Prune Dem Mators

OK so there are probable dozens of threads asking how to Prune Tomatoes, but this is not one of them. Rather share your method. Put 100 mator growers in a room and ask how Prune Tomatoes and you will get 100 different answers. So I will start with what I do.

OK for Determinate varieties I only prune any of the lower Side Branches that might come in contact with the ground, damaged or diseased leaves. Otherwise I do not touch them.

Indeterminate I start when they are very young starting at planting time by removing everything below the top leader, and bury them deep followed up with a nice thick layer of Alfalfa Hay mulch.

As they grow for a week or two I remove all the lower branches from the ground up and any Suckers. Once The first flower cluster appears I stop cutting off lower branches unless one ever gets close to touching the ground.

As the leader continues to grow I remove all Suckers as soon as I spot them. I remove any Branches that start to look yellow or any type of disease.

As the fruit starts ripening from the ground up, I remove all branches up to the next Cluster of Fruit.

As time goes on continue to remove all Suckers, damaged, and diseased branches. I will also thin out branches in the middle of the plant when it gets crowded so air can get in and circulate.

Lasly about 30 days before first frost I top the plants by cutting off the Leader just above the last good Cluster of Fruit, and all Flower Clusters, and fruit that is too small to get up to at least breaker stage before frost kills the plant.

[KarenO]

well here's second of the hundred different ways to prune... and the fact is I am not much for pruning up here. Determinates I cage and don't prune at all. Indeterminate tomatoes, here in Zone 3 I want every tomato I can get. Pruning will reduce your yield and improve the quality in long season areas. Up north, it will mostly just reduce your yield. I prune up from the bottom to the first truss and mulch with clean aspen shavings to protect from soil splash on the lower foliage in the rain. I stake all my indeterninates as well as cage them to support the branches and mainly let them do their thing. rampant growth is really not even achievable in this short season area. I remove any yellowing or diseased or storm/hail damaged foliage as it happens and otherwise let them be. I prefer a heavy leaf cover for the protection of the fruit from sun scald and storms. I often still have mature green fruit on my plants at the end of the season and pick them to ripen indoors into October and find the quality of indoor ripened fruit to be very good, if not as good as vine ripened, certainly light years better than anything I can buy in a store so I make sure to pick all mature green fruit before frost.
Works for me, the Canadian non-pruner
Karen

[PaulF]

Down here further south I am also a non-pruner other than to snip off the bottom branches that drag the mulch.

[carolyn137]

I'm yet another non-pruner who just removes lower yellow leaves if necessary and who never would prune determinate plants.

Of course whether one prunes or not is closely tied to HOW someone grows their tomatoes, which is yet another variable to be considered, since pruning techniques do differ widely depending on the HOW part.

Carolyn, who prefers to grow her tomatoes so that all the genes can be expressed which leads to greater foliage cover more branches that have blossoms that set fruit which leads to higher yields as well.

[b54red]

Down here in the very deep south with our oppressive humidity I prune all tomatoes to one degree or another now even determinate varieties. With the thick wet foliage of non-pruned determinate varieties it is a race to see which will happen first ripe fruit or death by disease and many years the diseases will win. I only prune a little to open the center up so the plant can get a little air and sunlight to allow better drying.

I prune all my indeterminate varieties to limit the number of stems. All foliage is removed for the first foot to as much as two feet on the bottom of the plant. I prune my plants according to the growth pattern of each individual plant to maintain an open plant. This year I am doing a whole bed of one stem plants but even there I will allow extra stems where necessary if the plant has foliage too light to provide some shade for the fruit. Fall plants are usually allowed more stems and foliage because of the lower humidity that sometimes occurs late in the season and the much shorter time involved. Pruning actually allows me to produce more fruit per plant because with a growing season lasting from March til December keeping the plant healthy and free of diseases is the most important factor in production unless I just want a lot of tomatoes in June and almost nothing after. For me pruning has turned into almost an art form totally dependent on the different factors from the support system to diseases and pests that influence the plant as it develops.

