What Happens If I Don't Stake & Prune Tomato Plants, Do I Have to Stake & Prune, Trellising Tomatoes
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- Ever wonder what tomatoes plants would look like if they weren't staked and pruned and left to sprawl across the garden. I show you the answer. Staking and pruning is a choice and based on need. I also show you what staked tomato plants look like when not pruned and how to trellis cherry tomato plants.
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In tropical Africa I deliberately left tomatoes to grow naturally without staking or pruning. They were sown accidentally. Probably from a bowl of waste kitchen water after preparation of a tomato salad. Growing under a plantain and some papaya they get plenty of shade but also plenty of heat from the hot climate which helps the leaves because they fully dry out after watering with little or no evidence of disease whatever. Unbelievable production. It's really opened my eyes. Sometimes it really is best to leave Mother Nature to do her thing.
Sometimes my nature planted tomatoes are the best. They also set up root systems everywhere, where the vine touches the ground.
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I appreciate seeing your garden experiments. It helps to see the different outcomes. Thanks for sharing!
Glad to share. Fun to experiment
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I allow my tomato plants sprawl on my garden bed which is 4 feet wide. I do not have the problem you have in harvesting as the vine grows the length of my bed which allows me to reach in without damaging! Also, no diseases as the leaves prevent the soil from hitting the leaves during rain, no wind damage and more productive!
4 x 4 is a good arm size
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I was just told last year that I will get more tomatoes if I don't stake them. So, do I still prune them or just let them go?
@@sadavis74 Depends on the amount of space you have for them. Easier to locate and pick tomatoes if on a stake. I do get more tomatoes on the ground, but beware of insects and small animals, but I found I got few insects on the leaves. Easier not to stake, but staking them makes the garden look prettier and more tidy.
Good to see what tomato plants will do naturally. Thanks. That's happened to mine one year when I had to leave and couldn't be there to take care of it. Currant tomatoes - too many?! I'm going to have to plant one plant next garden season. Never tasted one. I like staking and pruning. My back can't handle the bending I'd have to do to harvest tomatoes on the ground. The cattle panel arch idea is something I'd be interested in trying. Thanks for showing that too.
They just get rolling and I cant pick them fast enough. Not a bad problem to have.
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One potential issue from allowing the tomatoes to sprawl is when you water, the leaves get wet and there is a risk for disease from the ground. You also don't have as much air flow. This is why I chose to string mine up to an overhead structure this year, and I have pruned them. I removed branches that didn't get direct sun to help avoid mildew. My plants are super healthy, all branches are supported, and I have tenfold the amount of tomatoes this year. Super happy with my choices... it works for me.
I agree. I wanted to see what they did naturally.
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Depends on your climate. They dry out quickly enough in the tropics.
Thank you. I just learned a bunch of stuff! I wondered how tomatoes ever survived in the wild where no one ever came along with 6' spikes and twine and tied them up. Maybe I'll let one of the suckers on my plant sprawl now.
I'm a first time gardener. Did tomatoes this year. I had no idea cherry tomato plants could get so big. Lesson learned for next year.
So.... big but congrats on your first garden.
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I started using electrical metal conduit for tomato stakes. Worked out really well. Strong, wont break and being galvanized, they wont rust easily.
Used furring strips last year and a storm broke almost all of them near the end of the season.
Good idea
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I have similar experience. In 2020 during lockdown a tomato plant popped up in my garden. I believe it came from some bird poop cause I used to feed birds there so many unexpected fruit plants often grow in that place. I let it grow as it wanted. My family wanted to uproot it cause it looked like an eyesore but I didn't let them. It grew like crazy in all directions and when it started fruiting everyone got really surprised by the amount of tomatoes just from that one plant. Those were big juicy and irregular shaped tomatoes and really delicious too. I saved some seeds and been growing them every year since then. This is my third year I'm growing the same tomatoes. I tried to prune and stake one or two plants as experiment but they don't do well when I stake or prune them.
Grandpa used to put a piece of fence on a couple 5 gallon buckets. The tomato plant would grow up and sprawl across the fence above ground. I’ve never tried it.
Cool tip
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Maybe we can come up with a new method of letting these tomatos grow like this but also make it easy to harvest...my thoughts go to strawberry runners....hmm...
