How (and Why) to Prune Tomatos

Are you looking to take your garden up a notch this season? Pruning tomatoes is one of the easiest ways to maximize growth, enhance flavor, and protect against disease. Pruning your tomato plants encourages strong and healthy growth and can significantly improve your yields come harvest time. Here are some tips for pruning tomatoes in your garden.

When to Prune: Tomato plants should be pruned when they reach about 12 inches tall. This allows for new foliage and branches to develop without crowding the existing ones. After that, wait until you start to see fruit on the plants before trimming again.

How to Prune: You’ll want to focus on pruning the main stem or leader and remove any suckers (shoots growing from between leaf nodes). Aim to keep just 3-5 trusses of flowers/fruit on each plant so it doesn’t become overcrowded and potentially suffer from too much competition for resources such as sunlight and nutrients. Removing excess leaves will also help keep fungus away as too much humidity can cause blight and other problems. 

Benefits of Pruning Tomatoes: Pruning tomatoes gives your plants room to grow healthy branches which are needed for them to set fruits throughout the season. By removing excess foliage, you allow air to move more freely through the plant and make it less susceptible to disease and pests. Plus, because pruned tomato plants put all their energy into producing fewer but larger fruits, you’ll likely get higher yields than if you left them unpruned!

Overall, pruning tomatoes can be a great way to maximize yields in your garden. Make sure you do it correctly by following the steps above, so that your tomato plants stay healthy and happy!