Pruning tomatoes

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• PlantyPru Posts: 142

  June 2020

  
  

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• Lyn Posts: 23,190

  June 2020

  I saw an article written by Bob Flowerdew, he never takes side shoots off his Tomatoes, he grows one plant and trains the side shoots sideways, one plant fills his greenhouse, so as long as you feed yours well Pru,  you could leave them or if they’re clearly visible take a few off. 

  Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 
  
  

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• Sabina13 Posts: 113

  June 2020

  Yes, if we understand why we do something, or why everyone else does it, we can decide if its best for us to do in our specific conditions.
  
  Sideshoots are generally removed because of lack of growing space, to increase air flow around the plant so decreasing likelihood of fungal problems and having a perceived short growing season here in the UK. The sideshoots need time to grow into long vines and develop trusses and eventually tomatoes, all of which takes energy away from the main stem doing these actions so sometimes people think its better to sacrifice quantity of tomatoes, and have fewer bigger ones just from the main stem. 
  
  If you think any of these issues will apply to you, you can address them in more ways then just removing sideshoots. Removing sideshoots is just the most common and oft repeated way of addressing the above problems. 
  
  My parents grow up to 3 tomato plants only in their big southerly back garden; never removing sideshoots, never having fungal problems, no lack of space and a very good summer usually. They always have a higher end harvest weight then some of the very popular youtube veg growing channels that do 15 different varieties, single stemmed in a poly tunnel. 
  
  It really is about assesing your own situation and deciding what you want out of your plants. 
  
  If your only concerns are running out of space and reduced airflow, perhaps you could strategically remove some of the bigger sideshoots (1 or 2) only from 1 or 2 plants to maximise air flow? Instead of from all of them. 

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• Fairygirl Posts: 55,117

  June 2020

  Depends on the room you have and how much faff you can be bothered with @PlantyPru. You have plenty of flowers there, and should have a decent enough crop, so just do what's easiest to keep a good airflow round the plants, and to suit your conditions. I can see they're in a greenhouse, so just ensure they have enough room round them
    
  I sometimes miss side shoots, despite my best efforts, and as I only have a small greenhouse, and growing outside isn't really an option here, I have to just do what's easiest. I have two main stems on one plant just now, and I've often had that. Not a problem 
  The only thing I make sure to do is taking the lowest stems off, because it becomes quite congested. Any really long stems get cut back by half, just to make it easier to get in to water them 

  It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
  
  
  
  I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...

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• GemmaJF Posts: 2,286

  June 2020 edited June 2020

  I remove the lower leaves up to the first truss in stages as the plants grow in height. It tends to result in more vigorous top growth and aids air flow around the base of the plants, warding off the dreaded blight. I start with any that are not looking their best, then usually each week when I tie in new top growth, I take off a few more, but only below the first truss.
  
  

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