I’m gonna try mine this year, I’ve got seeds sprouting at the moment. I’ll put them in the ground in the next 3 weeks or end of April. I want insane number of them, I don’t wanna buy tomatoes for the rest of the year. Just like weed, I haven’t bought it in 2yrs😅. Mother Nature is awesome 💪🏿🙏🏿.
Most tomato experts reccomend minimal or no pruning on cherry tomatoes for maximum production. Generally I only prune cherries on the bottom third to maximize air flow.
Hmm, like most fruit trees, you have to get rid of limps and branches to select the best branches for the fruit you want to grow. Any suckers or branches to far below the top canopy are just stealing energy and resources from the branches that are going to give you quality fruit
Funny, I just watched a video yesterday about pruning suckers. They did a study and the plants that kept their suckers yielded almost twice as many tomatoes. Just saying, some additional research could be beneficial.
If the suckers are left, the yield is higher per plant; however, pruning the suckers allows closer plant spacing resulting in higher yield per area. So it really depends on the context of how/where/why the plants are being grown. A home gardener with only a single tomato plant should probably leave the suckers. Anyone with a row of tomatoes like in the video should probably remove the suckers. Farmers with large fields might decide it's not worth the labor costs to remove the suckers.
True, they do make more tomatoes. I’ve seen my dad grow tomatoes my entire life and he kept telling me in order to have big and tasty tomatoes you’ll have to sacrifice the number of tomatoes. You will get many but not as big and not as tasty because the nutrients are shared and split between the numbers. I tried growing tomatoes myself and I see it happen all the time when I don’t prune my tomatoes, they grow and multiply and they’re many but small, never to their potential size or flavor. Never look or taste like my dad’s.
Leaves are the factory of the plant. Cutting them this drastically will yield tomatoes with low amounts of nutrients. Think in terms of quality over quantity.
Where I live it gets very hot in the growing season. If I take too much foliage off my tomatoes get sunburn. I just am very selective,👍 definitely the sucker goes.
@@italoriquelme5002 What is necessary to do photosynthesis and produce growth and fruits? Yes, it's leaves the power plants of the plants. The more you remove the less power they get. It's as simple as that.
I too have been pruning my plants pretty heavily, this winter I saw a fellow who had done a study and counted his tomatoes produced on a pruned line and a line that he allowed to “bush” a little and leave the suckers in place. He got 3 times he harvest leaving the suckers in place. This year I ‘m going half/half. See how they produce. Good luck and many harvests.
I have seen another video where the grower recommends leaving some suckers on, stating that they will produce fruit = common sense. But maybe some pruning to enhance airflow and allow sunshine entry.
@@paige_judah5538 I fell into that years ago and realized picking the best kind of tomato for your region is the most important thing. Trimming is not neccasary. Full sun 8 hours or more, I fertilize once a week with a water soluable fertilizer and neem oil and a fungicide if necessary. Tons of tomaros. Large small and in between. Over-complicating it accomplishes nothing and takes the fun out of it. And I grow mine in 5 to 10 gallon bucket
Tomatoes are "adventitious rooters" and they are not the only plant with this capability. Adventitious rooting is when you can take a fresh plant cutting, throw them in water, and they will grow roots, creating a new plant. The benefit of this is you are taking an EXACT genetic copy of your original "mother" plant. Very very useful for when you want to preserve plants over winter by taking smaller cuttings before the fall comes and kills your plants. Happy gardening; go on google and see what other kinds of plants grow adventitious roots!
3 leaves are not enough for a plant, you shouldn't cut that many leaves too soon, as a rule : cut at most 3 leaves at a time oance at two weeks And about suckers best moment to cut them is when they have about 2 inches This comes from an european farmer
@mistyfogarty1587 no, she is going to hetca huge long plant with 2 littke tomatoes on top. With so few leaves the plant will be too busy trying to survive to grow fruit. She literally cut off all the parts that grow the fruit! Don't do this!
Pruning suckers is ok if you want to do 1 stem method (indets are usually grown with 1 or 2 stems), pruning all the leaves like she does is not, only do it for bottom one against the deseases, and to give more space for airflow
Okay, to be honest. It's what you want. Here's the deal, though. Stick to a set method until you've fully mastered it. You either want to grow a lot of tomato plants in close proximity, which would strongly recommend pruning and preventing the plants from bushing. OR You just grow one plant and let that thing do whatever it wants, just pruning any leaves touching the ground or looking sickly. Tomatoes can be susceptible to mold and powdery mildew, so avoid watering or misting your tomato plant leaves to prevent the necessary conditions for these fungal diseases from taking hold. Hydrogen peroxide diluted in water can be used as an organic fungicide for foliage. OPTIONAL: you go the bush route, I recommend mulching the topsoil to prevent soil from splashing up and the bottom of your leaves but make sure you fertilize the hole you're planting in. Fresh wood chips, for example, can rob nitrogen from the topsoil so either let the wood chips age, ensuring they feed your plants overtime, or make sure you add some chicken manure or fish scraps in the hole before throwing in additional soil and backfilling your plant in place. Then cover the topsoil with a mulch to help retain moisture and prevent soil-borne diseases from travelling up your bushy tomato plant. Happy growing!
