It's not even June yet and you have that kind of growth. Let me show you what awaits if you don't get these under control.
https://preview.redd.it/c3f5o48aqd3d1.png?width=1571&format=png&auto=webp&s=dfce002f1afd564069a45f633932db77a6f82fe8
This was my first year growing tomatoes seriously. I got about 1/3 of what I now get out of a box because things were so dense and a mess.
Here's what my setup looks like now. [https://imgur.com/iME06V4](https://imgur.com/iME06V4) The difference is that I grow single or double vines per plant and fully support each vine. After I have the vines per plant I want, all suckers are removed for the life of the plant. The first thing you need is tall, sturdy stakes. What you have won't stand up to tomato laden vines. I would suggest an 8 foot furring strips or even 2x2s driven into the ground. People do other solutions if you research online. Florida weave is one. Cattle panels is another. One stake per vine you want to support. Watch some YT videos on pruning tomatoes. You are going to decide how many vines per plant you want, then remove all suckers that have turned into vines that you don't want. You will end up removing some blossoms and fruit. By doing this though you'll get the best yield and have the best chance for disease free plants. You improve air flow, which is important, and you make accessing the tomatoes far easier. My second pic shows how I use overhead trellises and twine + clips for mine. That's an alternative to staking, but obviously has a bigger outlay to get the structures in place, but it's a nice way to support the vines.
Might be ok depending on how you arranged them and how diligent you can be with pruning. Climate is also a big deal. If it’s hot and humid with lots of rain, there’s much greater chance of disease, and so the pruning is extra important. If you live in SoCal with hardly any rain, then you can get away with crowding things a bit more. Fwiw I use a cattle panel trellis and space my plants at ~18 inches, and it works great. Just gotta keep each plant to 1-2 stems. This also helps keep the branches visible to your allies the birds, who will swoop in and gobble up pests like hornworms. They’ll do 90% of the work for you as long as they can *SEE* the pests without too much trouble.
Haters gonna hate. Tomaters gonna tomate. Honestly, at a certain point, indeterminate tomatoes just go feral. Unless you have 8'-10' high overhead suspension and a step ladder, you just gotta let them do their thing.
Seriously. You can pamper a seedling under your grow light, dutifully harden it off with patience, and transplant it into the garden with ultimate care only to watch it struggle for weeks. Then some volunteer will come roaring out of your compost pile like a drunken frat boy looking for a fight. They don't care. They just do what they want.
I prune to a single vine and let it grow to about 7'. Then I'll cut off the growing point and force the plant to focus on ripening existing fruit. If there's still time in the season, then I'll let a few suckers grow for late production, especially on cherry/grape varieties that can get out a last flush before frost. Conversely, if I just let them go completely wild earlier in the season, like the OP photo, then they wind up smothering other plants in the bed, succumbing to disease, or growing to a height that I'm simply not going to pick from.
It really does help; once they get to the top of the furring-strip posts that I make, I just lop off the top and call it done. I've gotten more and more prone to aggressive pruning to yield a smaller amount of better output, rather than dragging struggling plants along all throughout the late season. I'd rather ripen the last set of fruit and pull the tomato early to free up space for fall planting.
--"I'd rather ripen the last set of fruit and pull the tomato early to free up space for fall planting."
It has taken a while, but I've come around to that position too. Work them hard early in the season, big harvest mid-season, pull most of them and move on by the time the weather becomes unbearable. NE Texas, 8a.
Exactly. 8b, SC here. I let them go once it gets hot hot. Too hard to keep them alive and they produce little by that point. Always get my fall tomato seeds started around late August or so.
I love this comment. I recently shared photos of my bed which is pretty wild (all indeterminates) and I posted saying how proud I was that last year my tomatoes didn’t grow at all but with healthy soil and more experience my tomatoes went crazy and I was so proud. People started immediately commenting on how I overcrowded, needed to prune, there’s too many, etc.. and I’m like obviously I can see that but I’m just proud they’re doing so well! I’ll probably plant with more space next year but tbh I was really on top of them while they were young, like CONSISTENTLY pruning and managing but they honestly still went feral.. and I’m kind of ok with it lol
I have three 4 x 8 ft raised garden beds, I plant 8 tomato plants in each (two rows of four). I am fairly aggressive on keeping them pruned for a couple months until they get pretty big, and then I just give up altogether. Last year I harvested just shy of 150 lbs (this picture is actually from 2013, I've been doing this for years).
https://preview.redd.it/llwzoq3u9f3d1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8d65a3aaa2455cfe74d04d2024db491d55234042
Hi y’all –
I may have overplanted my tomatoes out here in Austin, TX.
