How many ways are there to grow tomatoes? Far too many to go through them all in detail here – as a bush, up a stringline or stake, in a frame, espaliered, upright, outward, onward and on and on the options go.
Naturally tomatoes grow as a bush and if you have plenty of room and are not concerned about the plant taking over, that is probably the easiest approach to take – sit back and let it ramble.
However, the issue with this approach is 1) it can take up a lot of space and 2) when conditions become humid diseases and mildew can develop. So if you want to keep the plant contained and healthy it is probably best to do some pruning and maintenance so there is not as much foliage to attract and hide pests.
You can easily become nervous pruning tomatoes as they can grow very fast, and you can be tempted to leave anything with flowers on. But think more about the space and health of the plant, and don’t worry about losing flowers when trying to prune, more will come back in better places, that is for sure.
Firstly, it is best to prune on a warm or hot day, when the sap in the plant is flowing freely, helping it to heal quicker.
Wash your hands and cutters before you start to prune, and after!
If you purchased the plant as a seedling, make sure you have removed any rings used to attach them to the support stick. As the plant grows the rings can becomes tighter around the plant which can ringbark it.
Decide how many leaders you want – 1 to 4 is normally easy to maintain and keep those trained inside or along the frame for support.
Look at the overall plant to get an idea of what needs to be done. Start at the bottom and clear the base, removing foliage growing along the ground, to create airflow and let the plant breath. If one of your leaders has fallen, then train it backup or along the frame and use loosely tied plant ties to reattach to the frame or stringline.
Leaders that have developed, other than you preferred ones, can be removed.
Move up the plant and remove suckers / shoots that are sprouting between the stalk and the leaf growth. You can either snap these off – bend it up and then down and it will come off. If not use your cutters.
If needed use the plant ties to loosely hold the plant to the frame or the sting line as in the photo above. Not too tight, just loosely to help keep it trained along the line you wish it to take.
And keep looking, reviewing and pruning throughout the season.
And enjoy the fruits!
Thanks
Peter
PS, for anyone interested – you can see a stick like figure at the back and almost centre of the picture above. This was the original frame I used to support plants and the inspiration for Flexi Garden Frames! Its seems like a long time ago now! Peter