If have the time can let 1 or 2 suckers grow I in alberta all this is useless. I single stem trim leaves till first fruit after first is picked I cut back to second etc. time till frost is my enemy. But she trims to far in my opinion. Early in year can replant suckers for extra tomato plants they will root. But my season does not allow this I better off to start the seed and plant the plants I want all else go to compost pile. Think of all these videos as a stock pile of info what works for some one may not work for you like the abundance of use compost till your planing in pure compost.
I cut almost nothing, but the lowest leafes. I am very happy with the results. Yes the plants do need some airflow, so give them their space. One reason to grow in large containers, that can be separated some as needed. 😊❤
My mind is blown rn.. listen I grew up in my grandparents garden.. and I have had many gardens in my adult life.. never not once have I seen, read, heard or dreamed about the airflow aspect of the tomato plant., and never have I ever wanted to time travel and restart this summer garden with this new knowledge.. but I feel pretty confident about this coming season of growing!!! Cheers to you!!!!!!
if your give your babies the nutrition and the sun they need, you'll have more tomato than you can eat 😂 without pruning my harvests have been so massive I had to learn to pickle tomatoes + make home-made pasta sauce. best start collecting some jars, my fellow gardener ;) gl
I worked at a hydroponic farm for years and we would grow our vines like this. Cleared suckers, pulled lower leaves and then lowered the lines. At the end of season a single tomato plant could easily reach over 40 feet no problem. Im OCD so pulling suckers and lowers was always one of my favorite jobs.
@@jonyoakem6882 It was way more than 6 tomatoes...we'd get 100s from one plant and we had 15 rows of 160 plants per row just for cherry tomatoes lol. The tomatoes grow continously putting out new fruit on the vine as it grows. We had to cut the lower leafs after they produced and lay the vine down while clipping the tops. So even though it was 20+ ft all the fruit was at eye level. You can google it to see what it looks like. I wish I could attach a photo for reference because its pretty crazy to see in person and it was one of my fave jobs on the farm.
Just watched a video from someone trying different tactics in different gardenbeds of same type tomato. The one he left 3 "suckers" on yielded over 3 times more tomatoes then the ones they pruned the way they learn to. ( the way you just did it)
Market tomato growers and home gardeners have different goals and objectives when growing tomatoes. Even market growers have different objectives and techniques depending on their customers.
Looks pretty radical, but if you've ever had blight definitely a consideration. I'm going to trim for more airflow this year and keep the soil mulched to try and keep down blight. Thanks for sharing this video. As the comments reflect, it is a very contentious issue.
thank you for pointing this out as well. It boggles me how every creator pushes for pruning. it's almost as though they don't want people to actually enjoy a substantial harvest of tomatoes...
You will get more tomatoes if you leave the suckers but they will be so much smaller, leaving the suckers only applies to cherry tomatoes where it has been shown to produce more without reducing the size of the others.
Yep! I only prune suckers late season so the plant can focus energy on the fruit. I always use the suckers for cloning for a fall crop too! Here in W central Florida, my plants are toast by the end of July so getting the clones started in a semi shady spot mid July through August and planting out again by mid September ensures I get a fall crop. I leave them to produce otherwise and have grown 2lb tomatoes on those so called unproductive suckers!
@@jcdesignsandboat-works8290 I do early trimming to get them strong and focus on growth not putting all the energy into the fruit, keeps it clean at the base - then let them fan a bit (not too much or you can’t get the airflow to the internal growth) And then again later in the season so it’s not spending too much energy growing bigger when it’ll be dying back soon
this woman, maybe does it a different way? energy is distributed via photo from the leaves yes. but if u limit where the energy can go, and leave the leaves at the top to do the job, then yes in some climates this method is better.
@@konyetzz4213 it doesn't work that way. Healthy leaves produce more food for the plant than they consume. The plant requires a lot of energy (food) to make tomatoes and and it is coming from the leaves.
@@konyetzz4213 It's not, when you remove leaves, there's nothing to produce sugars for the tomato anymore, so you can take a green tomato and put it on a shelf, and leave if on a leafless plant, and it will ripen the same way. The plant with leaves intact will ripen as its supposed with, with tomato which is more sweet and less watery
They will keep growing...yup. I have 2 tomato plants that survived from last year in cloth pots! I have fresh tomatoes right now! So excited. I know you can over winter peppers- I have a 4 year old Rienno pepper due to microclimates I create.
I've been growing a pretty significant garden for 10 years and although I've always snipped suckers and pruned dead branches, I've never heard of pruning up the whole plant - genius! We had major fungus our third year, my husband worked so hard to bring them back lol. Do you wait to prune like this until you've gotten a full harvest from the plant first?
> I've never heard of pruning up the whole plant - genius That's ebcause it's not genious. Plant needs leaves to pump water and create biomass, no one does it in professional growing. Only lower leaves are cut to prevent deseases, and cutting everything but top leaves is counteerproductive. Tomatoes also need leaves to grow and to make them sweet. Try the method shown and you'll be disappointed
@@aldastroud9671 i grow like this and have tested it where I live, leaving some cutting only suckers and some pruned like this. this way produced more. no need to say someone has no clue, when u have never tried or tested it yourself. take the info and move along, no need to be rude.
When I planted my first tomato plants 15 yrs ago, I followed an advice to cut off all the leaves under the first set of flowers, It was terrible advice. My plants stopped growing.
Why? Butchered?? you know it can't feel pain right? And tomato plants only live for a few months. Why don't you try this experiment yourself if you're sceptical?
