do not use a knife to prune your tomatoes unless you have some very tough or stubborn stems.

If you prune your tomatoes once a week, you should be able to “pinch” the stems between your thumb and first fingernail, leaving a much-less-prone-to-infection wound that will heal very quickly.

Knives and bypass cutters, also called loppers, can spread infection from one plant to another easily.

Again, prune your plants once a week for optimum fruit production.

Instructions for Pruning Tomato Plants, Determinate Varieties

Start at the bottom of your plant. Look for “suckers,” which are stems that have started growing between the main stem and each branch.

Pinch the suckers off. This is called “simple pruning.” If you check your plant each week for new suckers, then you won’t have to deal with any stems that have become hard to remove because of age.

Check for early blossoms and remove them if your plant is not large enough to handle fruits yet.

The goal in pruning tomato plants is to prevent the plant from putting energy into fruits before it is ready to handle them. Removing suckers will encourage your plant to get bigger and stronger without allowing the suckers to drain needed energy away.

As the growing season grows near its end, you’ll want to “top” your tomato plant. This means that you’ll pinch off the top of the main stem, called the “terminal.”

Topping the tomato plant allows it to finish ripening those green tomatoes that you see hanging, and preventing any further upward growth of the main stem. (If you don’t top your plants, then they will continue to produce stems and leaves and green wimpy fruit that you won’t enjoy.)

Pruning Tomato Plants, Indeterminate Varieties

Take off any blossoms on your plant until it reaches about 18 inches tall.

Indeterminate tomatoes produce several vines. Since you’ll want to concentrate all that energy on tomato production, you’ll want to eliminate all but 1 or 2, or possibly as many as 3 vines, but leave no more than that.

Pinch off any suckers you see that form between the main stem and the branches. This is the same procedure that you would perform for pruning determinate tomato varieties.

However, if you’re planning to leave 2 or 3 vines, then you’ll want to leave the stem(s) growing just above the initial fruit cluster.

Another method for pruning tomato plants is called “Missouri pruning,” which means that instead of taking the entire sucker off, you remove the part of the sucker that is above the first two leaves nearest the main stem.

Missouri pruning allows the two leaves to remain, which allows additional energy to be harvested from the sun by these remaining leaves. However, new suckers will grow very quickly, meaning that your pruning chores will be increased.

Missouri pruning is also helpful if your plants have gotten out of control, and you think pruning suckers severely may hurt the mother plant.

A Few Additional Tips for Pruning Tomato Plants

You’ll notice that as your plants get larger and begin producing fruit that the bottom leaves may start to yellow and drop off. Don’t worry! This is normal. Feel free to remove them yourself if you like.

Topping your plants should typically be done about a month before your first anticipated frost. This allows the plant to put all its remaining energy into ripening fruits.

Remember to stake or support your plants. Plants that are kept upright and off the ground are healthier and produce better fruit.

If you’re a smoker, don’t prune unless you’ve washed your hands thoroughly. Mosiac Virus is spread to tomatoes through tobacco residue on your hands.

If you put a little energy and effort into pruning tomato plants, you’ll reap a crop you’ll be proud of!

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