There are other branches that sprout on top of other branches. There can be branches that hang low and touch the soil. Productive tomato plants begin to sprout all kinds of branches off the main stem. I can’t eat leaves! Three Steps to Pruning Remember: we do this gardening thing to grow produce, not to grow bushy plants (with small or no harvest). Pruning keeps the plant healthy and focuses all the energy into the fruit. These tend to be more vine-like, and you want to prune these plants.

Indeterminate tomato plants produce fruit all season long (until the frost). If you trim determinant plants, you might be sacrificing tomatoes. The reason is that determinant tomato plants produce tomatoes all at once, at the same time. They are great in a container or in a small garden. Now that I have convinced you to prune your plants, we do need to talk about Determinant versus Indeterminate tomato plants.ĭeterminant tomato plants are your bush-type varieties. The Determinant plant (bush-type) is on the left and an Indeterminate plant (San Marzano) is on the right At the same time, all of those leaves and branches are taking energy from the plant, and removing them allows the plant to use that energy for tomato production. Pruning will signal to the plant that it needs to produce more buds and thicken the stem. It’s like your giving the tomato plant a haircut the plant will grow more fruit, branches and leaves. Pruning might make you nervous if you never have done it before, but don’t worry. The first thing you need to do is take a deep breath and prepare yourself mentally. There is no need to pull the peppers! I think we can figure out a way to aggressively prune tomatoes and get more sunlight to those peppers.īe advised: by aggressively pruning, you will get more tomatoes from your plants! I think you can handle it though. Can I cut back the tomatoes? Can I attempt transplanting the peppers? At this rate the peppers are not going to grow so these are my only two options besides just pulling them.” – Alex from Illinois. I have at least 10 peppers that have stopped growing and those are my favorite. “My tomatoes are so out of control and are completely shading my peppers. In the Small Scale Life Facebook Group, our friend and new gardener Alex has a great question:

Today’s podcast, post and YouTube videos are particularly timely. How to Prune Tomatoes to Improve Production and Plant Health

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