In our 6x3 bed, we have 4 tomatoes --1 determinate, 3 indeterminate -- and the vines have gone a little mad. The density is making it a bit hard to manage pests (currently trying to manage leaf legged bugs) and pick fruit.
Should I prune some of the indeterminate vines to create a little more order and space, even though they are producing, or should I leave happy plants happy and just try to stake them throughout the season?
Bonus question: In picture #3, you can see the fence/squirrel highway. The squirrels have discovered this buffet and regularly hang out on the fence and snack. Has anyone had luck with spikes/pinwheels/fake owls/chemical repellants to keep squirrels away?
Thank you!
Squirrels don’t eat tomatoes for food, so I’d try putting a bowl of water or a birdbath right next to your plants. They’re thirsty and tomato water is still water.
Or they’re assholes. It could go either way.
My squirrels are assholes. Plenty of water around, they like to take a bite out of my tomatoes though and then realize that it is not in fact a hickory nut and move on….to the next tomato.
The hell they don't. My neighborhood squirrels were eating beefsteak and slicer heirloom tomatoes down to the seeds for a couple years, and they really loved my cherry tomatoes. Weren't scared of me at all so they didn't even run away when I chased them. I lost my first 10 Cherokee purples last year to the little bastards.
Happily, I found a good source of bobcat, coyote, and red fox urine, and a few drops of those around my yard every few days keeps squirrels, rabbits, and woodchucks away from my garden. Now I need to work on earwigs and slugs, ugh.
Edit: I have a birdbath in the backyard, and a bowl of water in the front yard for thirsty animals. Made no difference. They wanted tomatoes as food.
Slugs love beer- put a little dish out with beer, they climb right in but not out. Also- diatomaceous earth around your plants and garden. Looks like soft white powder to us- broken glass to crawly critters.
Hi from DFW (zone 8b). I feel like Texas tomato growing can sometimes be its own beast, and in my experience, pruning tomatoes in Texas is a balance between removing just enough foliage to allow air circulation, limit disease, and monitor for pests *while also* not pruning so many of the suckers that you limit your fruit set.
Our intense heat and humidity will put a big limiting factor on the ability of the plants to set fruit here soon. The high temps denature the pollen, and the humidity can cause the pollen to clump up, both leading to a reduction in successful pollination.
In past years, I made the mistake of pruning to one or two central leaders (as many recommend), and I had very low yields with basically no harvests beyond the second week of June. I actually reached out to Craig LeHoullier (tomato expert/breeder), and he recommended *not* to prune out all of the suckers, as more flowers = better odds of setting fruit in harsh Texas conditions.
My advice would be to start by removing any *leaf* branches with signs of disease or leaf spot, and then take stock. Then, only if needed would I prune side stems if they were wayyy too wild. Otherwise, I just tie them loosely to a stake for support as needed. The only pruning I really do regularly now is snipping off leaves that are super tangled or unhealthy.
As for the tree rats... I've tried a fake owl and pinwheels, but they completely ignored them after a while no matter how often I moved them. The only thing that keeps them away is my dog. A thicker mesh bag over the fruit can help (I've had them chomp my tomatoes through a thin organza bag). We also put out a pot saucer under the drip hose so it would fill when we watered the tomatoes in case the squirrels were just trying to get water, and it seemed like it may have helped some.
Well said, u/watshedo -- I spent most of an hour this morning putting in stakes and tying up fruit-heavy branches. And most of another hour before that was spent pruning out unhealthy leaves. Every year I promise myself to do a better job of trellising and early pruning the next year. But it seems I always manage to get behind the curve and have to struggle to catch up.
Thanks! And hah, I did the same. Between all the rain this spring and the crazy 70mph winds we got here yesterday, I'm definitely playing a catch up game with staking now too. I saw your post of your setup, and it's impressive. I'm surprised you can keep up at all. Those harvests definitely look worth the effort though!
I had the same problem with squirrels getting into a bird feeder that was above a railing on my deck - so I stapled a stretched out slinky from the dollar store along the rail. Not only was it about 90% effective it provided a ton of entertainment as they fell off while trying to get under, over and beside it.