Bill

[MrBig46]

To be or not to be? To prune or not to prune? This does not resolve any controversy.
I wonder if there are any studies with this information (often used in discussions): Not pruned plants have smaller tomatoes but higher yield?
Vladimír

[bughunter99]

Seems like side by side tests in different parts of the world would be pretty easy to do!

I would do it...except I don't prune anything that doesn't touch the ground. It just seems like it opens up additional places for disease to get in.

Stacy

[kath]

I prune because of extreme humidity and close spacing and my method sounds similar to others'. I rarely grow a determinate variety because they don't like pruning and they come down with grey mold or some other fungal disease too quickly here. I take some lower leaves off when planting out but don't usually plant too deeply. After that, all suckers are pinched out asap to keep plants to one vine unless/until the plant forks and I'll let both of the first forks continue to grow. If the plant forks again, I keep the fork that flowers first. I mulch lightly with shredded leaves at plant out to prevent splashback and usually only remove diseased lower foliage. I've tried not pruning and had too many early problems with leaf disease and insect attack. As yet, I'm more concerned with taste than production and also prefer larger fruits, so pruning works for me. Even with hundreds of plants, I like to inspect them each day for pests and disease, so pinching suckers and shaking blossoms is just part of my routine.

kath

[b54red]

Originally Posted by kath

I prune because of extreme humidity and close spacing and my method sounds similar to others'. I rarely grow a determinate variety because they don't like pruning and they come down with grey mold or some other fungal disease too quickly here. I take some lower leaves off when planting out but don't usually plant too deeply. After that, all suckers are pinched out asap to keep plants to one vine unless/until the plant forks and I'll let both of the first forks continue to grow. If the plant forks again, I keep the fork that flowers first. I mulch lightly with shredded leaves at plant out to prevent splashback and usually only remove diseased lower foliage. I've tried not pruning and had too many early problems with leaf disease and insect attack. As yet, I'm more concerned with taste than production and also prefer larger fruits, so pruning works for me. Even with hundreds of plants, I like to inspect them each day for pests and disease, so pinching suckers and shaking blossoms is just part of my routine.

kath

Kath the reason you see more gray mold on determinates is the very reason I prune them because gray mold just loves that dense wet shaded foliage. Sure I get fewer tomatoes but I'm not encouraging the rapid growth of diseases that quickly move from plant to plant. I don't grow many determinate tomatoes but all the ones I grow get substantial pruning and they still manage to produce a very good crop and they tend to produce longer because they don't get sick and die before the fruit can ripen.

I do the same thing when picking which fork to keep, choosing the one with the first bloom cluster. Sometimes though i get those really weird growths where 4 or more forks appear at the same place and I never quite know what to do with them. When I leave them alone they just make a mess and hardly ever produce any fruit to amount to anything. I just pick one or two of the stems to keep and clip the rest and hope for the best. Another weird thing I have had happen a couple of times on single stem plants was after removing the suckers below the blooms to find the plant just didn't have a new growth tip above the flowers even though everything looked normal at the time. I can remember it only happened twice and one time a new growth tip started as a sucker down lower on the plant; but on one it was just like I had clipped all the growth tips in the fall and the plant didn't grow anymore.

I also go out and inspect almost every day and it is not much work to pinch some suckers and remove a few forks while checking for insects and disease. I hate it when I can't get out there every day and keep up with everything because when I leave things untended for more than a couple of days bad things always seem to happen. Pruning becomes much harder work if you don't do it regularly and heavy pruning can stress a plant at least for a while.

Bill

[kath]

Originally Posted by b54red

Kath the reason you see more gray mold on determinates is the very reason I prune them because gray mold just loves that dense wet shaded foliage. Sure I get fewer tomatoes but I'm not encouraging the rapid growth of diseases that quickly move from plant to plant. I don't grow many determinate tomatoes but all the ones I grow get substantial pruning and they still manage to produce a very good crop and they tend to produce longer because they don't get sick and die before the fruit can ripen.