About halfway through the growing season I get overwhelmed and lazy so my plants end up turning into an overgrown tomato bush.
It's not ideal but they are still incredibly productive and I'm still knee deep in tomatoes so I really dont mind
I love the cattle panel arches
So glad I got them.
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I pruned my first 5 tomato plants after they established and rooted the suckers. The cherry tomato cutting is now looking like it could out produce it's parent!
Great way to make more
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yeah mine are growing like crazy, its kind of hard to control. ive given up im just gonna let them grow wherever they want lol
Stake, stake, stake! Lost the majority of my tomatoes because I didn't stake. Such is life, but learned my lessons and have a bunch of varieties I'm eager to try next. I also pruned extensively at the base, to allow air circulation but also because I grew basil in the same container. Is it next spring yet??!!
Good idea with the basil
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is there a video with installing cattle panel as an arch way?
Gary! Love your content! What are the narrow metal trellis’ you showed in the video (before the cattle panel).
Those were probably wire closet racks. Thanks for watching.
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I am a fan of single steming ,it just keeps it tidy .
True. I did that a lot early on.
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@@THERUSTEDGARDEN do you think production is lower by single steming
I had three beefsteak plants in five gallon buckets with stakes and somehow one of them grew all over the ground and into a garden bed I had sitting empty. It's the only one of the three still covered with little green tomatoes.
They are meant to sprawl.
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@@THERUSTEDGARDEN I probably watered the other ones too much. As you say, with the sprawling plant it's hard to reach or find the tomatoes but also it is hard to get to the bucket to water it. The plant never seemed to wilt in the sun or looked like it needed water. Next year I am going to plant tomatoes across the slope at the back of yard and hope they cover the whole slope and I won't have to worry about mowing it.
Wow! Never thought about that!!!
I wanted to see how it looked.
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amazing
Maybe you could put down patio stepping stones so you can walk through
For this year it was mostly an experiment to see what happens. If I did it long term I would do something like that
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5:40 what do you spray on them?
Fungicide?
Hydrogen Peroxide now a days.
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Gary, what is the problem when the tomato plants die from the bottom upward? My plants are still producing but some of them have dead leaves toward the bottom. My neighbor said blight, but I don't think it is, the tomatoes are still coming in.
It can be. But the plants you see here... some died from heat. Tomatoes will shed bottom leaves to send nutrients to new growth. Some of the leaves got leaf spot. It really varies.
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Is the hydrogen peroxide spray just full strength, or is there a measured amount of water to add?
no no it will burn. There are links in the vide Icards to recipes
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Thank you so much for your response! I will look for the video. Love your channel!!
What are the little growths on the stem? They look like little bumps 🤔
Root nodes. Its normal
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@@THERUSTEDGARDEN Ok. Thanks for replying
I really want tomato plants, I have the seeds, but I just do not have a trellis or anything to make a trellis from.
They will need support
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I have been wondering, with cantaloupe / melons do they take up water / nutrients all along the vine or just at the base? Also, butternut squash.
I tried letting tomatoes sprawl the first year I lived in my current location. It was late in the season and better than nothing, but, I never did it that way again. ;-)
Most root out from the stem but tomatoes and pumpkins do this a lot. They root, take up water and nutrients and sprawl even more. Melons tend to do it less.
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Is the spray just straight hydrogen peroxide?
Nope and I have full videos that explain it.
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What do I do when my tomatoes are just producing leaves and not tomatoes
@Neen gardening. I had the same problem when I first started growing tomatoes. I was told there was too much nitrogen in the fertilizer. I had to change fertilizer and use a more balanced NPK. I now use Espoma Garden Tone or Espoma Tomato Tone with much better results. Maybe you should get your soil tested also.. Good luck. Happy gardening😆
As mention can be over fertilizing. But often it is temperature related and you just have to wait.
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I have a Tiny Tim dwarf planted in April, the tomatoes are still green and I keep it in all day sun. Any tips?
Nope. Just one of those things I guess
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Hire a little kid in the neighborhood to pick the file tomatoes. Little feed wond do much damage😁
Hmmm
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I have stepping stones or walk spots
Good idea
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If they’re indeterminate.... definitely! They get massive.
Sure do
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