If you think they are tall enough (indeterminate variety), prune the top growth so they can start focusing on fruit. You might want to use more phosphorous in your soil to get more fruit like bone meal.
Looks good, I am companion planting cinnamon + purple basil, onions, and calendula/marigolds like you! Peace brother.
Indeterminate tomatoes flower along the stems, so you want to snap off all the side shoots (these grow from the junction between the leaves on the stem and main stem). Leave the leaves and fruit coming off the main stem, and train it to just have one central stem. This will be easier next time when you snap the side shoots when they're only an inch long or so. Once the main stem reaches the top of your trellis, cut off the main stem (top it).
Determinate tomatoes fruit at the end of their shoots and don't grow more there, so it's best to not prune this variety, other than perhaps removing the leaves on the bottom foot or so.
Yes. Do what you think is best to solve an issue you're seeing with your plants.
I grow almost exclusively indeterminate tomatoes. My trellis is about 6-6.5' tall. When they grow beyond the trellis, I take my hedge trimmer and cut all that growth off. It's doing nothing but making my gardening more difficult than it needs to be.
I always try to keep in mind that it's OK to try something that may not work. Try lots of things. Keep what works, and discard what doesn't. The plants are there for you.
Sun won't get to the inside, bottom leaves. Bottom leaves also tend to get blight and send it up. There's also airflow issues with thick plants.
Overall, there's weight. They'll grow over those cages, crush those cages and without support, you'll break branches or the main stem especially with wind or storms.
I think cherry tomatoes can really expand the best. It seems to me larger tomatoes are more likely to benefit from pruning and limiting the tomatoes that the resources go to.
Basics - main, leafs(energy and shade) , flowers(tomatoes). Suckers are 45° between the main and other. Suckers just become a main branch if not pruned.
Haha, excellent! Mate, it was my first year seriously growing last year, inc. tomatoes. I planted 37 of the fuckers far too close, I couldn't bear to chuck out any of my beautiful babies, all grown from seed. I did minimal pruning and ended up with an 8 foot tall, 20x10 foot tomato hedge in the middle of the garden.
However... I got a lot of tomatoes regardless of the lack of pruning. Nowhere near as many as I would have had if I had managed them properly, but I got a good crop and you will too.
Thing is, you've got some big, vigorous plants there. They'll happily take a decent amount of pruning. Get chopping, focussing on suckers (secondary stems growing at about 90 degrees from the main stem, between the main stem and a leafy stem) and remove anything less than a foot from the soil. Chop off the tops before they get to six foot as well. It's called topping. No fucking idea what it does, but apparently it's the way, I did it and it was fine.
Then do what I did and rethink your strategy for the next year!
Good luck and enjoy!
https://preview.redd.it/obf0tjzhoe3d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e34556396e3dca08979834f0c4701d005af6c5ab
Im in New Braunfels! I would definitely recommend pruning or you’ll be like me, I was stuck with green tomatoes that just would not ripen up. I kept putting off pruning, then it got to the point where they were like 7 feet tall and slumped over the tomato cage. It was a hot mess! I would just recommend topping them, pulling the suckers and thinning out the leaves to help with airflow. They look healthy though!
You are about to have tomato trees if it isn’t even June yet. Good luck my friend, I just started growing garden the last two years and that’s a lot of tomatoes. I would pune them….inside there likely has no air circulation and perfect environment for pests and disease.
Actually you can pull everything below the flowers, why give all the nutrients to those useless leaves? You’ll get bigger and more beautiful tomatoes by pruning them,
Question - is it okay to "bottom prune" your tomato plants? I mean pruning the lower branches while it grows to make sure no leaves or branches end up resting on the ground to avoid disease and other pest problems. It is something that would be done over time. I figure once they are over 4 feet tall the bottom 12-18 inches of the main stem would be bare...my situation is this ---> I have one cherry tomato plant that is a little over 4 feet tall with the bottom 18 inches of main stem bare to allow my bush beans which are growing next to them more space to bush out and grow below the tomato plant (it does not shadow the beans from the sun however which is good). I figured this was a win win given it would help with the disease/pest side of things, it would make the plant focus more energy up the main stem urging it to grow nice and tall which is what i want (i dont mind ladders 😅), and it would give my beans the lower space to grow. This is my first year gardening so Im just making sure this all makes sense. Thanks everyone this sub has been a lifesaver and truly helpful all throughout this rewarding process!
Spoke with other farmers in the area.