I do the same thing when picking which fork to keep, choosing the one with the first bloom cluster. Sometimes though i get those really weird growths where 4 or more forks appear at the same place and I never quite know what to do with them. When I leave them alone they just make a mess and hardly ever produce any fruit to amount to anything. I just pick one or two of the stems to keep and clip the rest and hope for the best. Another weird thing I have had happen a couple of times on single stem plants was after removing the suckers below the blooms to find the plant just didn't have a new growth tip above the flowers even though everything looked normal at the time. I can remember it only happened twice and one time a new growth tip started as a sucker down lower on the plant; but on one it was just like I had clipped all the growth tips in the fall and the plant didn't grow anymore.

I also go out and inspect almost every day and it is not much work to pinch some suckers and remove a few forks while checking for insects and disease. I hate it when I can't get out there every day and keep up with everything because when I leave things untended for more than a couple of days bad things always seem to happen. Pruning becomes much harder work if you don't do it regularly and heavy pruning can stress a plant at least for a while.

Bill

Thanks for the tip about pruning determinates, Bill. I'll definitely keep that in mind if I grow any in the future.

I've seen the quadruple fork, as well as the disappearing leader; sometimes it's good to just wait a few days and see what happens. Pinching early is easier than pruning later.

kath

[VC Scott]

A lot depends on your weather, the length of your season and pest problems. I am in inland Southern California. My season is extremely long. I picked my last 2013 tomato in March 2014. My weather is extraordinarily dry. There might be an inch of rain between June 1 and September 30. The fungal diseases in the south and the east are not a problem for me. My biggest problem is with Tomato Russet Mites. Those darn little critters ruined my tomato garden two years ago.

My main reason for pruning is to control the Tomato Russet Mites. I have to keep the leaves off of the ground. Leaves on the bottom 12 inches of each stem are pruned. Florida weave is used to keep the lateral shoots and branches off the ground.

I do prune a bit for air flow early in the season when we get fog from the coast. I did have a bit of Early Blight last year, but that was pretty easy to keep under control with copper spray and when the heat and dry air of July came, the Early Blight was eliminated.

The other reason I prune is simply to control the size of the plants. I had an unpruned Sungold last year that filled up 3 trash cans when I finally took it out in February. It must have been 18 or 20 feet long.

[b54red]

Those Sun Golds are something else aren't they. I only grew it one year because by the time it was only 8 ft tall and 10 ft across I was so sick of the things I couldn't stand to look at them. I remember loving it when it first started producing but Oh my! did that thing produce. I still can't stand the thought of unleashing one of those monsters again.

Scott have you tried using an Insect Growth Regulator and see if it helps with Russet mites? It is the only thing that had lasting results with spider mites for me three years ago during our drought. I used a mix of Permethrin at a fairly high dose, soapy water and an IGR and then reapplied it in two to three weeks. It was amazingly effective and I had tried just about every thing and nothing had worked for more than 3 or 4 days and then they would come back worse than ever.

I have a small container ready to go the next time they show up. I used it only once two years ago but used it early in the infestation and it only had to be applied once. Didn't see a single spider mite last year due I guess to the torrential rains we had which seem to have broken a 25 year drought cycle we were in. Knock on wood.

Bill

[VC Scott]

Originally Posted by b54red

Those Sun Golds are something else aren't they. I only grew it one year because by the time it was only 8 ft tall and 10 ft across I was so sick of the things I couldn't stand to look at them. I remember loving it when it first started producing but Oh my! did that thing produce. I still can't stand the thought of unleashing one of those monsters again.

Scott have you tried using an Insect Growth Regulator and see if it helps with Russet mites? It is the only thing that had lasting results with spider mites for me three years ago during our drought. I used a mix of Permethrin at a fairly high dose, soapy water and an IGR and then reapplied it in two to three weeks. It was amazingly effective and I had tried just about every thing and nothing had worked for more than 3 or 4 days and then they would come back worse than ever.