Oh I don't even grow tomatoes 😆. We buy in bulk at the Grainger Co tomato festival and can them. I'm only saying that I would need to see a side by side comparison to actually believe any of this.
i saw a guy that experimented with this and he got a lot more produce by leaving like 3 suckers or something, I think pruning makes sense only at the end of the season because the tomato doesn't know what winter is so it will waste resources flowering in autumn when it doesn't have enough time to let it mature
@@robo3644pruning the suckers is good for plants that grow bigger tomatoes like beefsteak. You shouldnt prune on smaller tomato plants like cherry. The pruning redirects the energy to the fruit rather than growing new branches and flowers.
If you have to grow in partial shade this is very helpful but if you have full sun tomatoes are productive enough to let some lead suckers grow and bush out for more fruit
I don't recommend putting out the suckers if your goal is to get good amount of tomatoes. I don't do that and every year I harvest huge amount of tomatoes even though I'm living in Germany where summer is short, not that hot and not that sunny
Oh noooooo........by cutting those suckers you have reduced your potential harvest by over 50% 😭 Those are all suckers that you keep cutting off will produce fruit too.
You don't notice there's dozens of other tomato plants in close proximity with one another. It is necessary to grow along the main stem to optimize airflow and actually improve the size of your large slicing tomatoes. Less flowers, bigger fruit.
In Oregon we've had a problem last summer with people growing gardens without a permit. People had government at homes removing all from there home and tractors completely destroying there land just for having a veggies stand and this was extremely for residents. We found we no longer have freedom in the united State.
Hey Gendoll, so you might think that cutting the new growth or "suckers" will limit your yields but this is not always the case. A determinate tomato plant grows for a finite period of time and it's done, so you would never wanna chop everything but the top two layers of new growth. Considering if you were growing cherry tomatoes, maybe suckers wouldn't be such a huge issue. If you are growing larger slicing tomatoes, you don't want tons of tomatoes growing at once. You will never be able to keep up with the amount growing and the size of your fruits will be considerably smaller if there are multiple trellises of tomato fruits ripening on the vine. Less flowers, larger fruits, greater over-all yield. Also, this approach of growing along a main stem is better for growing indeterminate tomatoes really close to each other like in agricultural practices. Your backyard garden doesn't need to follow this approach. If you have an approach you've learned from someone, stick to their approach and master it. Never mix practices unless you know what you're doing or you're gonna have a rough season. Hope this gives some perspective to why people seemingly butcher their indeterminate tomato plants.
Don't cut the suckers. I used to do it for years, then I decided one year to cut half of my plants, and leave the other half to grow while continuing to support them. I got 3x the tomatoes from the ones I didn't cut, and it's been the same every year now. Once it reaches a certain height, the only thing I do is top them so they stop focusing on leaf growth and put all their energy into tomatoes. I have to do it here in Canada because the growing season is short, and it would waste all that energy otherwise. I also pull any new suckers out during this time too, because that too is wasted growth. but the first few months I just let it go. The plant gets huge and healthy, and the roots afterwards are massive. You still trim the bottom leaves though, that's still necessary to avoid disease. You can leave them for a while though, till they start wilting almost. Then trim up like a foot on the plants. Mulch underneath them also stops the diseases. It spreads really easily from the rain/water hitting the dirt and splashing back up, but with mulch it doesn't do that as easily. You also have to water your garden like, 3x less often if you mulch. I just use grass clippings and leaves. I'm almost positive the practice started because people liked staking tomatoes to one stake. Staking all the suckers(it usually puts out about 5) is a huge pain and the plant can get really dense. But you can trim a few leaves here and there to improve airflow. And the way you stake with your twine and posts lets you support the plant however it grows.
In colder climates, it may be better to not prune the suckers, or at least leave a few of them. More branches producing fruit can be what you want when you've got a short season
I do this you trim the lower leaves because the longer they grow the more they touch the ground and are susceptible to diseases which will kill your whole plant
I wait till they reach 4' before pruning and I grow them under shade tarps I also use hook and wicket training to let older pruned vine down to ground allowing roots to grow midvine and provide nutrients between fruit sets
I wouldn't clip that many leaves off so fast...they do use sunlight to produce energy for the plant after all. When my plants get bigger, I clip a foot or so of the bottom leaves for that air flow. I usually pop suckers off with a sharp wood chip before it's even hardly visible. Larger indeterminate varieties, I manage one leader to get the largest possible tomatoes. Smaller varieties, I let one sucker go early on and maintain two leaders...gets too hot here mid summer some years, so I try to get as many as I can before the bad heat.
I only take off suckers right before i transplant into the garden and i only go halfway up of whatever size the plant is. The largest harvest of cherry tomatoes that ive ever had was in early spring i threw out a c h erry tomatoe right on top of some dirt and left it alone other than putting a cage on it when it got big lol
I wait for the branches to grow enough to produce suckers then i cut alot of the lower branches up to about the the last thrid of the plant focusing the nutrients to produce tomatoes and leavee the branches where sunshine actually reach properly. Yields alot of fruit
Yeah, do an experiment.. prune every other plant and see which ones produce better by the end of the season. Take notice of numbers and size of fruits.
