When should tomato plants be pruned and what is the best way to do it?
TOMATOES are a great addition to your diet, especially if they’re fresh but keeping them requires some pruning.
Beginning your garden can be stressful but tomato plants are essential to many veggie patches.
When should tomato plants be pruned?
Tomatoes are perennial plants and there is no set time to begin pruning.
As with herbs and other year round veggies, the best time to prune is when the plant reaches a certain height.
For the tomato plant that is 30-60cm tall, if you cut it too soon it may not recover.
It is also good to prune on a dry day, preferably in the early morning if outside.
This minimises risk of infection as the cut will have chance to dry out.
What is the proper way to prune tomatoes?
Tomato plants grow in branches coming from a main stem, between these branches you may see a small offshoot beginning to grow.
More from gardening
These are known as suckers and are what you should carefully remove from the plant.
Using sharp, clean pruning shears or scissors cut these off the plant.
Water the plant at spoil level rather than with sprinklers to stop any dampness getting in to the open wounds.
What happens if you don’t prune tomatoes?
There is much debate around this topic, some say pruning the plant increases harvest.
Others have found that there is no point in removing the tomato plant suckers.
Removing them can open the plant up to some unnecessary damage and risk infection, it’s just luck of the draw.
As with all plants if you don’t prune them it will continue to grow and that could result in an out of control tomato tree.