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Tomato foliage

yorkiethorntonyorkiethornton Posts: 100
in Fruit & veg
My toms are coming on quite well with lots of flowers n few fruits forming. There does seem to be a lot of foliage though. Is there any harm to be done in trimming some of this back. The plants are in grow bags, 3 per bag. Thanks.
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Posts

  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    There are people in both camps, to cut or not. My view is that if leaves are in the way or damaged by watering then they are cut. I never leave leaves to touch the ground it is asking for trouble. Higher up if the fruit can't see the light then they will be slower to ripen, so leaves hanging over fruit go. It has never caused me to loose quantity of fruit or damaged plants and I had 200 from 12 plants last year .😁
  • Fif2Fif2 Posts: 69
    I don’t remove larger leaves as heat is more important for ripening tomatoes than light. Direct sun can cause sunscald.
  • chickychicky Posts: 10,410
    I remove the lower leaves, but only much later in the season than this - normally mid - August
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    Depends how they are being grown as bush cherry Tom's are likely to be overcrowded even this early, mine have yet to have the lower leaves taken off but only because the high heat/light levels have stretched the growth fast so there is room to water unlike last year.
  • stewyfizzstewyfizz Posts: 161
    I tend to cut all stems below the first fruit truss back to 2 leaves sometimes removing the lowest ones altogether purely for ease of watering. Then anything overhanging the fruits. Works for me but some do it differently.
    Gardening. The cause of, and solution to, all of my problems.
  • yorkiethorntonyorkiethornton Posts: 100
    Lantana said:
    I’ve always trimmed some of the larger leaves off mine when they’re putting the ripening fruit in the shade. Not too many though, the plant does need some😁
    Thanks
  • yorkiethorntonyorkiethornton Posts: 100
    stewyfizz said:
    I tend to cut all stems below the first fruit truss back to 2 leaves sometimes removing the lowest ones altogether purely for ease of watering. Then anything overhanging the fruits. Works for me but some do it differently.
    Thank you
  • yorkiethorntonyorkiethornton Posts: 100
    Fif2 said:
    I don’t remove larger leaves as heat is more important for ripening tomatoes than light. Direct sun can cause sunscald.
    Good point! I’ll make sure some cover is retained. Thanks
  • yorkiethorntonyorkiethornton Posts: 100
    purplerallim said:
    There are people in both camps, to cut or not. My view is that if leaves are in the way or damaged by watering then they are cut. I never leave leaves to touch the ground it is asking for trouble. Higher up if the fruit can't see the light then they will be slower to ripen, so leaves hanging over fruit go. It has never caused me to loose quantity of fruit or damaged plants and I had 200 from 12 plants last year .😁
    Cheers; all useful stuff to consider. Thanks
  • ItalophileItalophile Posts: 1,731
    edited July 2018
    A very good reason to thin out foliage is to help against fungal diseases. Fungal spores arrive in the air and settle on foliage. The spores love nothing more than a wall of foliage to crash into. Increasing air circulation immediately around the plant - by thinning foliage - makes the spores' life more difficult. Obviously it doesn't prevent infestation, nothing will, but you do what you can.
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