Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Okay so i am no pro. This is my second year growing tomatoes and i have 3 plants which apparently was a big mistake. These things are taking over my garden. Is it too late in the season to trim these suckers? They're all starting to produce fruit and not sure of quality of the tomatoes and if it will be effected by the size of the plants? Does size matter at all? This thing is getting out of hand. Its in good shape but growing wide and tall.
Can you pluck one out, put it in a pot and put it outside on the sidewalk for Free? I'm sure someone would take it. But to my understanding you can prune tomatoes, which I have never done. You can also stake them by tying them to sticks to try to keep them under control. Congrats to you, though. Kinkytoes still has no tomatoes.
You can tie them to stakes and you can also trim them off. I always have to trim them before the end of the growing season (Sept here) anyway. Cut the branches off at the growth nodes. It will probably do the plants some good anyway to be cut back. Then more energy can go into making tomatoes rather than growing more and longer branches.
Size always matters. What kind of tomato are you growing and how far apart are they planted? I've always planted my indeterminate cherry tomato plants 3' apart because they were monsters. Just for kicks, a couple of times I didn't do anything to them. At 7', they drooped and continued growing--all of the way back to the ground. Couldn't walk between them, either. Usually, I top them at 7' and prune branches where they're thick and tangled.
Once a tomato plant is well established and growing like gangbusters, you can pretty much cut off anything you want to. Just don't do it all at once.
You can prune them. You won't get as much yield, but you may get tastier tomatoes. Many of my leaves on the bottom are dying back my plants are so big.
I have the same problem--tomatoes basically crowded out 90% of my raised garden bed and shielding the sunlight from the bell peppers and Thai basil. All the branches are producing fruits as well, so it's a hard decision to prune them off or not. Regardless, I have enough tomatoes to feed all of you on CD Garden with enough to spare
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