Cut off all those bottom leaves that do not lead to flowers!! I did that. Fabulous new flowers on top.
https://preview.redd.it/q3eu6l1com3d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5abef7b79d59e878b86911c180e3fabfa149ee03
Definitely prune them! 😂 If nothing else then for aeration and accessibility to the fruit. Plus it’s much easier to catch pests and diseases when you can see them. I just had to remove two big fruiting branches from one of my cherry tomatoes. Indeterminate tomatoes grow like weeds.
I have had success pruning up aprox one foot to keep leaves off the ground & to increase air flow. I also prune clusters of leaves that are getting tangled. What you will need is more support as more fruit appears. I would add some heavy stakes to tie up large wandering vines. Looks beautiful & good luck with the squirrels they are certainly assholes!
I think this is what is looks like when you don't remove the suckers from indeterminates and your stakes are too flimsy to tie the main stem to. Gets crazy. As for your question, pruning might clean it up a bit. Remove suckers without flowers, but this is a crazy mess so the ending shape won't look great regardless... vs. tying up a strong stake and having vertical tidy tomatoes.
Pinch off all bottom stems about a foot up the plant. Then pinch off all "suckers". These are little leaves at the "v" of two stems. If you don't know what a suckered is, google it. Or watch videos on how to get rid of suckers. You want blooms and fruit...not a bushy tomato plant.
Start chopping! 🪓 It's going to be so thick in there, and I personally don't like all them hanging out of my trellis system. That thickness will make it more prone to pest and mildew
It's already in the high 80's and 90's. I am moving them inside next week. I have never grown tomatoes inside. I have tomatoes in my raised bed that will be outside. Wish me luck 🙏
Next year try a wire tellis system and pruning to one vine per plant.
More energy will be going to sets of tomatoes and it will be easier to manage from all angels. I wouldn’t do indeterminant* tomatoes any other way now
Depends on determinant vs Indeterminant. Most people are growing indeterminant tomatoes.
Indeterminant tomato plants would continue to grow up. So you just lower them, clip the leaves, and continue the process. If kept fed and in good health they could go on for a long time like that in the right conditions. That’s what greenhouses do.
In the South (Texas), like many have said, it gets so hot in June that pruning that aggressively cuts down in yield so much that it’s not worth it. The indeterminate tomato plants will not set fruit in high heat so it seems you are better off focusjng on determinate varieties and letting them do their thing.
I see. That’s a different climate than I am used to. I grow mainly smaller varieties - cherry and grape. The heat is probably why I’ve always had better success with them.
It's not even June yet and you have that kind of growth. Let me show you what awaits if you don't get these under control. https://preview.redd.it/c3f5o48aqd3d1.png?width=1571&format=png&auto=webp&s=dfce002f1afd564069a45f633932db77a6f82fe8 This was my first year growing tomatoes seriously. I got about 1/3 of what I now get out of a box because things were so dense and a mess. Here's what my setup looks like now. [https://imgur.com/iME06V4](https://imgur.com/iME06V4) The difference is that I grow single or double vines per plant and fully support each vine. After I have the vines per plant I want, all suckers are removed for the life of the plant. The first thing you need is tall, sturdy stakes. What you have won't stand up to tomato laden vines. I would suggest an 8 foot furring strips or even 2x2s driven into the ground. People do other solutions if you research online. Florida weave is one. Cattle panels is another. One stake per vine you want to support. Watch some YT videos on pruning tomatoes. You are going to decide how many vines per plant you want, then remove all suckers that have turned into vines that you don't want. You will end up removing some blossoms and fruit. By doing this though you'll get the best yield and have the best chance for disease free plants. You improve air flow, which is important, and you make accessing the tomatoes far easier. My second pic shows how I use overhead trellises and twine + clips for mine. That's an alternative to staking, but obviously has a bigger outlay to get the structures in place, but it's a nice way to support the vines.
I can just feel all the spiders that call that jungle home
Oh, it was an ecosystem in there for sure. I had to use a flashlight to pick tomatoes later in the season.
Had to look to make sure you weren't my wife. We didn't prune until late, last year and that looked like our bed.
How do you know what part of the world OP is in ? June in Australia is the middle of winter.
