It's the tomato plant's vulnerability to fungal problems. Trimming foliage where and when necessary is one of the few natural aids against fungal disease.
Eg, it's a good idea to maintain a gap of a foot to 18" between the soil and the lowest foliage. Fungal spores fall from the foliage to the soil beneath and can be splashed back up onto the foliage during watering to re-infect.
It's also a good idea to thin out thick, impenetrable clumps of leaves to promote air circulation, another aid against fungal spores.
Apart from diseased or dead leaves, they're the only reasons I remove foliage.
But you need to be selective. Removing too much foliage obviously will impact on photosynthesis and the foliage serves another purpose - protecting the fruit from direct, prolonged exposure to hot sun which will cause sunscald (sunburn). Less of an issue, obviously, in milder climates but I'm always tucking fruit in behind foliage at the height of summer.
Funny, I grow my tomatoes in a greenhouse to protect the tomatoes from cold and blight and fungal diseases are not a problem. Neither do I remove functioning leaves.
So really it is up to people to make up their own decisions, but I would always err on the side of not removing leaves.
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It's the tomato plant's vulnerability to fungal problems. Trimming foliage where and when necessary is one of the few natural aids against fungal disease.
Eg, it's a good idea to maintain a gap of a foot to 18" between the soil and the lowest foliage. Fungal spores fall from the foliage to the soil beneath and can be splashed back up onto the foliage during watering to re-infect.
It's also a good idea to thin out thick, impenetrable clumps of leaves to promote air circulation, another aid against fungal spores.
Apart from diseased or dead leaves, they're the only reasons I remove foliage.
But you need to be selective. Removing too much foliage obviously will impact on photosynthesis and the foliage serves another purpose - protecting the fruit from direct, prolonged exposure to hot sun which will cause sunscald (sunburn). Less of an issue, obviously, in milder climates but I'm always tucking fruit in behind foliage at the height of summer.
So really it is up to people to make up their own decisions, but I would always err on the side of not removing leaves.