If you prune your tomatoes regularly when the suckers are small, all you need is your fingernails to pinch them.īut, if you forget or don’t have time and you find yourself with long, thick suckers, you’ll need to use pruning shears to make a clean cut and ensure you don’t damage your tomato plant. If your tomato plants are already large and wild, don’t worry! Remove all of the leaves about 12 to 18 inches off the ground and lower, then move on to step two. Even if they don’t ripen before frost, any green tomatoes you bring inside after “topping” the plant should fully ripen on the counter.

This signals the plant to stop flowering and instead finish ripening all of the fruit already on the vine. About four weeks before the first frost, remove the growing tip of each main stem (indeterminate plants only).This process will continue through the end of the season, especially for indeterminate types. Once the plants grow taller than a foot, begin removing suckers and any diseased or otherwise damaged branches.Always keep the base of the plant trimmed. You may need to repeat this step later, as branches that initially seem high enough sometimes droop as they grow. When planting seedlings out in the home garden, pinch or cut off any lower leaves that may come in contact with the soil.Below is a step-by-step list to walk you through the process, with a few more details in the sections that follow. Tomato pruning should occur in stages throughout the growing season. Because of their indefinite growth, they can be pruned rather vigorously. Indeterminate varieties, on the other hand, will continue growing and producing fruit until frost.These should only receive minimal pruning. Determinate varieties stop growing at a certain height, have a bushier habit, and produce fruit earlier but in a specific timeframe.It also directs the plant’s energy away from leaf growth and toward larger fruit production, which is really the whole point of planting tomatoes in the first place!īefore you begin trimming your tomato plants, it’s important to know which type you have.

Reducing the foliage on a plant improves airflow, thus reducing the likelihood of diseases that often develop in the presence of excess moisture. How to Prune Tomato Plants Should tomato plants be pruned?Īlthough not technically necessary, pruning helps keep tomato plants tidy and healthy and stimulates fruit growth.

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