Leave them. If you’ve left it to the point it’s growing fruit, I would leave it. The plant won’t make up for fruit which is lost in development. So if you cut it at that point you’ll just have less tomatoes.
one stem method VS two stems method VS unproned method, it ups to which kind of tomatoes you plant and where you plant. If you plant in a container, I recommand keeping one stem method. If you plant in the field, you could use two stem method or just let the suckers go wildly, the plant can get enought nutruitions from fertize compare with growing in containers.
I left most suckers on last year, got over 1100 cherry tomatoes off 2 plants. Was insane. Hard to maintain through storms etc but worth it
I’m gonna try mine this year, I’ve got seeds sprouting at the moment. I’ll put them in the ground in the next 3 weeks or end of April. I want insane number of them, I don’t wanna buy tomatoes for the rest of the year. Just like weed, I haven’t bought it in 2yrs😅. Mother Nature is awesome 💪🏿🙏🏿.
@fancyIOP Best of luck! Was my first year last year and it went well. Im sure yours will too!!
Most tomato experts reccomend minimal or no pruning on cherry tomatoes for maximum production. Generally I only prune cherries on the bottom third to maximize air flow.
Don't prune cherry tomatoes!
@@JohnJohn-wr1jo That is wise. Currently hardening mine off! Exciting times
I had hundreds of tomatoes from un pruned plants.
I was about to say I don’t trim mine too much I let the suckers grow atleast couple suckers
Lol same here and only cut the base leafs she is cutting of tons of future tomatoes 😅😅
@@jadcock1023 I know so many potential tomatoes now won’t be on her plant 😭
Lies
Hmm, like most fruit trees, you have to get rid of limps and branches to select the best branches for the fruit you want to grow. Any suckers or branches to far below the top canopy are just stealing energy and resources from the branches that are going to give you quality fruit
Funny, I just watched a video yesterday about pruning suckers. They did a study and the plants that kept their suckers yielded almost twice as many tomatoes. Just saying, some additional research could be beneficial.
If the suckers are left, the yield is higher per plant; however, pruning the suckers allows closer plant spacing resulting in higher yield per area. So it really depends on the context of how/where/why the plants are being grown. A home gardener with only a single tomato plant should probably leave the suckers. Anyone with a row of tomatoes like in the video should probably remove the suckers. Farmers with large fields might decide it's not worth the labor costs to remove the suckers.
in my experience they die quicker if you dont prune them
It's a personal choice that realistically has too many pros and cons dependent on too many factors to discuss in a video.
IMHO pruning suckers is that you need to balance the growth of the plant itself and the amount of fruits you will harvest.
True, they do make more tomatoes. I’ve seen my dad grow tomatoes my entire life and he kept telling me in order to have big and tasty tomatoes you’ll have to sacrifice the number of tomatoes. You will get many but not as big and not as tasty because the nutrients are shared and split between the numbers. I tried growing tomatoes myself and I see it happen all the time when I don’t prune my tomatoes, they grow and multiply and they’re many but small, never to their potential size or flavor. Never look or taste like my dad’s.
Leaves are the factory of the plant. Cutting them this drastically will yield tomatoes with low amounts of nutrients. Think in terms of quality over quantity.
Think she knows more than you bruv!
@@ohgeazy it's basic biology and you can do a little research to verify, it's always better to cross check things. Including my comment :)
@@louisdepointedulac3072 google
Just remove the suckers. Leave the leaves. Factory of the plant is correct. Leaves are paramount. Never remove fan leaves. Just suckers
Where I live it gets very hot in the growing season. If I take too much foliage off my tomatoes get sunburn. I just am very selective,👍 definitely the sucker goes.
Somebody take those clippers away from her.. There's nothing left of that poor plant. Sun, water and fertilizer. Let God do the rest..
Try not typing
@@dw5878 Try and make me...
These plants will easily grow 8 - 10 feet tall and will give plenty of healthy fruit with her method.
@@italoriquelme5002 What is necessary to do photosynthesis and produce growth and fruits? Yes, it's leaves the power plants of the plants. The more you remove the less power they get. It's as simple as that.
Try and mind ya own. Hard for you eh?😄@@dw5878
I too have been pruning my plants pretty heavily, this winter I saw a fellow who had done a study and counted his tomatoes produced on a pruned line and a line that he allowed to “bush” a little and leave the suckers in place. He got 3 times he harvest leaving the suckers in place. This year I ‘m going half/half. See how they produce. Good luck and many harvests.
Well since suckers produce fruit .. it’s common sense that more suckers = more fruit.
I only prune sukers on the lower 12-15 in of the plant to increase airflow then i stop. I get huge disease free plants and bumper crops.
I have seen another video where the grower recommends leaving some suckers on, stating that they will produce fruit = common sense. But maybe some pruning to enhance airflow and allow sunshine entry.
Quantity doesn't mean quality. Pruning is done to make all of the nutrients go to the fruits so that you get better quality fruits.
I have done a experiment and trimmed some and left some and wasnt a difference and we seem to get more tomatoes on the unprunned ones.
And I got some left over and overwintered tomato plants growing in the pots that were left outside during the winter months.
You do get more numbers of tomatoes but they’ll usually be of smaller average size, more prone to pests and disease
I think after reading all the comments and from what I've heard, I'll trim most suckers, and maybe some of the leaves.