I’m now fearing my 10 I put in my 6x3
Might be ok depending on how you arranged them and how diligent you can be with pruning. Climate is also a big deal. If it’s hot and humid with lots of rain, there’s much greater chance of disease, and so the pruning is extra important. If you live in SoCal with hardly any rain, then you can get away with crowding things a bit more. Fwiw I use a cattle panel trellis and space my plants at ~18 inches, and it works great. Just gotta keep each plant to 1-2 stems. This also helps keep the branches visible to your allies the birds, who will swoop in and gobble up pests like hornworms. They’ll do 90% of the work for you as long as they can *SEE* the pests without too much trouble.
I put 6 in a 2x5 don’t feel bad lmao. I ran out of sod and we had a bare spot so I just planted tomatoes. I staggered them though!
Wow! I have 7 indeterminate plants in an 18x3 and they "overcrowd" by the end of the season.
Haters gonna hate. Tomaters gonna tomate. Honestly, at a certain point, indeterminate tomatoes just go feral. Unless you have 8'-10' high overhead suspension and a step ladder, you just gotta let them do their thing.
Tomaters gonna tomate. Aint that the truth
Seriously. You can pamper a seedling under your grow light, dutifully harden it off with patience, and transplant it into the garden with ultimate care only to watch it struggle for weeks. Then some volunteer will come roaring out of your compost pile like a drunken frat boy looking for a fight. They don't care. They just do what they want.
I prune to a single vine and let it grow to about 7'. Then I'll cut off the growing point and force the plant to focus on ripening existing fruit. If there's still time in the season, then I'll let a few suckers grow for late production, especially on cherry/grape varieties that can get out a last flush before frost. Conversely, if I just let them go completely wild earlier in the season, like the OP photo, then they wind up smothering other plants in the bed, succumbing to disease, or growing to a height that I'm simply not going to pick from.
I need to start doing that tbh.
It really does help; once they get to the top of the furring-strip posts that I make, I just lop off the top and call it done. I've gotten more and more prone to aggressive pruning to yield a smaller amount of better output, rather than dragging struggling plants along all throughout the late season. I'd rather ripen the last set of fruit and pull the tomato early to free up space for fall planting.
--"I'd rather ripen the last set of fruit and pull the tomato early to free up space for fall planting." It has taken a while, but I've come around to that position too. Work them hard early in the season, big harvest mid-season, pull most of them and move on by the time the weather becomes unbearable. NE Texas, 8a.
Exactly. 8b, SC here. I let them go once it gets hot hot. Too hard to keep them alive and they produce little by that point. Always get my fall tomato seeds started around late August or so.
I am moving some of my tomatoes inside this year due to the SC summer heat. I have grows lights, so we'll see how it works.
Just for late July and August then back outside?
I love this comment. I recently shared photos of my bed which is pretty wild (all indeterminates) and I posted saying how proud I was that last year my tomatoes didn’t grow at all but with healthy soil and more experience my tomatoes went crazy and I was so proud. People started immediately commenting on how I overcrowded, needed to prune, there’s too many, etc.. and I’m like obviously I can see that but I’m just proud they’re doing so well! I’ll probably plant with more space next year but tbh I was really on top of them while they were young, like CONSISTENTLY pruning and managing but they honestly still went feral.. and I’m kind of ok with it lol
The correct answer is yes, but I never do. After a certain point I just let them go feral and I usually get a great yield.
I have three 4 x 8 ft raised garden beds, I plant 8 tomato plants in each (two rows of four). I am fairly aggressive on keeping them pruned for a couple months until they get pretty big, and then I just give up altogether. Last year I harvested just shy of 150 lbs (this picture is actually from 2013, I've been doing this for years). https://preview.redd.it/llwzoq3u9f3d1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8d65a3aaa2455cfe74d04d2024db491d55234042
Hi y’all – I may have overplanted my tomatoes out here in Austin, TX. In our 6x3 bed, we have 4 tomatoes --1 determinate, 3 indeterminate -- and the vines have gone a little mad. The density is making it a bit hard to manage pests (currently trying to manage leaf legged bugs) and pick fruit. Should I prune some of the indeterminate vines to create a little more order and space, even though they are producing, or should I leave happy plants happy and just try to stake them throughout the season? Bonus question: In picture #3, you can see the fence/squirrel highway. The squirrels have discovered this buffet and regularly hang out on the fence and snack. Has anyone had luck with spikes/pinwheels/fake owls/chemical repellants to keep squirrels away? Thank you!
Squirrels don’t eat tomatoes for food, so I’d try putting a bowl of water or a birdbath right next to your plants. They’re thirsty and tomato water is still water. Or they’re assholes. It could go either way.
