Should I trim or prune my tomato plants?

Question

I have two "patio" tomato plants in 14" pots growing beautifully on my deck. :) I have lots of fruit starting to grow on both plants but I've had some people tell me to trim off the branches that don't have fruit to allow nutrients to get destributed to the branches with fruit. My plants are pretty bushy....I've actually never seen tomato plants with so many branches but maybe it's because of the "patio" quality to them. I think they won't get much bigger than they are now at about 2 feet tall. I only add this bit of info to stress the fact that trimming would really affect the plant's appearance and may not only be one or two branches. Does anyone have any experiance with this or further info and if I trim, how do I go about doing it to be sure I don't damage the plants. I'm almost afraid to touch them, they are doing so beautifully. :) This is my first time growing tomatos and am really pleased with them so far! Thanks in advance for any info!

Answer 1

I grow tomatoes every year, but I don't really prune them. There are things you can do to thin out your plant and get it to produce a little more. There are suckers that grow on the plant, but they never produce fruit. These sucker can be found in the forks of the branch. Picture this Y as a forked branch. Now, picture a branch growing out of the V part of the fork. These are your suckers and they can be pinched out. It will thin your plant and since suckers are energy thieves then your plant should perform better. Good luck

Answer 2

I prune my tomato plants...and right now they are 4 ft high and have 40-60 tomatoes each on them and more coming. I didn't prune last year and I had plants well over 6 ft and maybe 20 tomatoes on them....so from what I have seen with mine...I will stick with pruning. I too was a bit aprehensive about doing it, because they were beautiful, but I thought what the heck...give it a try and it seems to work.

Answer 3

I prune almost all leaves off my tomatoes in the greenhouse to get optimum growth of the tomatoes and avoid leaf/stem rots and mildews. Outside, I would probably leave the leaves on to protect the fruit from the weather and sun. I prune the leaves in the greenhouse because the humidity is so high and disease can take ahold way easier. Don't forget, tomatoes are annual plants that are genetically designed to grow like crazy and set their fruit in one season, no matter how many leaves they have.

Answer 4

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RE:
Should I trim or prune my tomato plants?
I have two "patio" tomato plants in 14" pots growing beautifully on my deck. :) I have lots of fruit starting to grow on both plants but I've had some people tell me to trim off the branches that don't have fruit to allow nutrients to get destributed to the branches with...

Answer 5

I am a farmer, and in my garden I do not prune my tomatoes, but since you have them in pots on your patio, you can prune them back a bit if you want. Cut them off above the third branch down from the top , this will make them sprout out more branches at the cut site , and be bushier . If they are beautiful, I myself would leave them alone.

Answer 6

I have never heard of anyone trimming a tomato plant, and I have know many gardeners. You "stake" them, and let them go.