Some folks make gardening hard for beginners with all these rules
@@paige_judah5538 I fell into that years ago and realized picking the best kind of tomato for your region is the most important thing. Trimming is not neccasary. Full sun 8 hours or more, I fertilize once a week with a water soluable fertilizer and neem oil and a fungicide if necessary. Tons of tomaros. Large small and in between. Over-complicating it accomplishes nothing and takes the fun out of it. And I grow mine in 5 to 10 gallon bucket
I had no clue that you could grow new plants from suckers. Learn something new every day.
Can this be done forever? Can I use it to grow new plants skipping the seed stage?
@@BearMeOut Potentially, yes. All those hairs could turn into roots if you bury the stem as far as I know.
Tomatoes are "adventitious rooters" and they are not the only plant with this capability. Adventitious rooting is when you can take a fresh plant cutting, throw them in water, and they will grow roots, creating a new plant. The benefit of this is you are taking an EXACT genetic copy of your original "mother" plant. Very very useful for when you want to preserve plants over winter by taking smaller cuttings before the fall comes and kills your plants. Happy gardening; go on google and see what other kinds of plants grow adventitious roots!
3 leaves are not enough for a plant, you shouldn't cut that many leaves too soon, as a rule : cut at most 3 leaves at a time oance at two weeks
And about suckers best moment to cut them is when they have about 2 inches
This comes from an european farmer
So true. A good rule of thumb is never take more than 30%
I thought I was the only one that thought she pruned the hell out of it
@mistyfogarty1587 no, she is going to hetca huge long plant with 2 littke tomatoes on top. With so few leaves the plant will be too busy trying to survive to grow fruit.
She literally cut off all the parts that grow the fruit!
Don't do this!
How many leaves a tomato plant needs to produce bigger tomato?
If you leave the upper suckers you'll get more tomatoes 🍅
Few minutes ago, TH-cam shows me a short with a guy saying NOT to prune the suckers, then it shows me this. Who do I believe?
Pruning suckers is ok if you want to do 1 stem method (indets are usually grown with 1 or 2 stems), pruning all the leaves like she does is not, only do it for bottom one against the deseases, and to give more space for airflow
Okay, to be honest. It's what you want. Here's the deal, though. Stick to a set method until you've fully mastered it.
You either want to grow a lot of tomato plants in close proximity, which would strongly recommend pruning and preventing the plants from bushing.
OR
You just grow one plant and let that thing do whatever it wants, just pruning any leaves touching the ground or looking sickly. Tomatoes can be susceptible to mold and powdery mildew, so avoid watering or misting your tomato plant leaves to prevent the necessary conditions for these fungal diseases from taking hold. Hydrogen peroxide diluted in water can be used as an organic fungicide for foliage.
OPTIONAL: you go the bush route, I recommend mulching the topsoil to prevent soil from splashing up and the bottom of your leaves but make sure you fertilize the hole you're planting in. Fresh wood chips, for example, can rob nitrogen from the topsoil so either let the wood chips age, ensuring they feed your plants overtime, or make sure you add some chicken manure or fish scraps in the hole before throwing in additional soil and backfilling your plant in place. Then cover the topsoil with a mulch to help retain moisture and prevent soil-borne diseases from travelling up your bushy tomato plant.
Happy growing!
If have the time can let 1 or 2 suckers grow I in alberta all this is useless. I single stem trim leaves till first fruit after first is picked I cut back to second etc. time till frost is my enemy. But she trims to far in my opinion. Early in year can replant suckers for extra tomato plants they will root. But my season does not allow this I better off to start the seed and plant the plants I want all else go to compost pile. Think of all these videos as a stock pile of info what works for some one may not work for you like the abundance of use compost till your planing in pure compost.
Either way you're the sucker..
I cut almost nothing, but the lowest leafes. I am very happy with the results. Yes the plants do need some airflow, so give them their space. One reason to grow in large containers, that can be separated some as needed. 😊❤
ive always let mine grow wild. never bee disappointed. fed with grass water (stooped for 3 weeks. worm casting juice and wood ash.
My mind is blown rn.. listen I grew up in my grandparents garden.. and I have had many gardens in my adult life.. never not once have I seen, read, heard or dreamed about the airflow aspect of the tomato plant., and never have I ever wanted to time travel and restart this summer garden with this new knowledge.. but I feel pretty confident about this coming season of growing!!! Cheers to you!!!!!!
I hope you didn't do this! You'll get nothing!
I'm letting mines grow free range this year and see what happens
if your give your babies the nutrition and the sun they need, you'll have more tomato than you can eat 😂
without pruning my harvests have been so massive I had to learn to pickle tomatoes + make home-made pasta sauce.
best start collecting some jars, my fellow gardener ;) gl
Just make sure you prune the lower leaves and branches or they could get diseases from touching the ground.
It's good to let everglades tomato grow wild... they'll produce more than you can imagine
You'll be happy with it I'm sure
I had tons of tomatoes last year from just two plants, and I didn't prune either of them.
I worked at a hydroponic farm for years and we would grow our vines like this. Cleared suckers, pulled lower leaves and then lowered the lines. At the end of season a single tomato plant could easily reach over 40 feet no problem. Im OCD so pulling suckers and lowers was always one of my favorite jobs.
How do u manage them for being so tall?
20 ft tall with six tomatoes at the top why
@@jonyoakem6882 It was way more than 6 tomatoes...we'd get 100s from one plant and we had 15 rows of 160 plants per row just for cherry tomatoes lol. The tomatoes grow continously putting out new fruit on the vine as it grows. We had to cut the lower leafs after they produced and lay the vine down while clipping the tops. So even though it was 20+ ft all the fruit was at eye level. You can google it to see what it looks like. I wish I could attach a photo for reference because its pretty crazy to see in person and it was one of my fave jobs on the farm.