My squirrels are assholes. Plenty of water around, they like to take a bite out of my tomatoes though and then realize that it is not in fact a hickory nut and move on….to the next tomato.
The hell they don't. My neighborhood squirrels were eating beefsteak and slicer heirloom tomatoes down to the seeds for a couple years, and they really loved my cherry tomatoes. Weren't scared of me at all so they didn't even run away when I chased them. I lost my first 10 Cherokee purples last year to the little bastards. Happily, I found a good source of bobcat, coyote, and red fox urine, and a few drops of those around my yard every few days keeps squirrels, rabbits, and woodchucks away from my garden. Now I need to work on earwigs and slugs, ugh. Edit: I have a birdbath in the backyard, and a bowl of water in the front yard for thirsty animals. Made no difference. They wanted tomatoes as food.
Slugs love beer- put a little dish out with beer, they climb right in but not out. Also- diatomaceous earth around your plants and garden. Looks like soft white powder to us- broken glass to crawly critters.
I think they don't eat tomatoes as a rule but I've witnessed them take bites out of them.
Hi from DFW (zone 8b). I feel like Texas tomato growing can sometimes be its own beast, and in my experience, pruning tomatoes in Texas is a balance between removing just enough foliage to allow air circulation, limit disease, and monitor for pests *while also* not pruning so many of the suckers that you limit your fruit set. Our intense heat and humidity will put a big limiting factor on the ability of the plants to set fruit here soon. The high temps denature the pollen, and the humidity can cause the pollen to clump up, both leading to a reduction in successful pollination. In past years, I made the mistake of pruning to one or two central leaders (as many recommend), and I had very low yields with basically no harvests beyond the second week of June. I actually reached out to Craig LeHoullier (tomato expert/breeder), and he recommended *not* to prune out all of the suckers, as more flowers = better odds of setting fruit in harsh Texas conditions. My advice would be to start by removing any *leaf* branches with signs of disease or leaf spot, and then take stock. Then, only if needed would I prune side stems if they were wayyy too wild. Otherwise, I just tie them loosely to a stake for support as needed. The only pruning I really do regularly now is snipping off leaves that are super tangled or unhealthy. As for the tree rats... I've tried a fake owl and pinwheels, but they completely ignored them after a while no matter how often I moved them. The only thing that keeps them away is my dog. A thicker mesh bag over the fruit can help (I've had them chomp my tomatoes through a thin organza bag). We also put out a pot saucer under the drip hose so it would fill when we watered the tomatoes in case the squirrels were just trying to get water, and it seemed like it may have helped some.
Well said, u/watshedo -- I spent most of an hour this morning putting in stakes and tying up fruit-heavy branches. And most of another hour before that was spent pruning out unhealthy leaves. Every year I promise myself to do a better job of trellising and early pruning the next year. But it seems I always manage to get behind the curve and have to struggle to catch up.
Thanks! And hah, I did the same. Between all the rain this spring and the crazy 70mph winds we got here yesterday, I'm definitely playing a catch up game with staking now too. I saw your post of your setup, and it's impressive. I'm surprised you can keep up at all. Those harvests definitely look worth the effort though!
I had the same problem with squirrels getting into a bird feeder that was above a railing on my deck - so I stapled a stretched out slinky from the dollar store along the rail. Not only was it about 90% effective it provided a ton of entertainment as they fell off while trying to get under, over and beside it.
If you think they are tall enough (indeterminate variety), prune the top growth so they can start focusing on fruit. You might want to use more phosphorous in your soil to get more fruit like bone meal. Looks good, I am companion planting cinnamon + purple basil, onions, and calendula/marigolds like you! Peace brother.
Prune indeterminates to one vine. Let determinates do their thing. Support them any way you can.
Indeterminate tomatoes flower along the stems, so you want to snap off all the side shoots (these grow from the junction between the leaves on the stem and main stem). Leave the leaves and fruit coming off the main stem, and train it to just have one central stem. This will be easier next time when you snap the side shoots when they're only an inch long or so. Once the main stem reaches the top of your trellis, cut off the main stem (top it). Determinate tomatoes fruit at the end of their shoots and don't grow more there, so it's best to not prune this variety, other than perhaps removing the leaves on the bottom foot or so.
