Beginner's Qs about pruning after wind damage

leshachikha · April 26, 2013

Hey everybody! I'm a beginner gardener (my family always used to have a big garden when I was a kid, but this is my first time gardening by my lonesome), and I've kinda been flying by the seat of my pants with respect to my three Black Krim plants. I'm in Philadelphia (zone 7) and am using homemade earthtainers. I was so excited about this season that I jumped the gun and started my seedlings way too early. By the first week of April, they were just too big/leggy to keep inside anymore, so I rolled the dice and transplanted them into the earthtainers after a very brief hardening-off.

The plants had a hard first few days. In the space of a week, the weather went from windy, to unseasonably hot (90 F!!), to rainy, to cool, then back to windy again. They survived, but the foliage was pretty tattered. I pruned off one or two of the very worst boughs on each plant, but left the rest of the damaged leaves because I didn't want to get too wild with the shears.

Well, now the tomatoes seem really happy! The tops are bushy and vibrantly green. 2 of the plants are already blooming, and the third has buds. However, several of the older boughs still look rough. Would it be best to remove these boughs? Also, the scars along the stem where I previously cut off the damaged branches are now sprouting new branches! Some of these are a little too close to the soil for my taste, but if I cut em off, won't I just get new ones again? And the plants are sending up TONS of little sprouts in the elbows between the boughs and the main stem! Is it true that those branches won't bear fruit, or that they sap energy from the rest of the plant?

What would you advise me to do? I'm so afraid of killing my these poor plants that unfortunately got stuck with me for a caretaker!

Thanks!!

April 26, 2013	#1
leshachikha Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Philadelphia, PA Posts: 23	Beginner's Qs about pruning after wind damage Hey everybody! I'm a beginner gardener (my family always used to have a big garden when I was a kid, but this is my first time gardening by my lonesome), and I've kinda been flying by the seat of my pants with respect to my three Black Krim plants. I'm in Philadelphia (zone 7) and am using homemade earthtainers. I was so excited about this season that I jumped the gun and started my seedlings way too early. By the first week of April, they were just too big/leggy to keep inside anymore, so I rolled the dice and transplanted them into the earthtainers after a very brief hardening-off. The plants had a hard first few days. In the space of a week, the weather went from windy, to unseasonably hot (90 F!!), to rainy, to cool, then back to windy again. They survived, but the foliage was pretty tattered. I pruned off one or two of the very worst boughs on each plant, but left the rest of the damaged leaves because I didn't want to get too wild with the shears. Well, now the tomatoes seem really happy! The tops are bushy and vibrantly green. 2 of the plants are already blooming, and the third has buds. However, several of the older boughs still look rough. Would it be best to remove these boughs? Also, the scars along the stem where I previously cut off the damaged branches are now sprouting new branches! Some of these are a little too close to the soil for my taste, but if I cut em off, won't I just get new ones again? And the plants are sending up TONS of little sprouts in the elbows between the boughs and the main stem! Is it true that those branches won't bear fruit, or that they sap energy from the rest of the plant? What would you advise me to do? I'm so afraid of killing my these poor plants that unfortunately got stuck with me for a caretaker! Thanks!!