@@charmingheartphotography6758 I also feel curious to see/wish you could show it!!!
But you're not getting any fruit. Lol
It's ridiculous
Sickly looking plants
I wasn't looking at the plants.
I would not trim the leaves that low early in the season. I would wait until the plants got much taller before trimming the lowest leaves.
Trials have shown cutting suckers off massively reduces your harvest
For cherry tomatoes yeah
for some kind of little tomatoes, you don't need to cut the suckers, just let them grow wildly and harvest
Just watched a video from someone trying different tactics in different gardenbeds of same type tomato. The one he left 3 "suckers" on yielded over 3 times more tomatoes then the ones they pruned the way they learn to. ( the way you just did it)
Fascinating! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 Good to know!
Market tomato growers and home gardeners have different goals and objectives when growing tomatoes. Even market growers have different objectives and techniques depending on their customers.
Looks pretty radical, but if you've ever had blight definitely a consideration. I'm going to trim for more airflow this year and keep the soil mulched to try and keep down blight. Thanks for sharing this video. As the comments reflect, it is a very contentious issue.
Hair needs air flow too.
If you are pruning so many leaves , how is the plant producing energy to make big tomatoes?
Don’t know how I got here, but now I know how to grow a tomato. Thanks!
Please help me..I being taken somewhere that I don't want to go. How do I get out of this?
I was joking. And now I can't find my comment so I can delete it
Plant one of those suckers in that hairdo. It will grow im sure.😅
CHILLLLL 💀
But if you leave the suckers on your plant will yield more tomatoes
thank you for pointing this out as well. It boggles me how every creator pushes for pruning. it's almost as though they don't want people to actually enjoy a substantial harvest of tomatoes...
You will get more tomatoes if you leave the suckers but they will be so much smaller, leaving the suckers only applies to cherry tomatoes where it has been shown to produce more without reducing the size of the others.
@@melaniewhite3300That is untrue. Tomatoes on suckers can be just as big as otherwise. You’re probably just picking them too early or too late.
Yep! I only prune suckers late season so the plant can focus energy on the fruit. I always use the suckers for cloning for a fall crop too! Here in W central Florida, my plants are toast by the end of July so getting the clones started in a semi shady spot mid July through August and planting out again by mid September ensures I get a fall crop. I leave them to produce otherwise and have grown 2lb tomatoes on those so called unproductive suckers!
@@jcdesignsandboat-works8290 I do early trimming to get them strong and focus on growth not putting all the energy into the fruit, keeps it clean at the base - then let them fan a bit (not too much or you can’t get the airflow to the internal growth)
And then again later in the season so it’s not spending too much energy growing bigger when it’ll be dying back soon
It seems this woman doesn't know that the leaves are important for photosynthesis. Don't remove them if they are healthy!
Only bottom one if they touch the ground, and or if toatoes are in a greenhouse - there will be more space for airflow which is lacking inside
this woman, maybe does it a different way? energy is distributed via photo from the leaves yes. but if u limit where the energy can go, and leave the leaves at the top to do the job, then yes in some climates this method is better.
@@konyetzz4213 it doesn't work that way. Healthy leaves produce more food for the plant than they consume. The plant requires a lot of energy (food) to make tomatoes and and it is coming from the leaves.
@@konyetzz4213 It's not, when you remove leaves, there's nothing to produce sugars for the tomato anymore, so you can take a green tomato and put it on a shelf, and leave if on a leafless plant, and it will ripen the same way. The plant with leaves intact will ripen as its supposed with, with tomato which is more sweet and less watery
They will keep growing...yup. I have 2 tomato plants that survived from last year in cloth pots! I have fresh tomatoes right now! So excited.
I know you can over winter peppers- I have a 4 year old Rienno pepper due to microclimates I create.
I've been growing a pretty significant garden for 10 years and although I've always snipped suckers and pruned dead branches, I've never heard of pruning up the whole plant - genius! We had major fungus our third year, my husband worked so hard to bring them back lol. Do you wait to prune like this until you've gotten a full harvest from the plant first?
> I've never heard of pruning up the whole plant - genius
That's ebcause it's not genious. Plant needs leaves to pump water and create biomass, no one does it in professional growing. Only lower leaves are cut to prevent deseases, and cutting everything but top leaves is counteerproductive. Tomatoes also need leaves to grow and to make them sweet.
Try the method shown and you'll be disappointed
Prune as they grow.
prune as it grows, and never prune the top leaves until they make more above, so on and so on. this method worked for me!
Canadian summers are short, so there no need to prune, but other places like California they have long summer, so they can prunes and get more fruits.
Interesting pruning info, I’ve never seen a tomato pruned like this!
This woman doesn't have a clue, she only going to have a couple if tomatoes in the top??
@@aldastroud9671 i grow like this and have tested it where I live, leaving some cutting only suckers and some pruned like this. this way produced more. no need to say someone has no clue, when u have never tried or tested it yourself. take the info and move along, no need to be rude.
If you only want tomatoes.... This is the way
Wonder where all those hidden tomatoes are supposed to grow? Too much pruning if you just have one plant...