I have a small container ready to go the next time they show up. I used it only once two years ago but used it early in the infestation and it only had to be applied once. Didn't see a single spider mite last year due I guess to the torrential rains we had which seem to have broken a 25 year drought cycle we were in. Knock on wood.

Bill

Bill, I have never used Insect Growth Regulator. If a problem arises this year I may give it a try.

My strategy is more focused on prevention. The Russet Mites live in the dirt and are carried by the wind. They love plants in the nightshade family. The first step is to remove any members of the nightshade family that are near the tomato field. For me, that is jimsom weed, which is native to Socal. Second, I mulch both the plants and the garden walkway with a layer of straw. The intent there is to prevent wind from blowing the mites onto the plants. Third, I try to never let a leaf touch the ground. Finally, I grow some wispy leaf varieties that tend to be the first plants to show Russet Tomato Mite damage. German Red Strawberry and Fish Lake Oxheart are always the first to go downhill. They are my sentinels. If I see them start to struggle, I know it is time to take action.

I understand there are some predatory mites that eat the Russet Mites, but I don't think I can purchase them at a reasonable cost. I have used Permethrin (Take Down) with some success, but hate to use it because it kills beneficials as well as the bad guys.

[OldHondaNut]

I don't prune determinates either.

For my intermediates, I have watched a video by Johnny's where they allow a second trunk to grow. The exception is some Gardeners Delights that I grow in 5 gallon buckets. These are single stem with all suckers pruned.

Occasionally I will let an indeterminate grow without any support or pruning. Some will take up a huge amount of space and lots of the fruits will find the ground and all the problems with it.

[Fiishergurl]

What can I do to get this beefsteak to put more energy into growing the tomatoes bigger? It is in an 18 gallon swc which it shares with a better bush or some kind of dwarf that has about 20 tomatoes on it. The beefsteak has about 30 tomatoes... but there are some issues... :-)

Here's some history.

I'm in Florida on the intracoastal waterway, zone 9b, and planted this in the SWC the first week of February. It is in potting mix, 2 cups of lime and 2 cups of 10-10-10 fert strip which was put in a couple weeks after planting (our first time using SWC's so we had to learn.. lol). Anyways, it made about 10 tomatoes in the beginning and one grew to golf ball size and stopped growing. The others stayed eraser size or smaller and stopped growin. They stayed the same size for almost a month while other plants (early girl, cherries, better bush) grew and grew their tomatoes. Then not only did the beefsteak tomatoes quit growing but the plant didn't set anymore fruit. It was a gorgeous plant with tons of blossoms, but the blossoms dropped. I got mad at it because of all the green foliage and lack of tomatoes and decided if it wasn't going to produce that I was going to at least make it a manageable plant. So I hacked at least a third of it off, maybe more. And guess what?... The 10 tomatoes started growing and it started setting more fruit. That was a month ago. So now it has about 30 tomatoes on it (minus one that finally ripened). Then I figured that fert strip had probably been used up so pulled back the covers and put in about another cup of 10-10-10. That was a week ago. Also, 5 days ago I started trying to pollinate it with the electric toothbrush trick because it's always had tons of blossoms and most of them have dropped. Not sure if this is working yet.

BUT.... the tomatoes have slowed down on growth even though the plant is still trying to reach the sky. I am now pruning off all the small suckers and trying to keep the plant to the main stems it already has.

The first tomato it grew a long time ago that stopped growing at golf ball size for about a month, finally when it started growing again a month later (after the hack job) it got to flattened tennis ball size and ripened about a week ago. Only ripe fruit so far and OMG, it was DELICIOUS. I want more so that's why I started the tooth brush trick and that's why I'm posting this message. What can I do to help the 30 tomatoes it has grow as large as possible? Yummy yummy. After tasting the tomato off this plant, it makes it hard to eat the tomatoes off the plant below... lol. Don't get me wrong.. the tomatoes on the plant below have good flavor but they don't have the texture the beefsteak had. Give me more!... :-)