Nor shoukd you. This is stupid!
When I planted my first tomato plants 15 yrs ago, I followed an advice to cut off all the leaves under the first set of flowers, It was terrible advice. My plants stopped growing.
Yeah I'm gonna need to see two plants side by side with one growing naturally and one being butchered. Show me the difference.
THIS!
Why? Butchered?? you know it can't feel pain right? And tomato plants only live for a few months. Why don't you try this experiment yourself if you're sceptical?
Oh I don't even grow tomatoes 😆. We buy in bulk at the Grainger Co tomato festival and can them. I'm only saying that I would need to see a side by side comparison to actually believe any of this.
i saw a guy that experimented with this and he got a lot more produce by leaving like 3 suckers or something, I think pruning makes sense only at the end of the season because the tomato doesn't know what winter is so it will waste resources flowering in autumn when it doesn't have enough time to let it mature
@@robo3644pruning the suckers is good for plants that grow bigger tomatoes like beefsteak. You shouldnt prune on smaller tomato plants like cherry. The pruning redirects the energy to the fruit rather than growing new branches and flowers.
I am using this method now. My tomato plants a much bigger than last year now. I have shown in my videos. Thank you miss!!!
I would pick you for my 4th grade teacher love your tone! I’ll be snipping away!
If you have to grow in partial shade this is very helpful but if you have full sun tomatoes are productive enough to let some lead suckers grow and bush out for more fruit
I knew about lower leaves but not the suckers, thanks!!! 🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅✝️🙏💜
if you kill the suckers, you will dramatically reduce your yield
@@clayfinity5501 Done this experiment and your right
I don't recommend putting out the suckers if your goal is to get good amount of tomatoes. I don't do that and every year I harvest huge amount of tomatoes even though I'm living in Germany where summer is short, not that hot and not that sunny
Don't throw away the suckers you want to plant them, free plants 🌿
Oh noooooo........by cutting those suckers you have reduced your potential harvest by over 50% 😭
Those are all suckers that you keep cutting off will produce fruit too.
You don't notice there's dozens of other tomato plants in close proximity with one another. It is necessary to grow along the main stem to optimize airflow and actually improve the size of your large slicing tomatoes. Less flowers, bigger fruit.
Super fun technique, if you're only interested in harvesting 4 Tom's per plant. 🙄
Production suffers a little but quality improves.
The plant needs leaves for gathering sunshine.
In Oregon we've had a problem last summer with people growing gardens without a permit. People had government at homes removing all from there home and tractors completely destroying there land just for having a veggies stand and this was extremely for residents. We found we no longer have freedom in the united State.
Only cut suckers off of indeterminate tomato plants.!
We didn’t prune ours like this and it is doing amazing and producing more than expected. We will try this next time
This was an awesome short, all the information and super easy to understand, well done!!
I put suckers in dirt and root them.. no water glass required.
Air pruning pots with subirrigation works immensely.
I got lucky im thinking , i was able to have the same 2 tomato plants for 4 years , barely any tomatoes the 4th year , but did well for 3
Do you ever host in person workshops?
Please visit learnonthefarm.com for available events.
Cool. I had some that grew into vines that reached the roof of a one-story house. I think it was partly the variety and partly pruning.
Bucket truck to harvest?
Thank you from South Africa Johannesburg
Seems so harsh!! But I respect your experience and appreciate you sharing your knowledge!!! Thank you!! 👃✌️🥰🇨🇦
Respect for this farmer.
Pruning all depends on how long your growing season is and if you are growing it up or want 2 or 3 leaders and keep the plant shorter
Awesome thank you madam
Sincerely 😊
Thank you 😊
Thanks for the tip 👍
Nice I used to watch you on tik tok now i can watch you on TH-cam
I’m going to try letting some suckers grow this year. I’ll try anything to see if it makes a difference. Thanks for the tip.
I would love to see a video for the way you have the plants supported.
I just prune off all my leaves that way there’s no chance of ever growing any tomatoes 🎉
Amazing looking plants. Great video
Great tip. Thanks
But… doesn’t that mean you lose all the tomatoes that wouldn’t grown on the stems you cut?
Hey Gendoll, so you might think that cutting the new growth or "suckers" will limit your yields but this is not always the case. A determinate tomato plant grows for a finite period of time and it's done, so you would never wanna chop everything but the top two layers of new growth. Considering if you were growing cherry tomatoes, maybe suckers wouldn't be such a huge issue. If you are growing larger slicing tomatoes, you don't want tons of tomatoes growing at once. You will never be able to keep up with the amount growing and the size of your fruits will be considerably smaller if there are multiple trellises of tomato fruits ripening on the vine. Less flowers, larger fruits, greater over-all yield.
Also, this approach of growing along a main stem is better for growing indeterminate tomatoes really close to each other like in agricultural practices. Your backyard garden doesn't need to follow this approach. If you have an approach you've learned from someone, stick to their approach and master it. Never mix practices unless you know what you're doing or you're gonna have a rough season. Hope this gives some perspective to why people seemingly butcher their indeterminate tomato plants.
Don't cut the suckers. I used to do it for years, then I decided one year to cut half of my plants, and leave the other half to grow while continuing to support them.
I got 3x the tomatoes from the ones I didn't cut, and it's been the same every year now.
Once it reaches a certain height, the only thing I do is top them so they stop focusing on leaf growth and put all their energy into tomatoes. I have to do it here in Canada because the growing season is short, and it would waste all that energy otherwise. I also pull any new suckers out during this time too, because that too is wasted growth. but the first few months I just let it go. The plant gets huge and healthy, and the roots afterwards are massive.
You still trim the bottom leaves though, that's still necessary to avoid disease. You can leave them for a while though, till they start wilting almost. Then trim up like a foot on the plants. Mulch underneath them also stops the diseases. It spreads really easily from the rain/water hitting the dirt and splashing back up, but with mulch it doesn't do that as easily.
You also have to water your garden like, 3x less often if you mulch. I just use grass clippings and leaves.
I'm almost positive the practice started because people liked staking tomatoes to one stake. Staking all the suckers(it usually puts out about 5) is a huge pain and the plant can get really dense. But you can trim a few leaves here and there to improve airflow. And the way you stake with your twine and posts lets you support the plant however it grows.
Suckers sometimes help give more nutrient. I left it on some, and they're doing better, I have about 15 plants.
Good. I have 50 acres of land in Africa but i leave in detroit and i was planning tomato farming. It will be nice if i come and see how its done
Bots are WILD.
Don't cut leaves it cant fotosenteise and if you leave them Plant break the klorophil and take glicose again😅
In colder climates, it may be better to not prune the suckers, or at least leave a few of them. More branches producing fruit can be what you want when you've got a short season
Why trim the lower leaves?
I do this you trim the lower leaves because the longer they grow the more they touch the ground and are susceptible to diseases which will kill your whole plant
And since they constantly grow, energy taken away from lowest leaves helps the production of the actual fruit
But there is a difference between "lower leaves" and 90cm of just stem
Plant will focus more energy towards the top and producing fruit. More lower leaves=less enery up top
You can also plant a tomato plant really deep in the ground bc they will produce roots on the entire stem if touched by soil
Awesome......#tomatoes is life..
And this is when you can literally say, "See ya suckers!" 😂
My leaves are turning purple. Any suggestions? Also growing in a 5ga pot thanks
This is a usually a phosphorous deficiency i think
Thank you for the informative ❤😊❤
I seen a bunch of gardeners saying don't pluck off suckers that's a myth 🤷
You are amazing. Thank you so much!
Love this channel!❤
So much was cut, I wonder where the tomato would grow
I wait till they reach 4' before pruning and I grow them under shade tarps I also use hook and wicket training to let older pruned vine down to ground allowing roots to grow midvine and provide nutrients between fruit sets
I wouldn't clip that many leaves off so fast...they do use sunlight to produce energy for the plant after all.
When my plants get bigger, I clip a foot or so of the bottom leaves for that air flow.
I usually pop suckers off with a sharp wood chip before it's even hardly visible.
Larger indeterminate varieties, I manage one leader to get the largest possible tomatoes.
Smaller varieties, I let one sucker go early on and maintain two leaders...gets too hot here mid summer some years, so I try to get as many as I can before the bad heat.
I have tomatoes plants here at home and I still need to learn about them.
I only take off suckers right before i transplant into the garden and i only go halfway up of whatever size the plant is.
The largest harvest of cherry tomatoes that ive ever had was in early spring i threw out a c h erry tomatoe right on top of some dirt and left it alone other than putting a cage on it when it got big lol
😳.... Yup. That's a whole lotta tomatoes. 🙌
This is the most bare looking tomato plant I have ever seen…!!!! But whatever ever works for each individual I suppose….!!! 🤷🏻♀️
80 ft vine for 8 tomatoes, but you can plant 40x more because you will need to.
Back in Naples we would leave them grow, just weed around them. To get the best looking tomatos, do this
Why so damn many?
I understand ridding the suckers but that long stem needs more leaves to collect the sunshine!
Thank you for sharing.
I knew about cutting the suckers but never thought to cut the lower leaves
it's a toss up...pruning suckers reduces yield but the tomatoes that are produced will most times be larger. if growing cherry tomatoes dont prune.
Thanks for sharing., 🙏
I wait for the branches to grow enough to produce suckers then i cut alot of the lower branches up to about the the last thrid of the plant focusing the nutrients to produce tomatoes and leavee the branches where sunshine actually reach properly. Yields alot of fruit
Another awesome channel thanks for the tips.
Love from Pakistan. Its an amazing video
I never realized how *SEVERELY* I’m supposed to prune, I cry whenever I cut off even a single yellowing leaf
Yeah, do an experiment.. prune every other plant and see which ones produce better by the end of the season. Take notice of numbers and size of fruits.
I love your tomatoes 🍅 🍅 💋
If you miss a sucker and it gets to the point where it is/starting to produce fruit or flowers do you leave them or still snip them?
Leave them. If you’ve left it to the point it’s growing fruit, I would leave it. The plant won’t make up for fruit which is lost in development. So if you cut it at that point you’ll just have less tomatoes.
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That's very interesting, Thank You!
Volunteers from last year work best . Let them fall after the fall blooming and next years plants will flourish .❤
one stem method VS two stems method VS unproned method, it ups to which kind of tomatoes you plant and where you plant. If you plant in a container, I recommand keeping one stem method. If you plant in the field, you could use two stem method or just let the suckers go wildly, the plant can get enought nutruitions from fertize compare with growing in containers.
I let em go wild and the pests had a feast. Had to throw away 50kg Tomatoes