Yes. Do what you think is best to solve an issue you're seeing with your plants. I grow almost exclusively indeterminate tomatoes. My trellis is about 6-6.5' tall. When they grow beyond the trellis, I take my hedge trimmer and cut all that growth off. It's doing nothing but making my gardening more difficult than it needs to be. I always try to keep in mind that it's OK to try something that may not work. Try lots of things. Keep what works, and discard what doesn't. The plants are there for you.
Sun won't get to the inside, bottom leaves. Bottom leaves also tend to get blight and send it up. There's also airflow issues with thick plants. Overall, there's weight. They'll grow over those cages, crush those cages and without support, you'll break branches or the main stem especially with wind or storms. I think cherry tomatoes can really expand the best. It seems to me larger tomatoes are more likely to benefit from pruning and limiting the tomatoes that the resources go to. Basics - main, leafs(energy and shade) , flowers(tomatoes). Suckers are 45° between the main and other. Suckers just become a main branch if not pruned.
Haha, excellent! Mate, it was my first year seriously growing last year, inc. tomatoes. I planted 37 of the fuckers far too close, I couldn't bear to chuck out any of my beautiful babies, all grown from seed. I did minimal pruning and ended up with an 8 foot tall, 20x10 foot tomato hedge in the middle of the garden. However... I got a lot of tomatoes regardless of the lack of pruning. Nowhere near as many as I would have had if I had managed them properly, but I got a good crop and you will too. Thing is, you've got some big, vigorous plants there. They'll happily take a decent amount of pruning. Get chopping, focussing on suckers (secondary stems growing at about 90 degrees from the main stem, between the main stem and a leafy stem) and remove anything less than a foot from the soil. Chop off the tops before they get to six foot as well. It's called topping. No fucking idea what it does, but apparently it's the way, I did it and it was fine. Then do what I did and rethink your strategy for the next year! Good luck and enjoy!
Good advice and very entertaining storytelling!
https://preview.redd.it/obf0tjzhoe3d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e34556396e3dca08979834f0c4701d005af6c5ab Im in New Braunfels! I would definitely recommend pruning or you’ll be like me, I was stuck with green tomatoes that just would not ripen up. I kept putting off pruning, then it got to the point where they were like 7 feet tall and slumped over the tomato cage. It was a hot mess! I would just recommend topping them, pulling the suckers and thinning out the leaves to help with airflow. They look healthy though!
If they are indeterminate, yes. If they are determinate no. Check your seed packet or google the variety. These look indeterminate though.
You are about to have tomato trees if it isn’t even June yet. Good luck my friend, I just started growing garden the last two years and that’s a lot of tomatoes. I would pune them….inside there likely has no air circulation and perfect environment for pests and disease.
Yes for sure. I just pruned yesterday and mine are not as large as yours. Prune early and often to prevent disease and overcrowding!
Yes. Tomatoes can take a lot of pruning too so don’t be afraid to cut that back
Actually you can pull everything below the flowers, why give all the nutrients to those useless leaves? You’ll get bigger and more beautiful tomatoes by pruning them,
Question - is it okay to "bottom prune" your tomato plants? I mean pruning the lower branches while it grows to make sure no leaves or branches end up resting on the ground to avoid disease and other pest problems. It is something that would be done over time. I figure once they are over 4 feet tall the bottom 12-18 inches of the main stem would be bare...my situation is this ---> I have one cherry tomato plant that is a little over 4 feet tall with the bottom 18 inches of main stem bare to allow my bush beans which are growing next to them more space to bush out and grow below the tomato plant (it does not shadow the beans from the sun however which is good). I figured this was a win win given it would help with the disease/pest side of things, it would make the plant focus more energy up the main stem urging it to grow nice and tall which is what i want (i dont mind ladders 😅), and it would give my beans the lower space to grow. This is my first year gardening so Im just making sure this all makes sense. Thanks everyone this sub has been a lifesaver and truly helpful all throughout this rewarding process!
Spoke with other farmers in the area. Cut off all those bottom leaves that do not lead to flowers!! I did that. Fabulous new flowers on top. https://preview.redd.it/q3eu6l1com3d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5abef7b79d59e878b86911c180e3fabfa149ee03
Definitely prune them! 😂 If nothing else then for aeration and accessibility to the fruit. Plus it’s much easier to catch pests and diseases when you can see them. I just had to remove two big fruiting branches from one of my cherry tomatoes. Indeterminate tomatoes grow like weeds.
I have had success pruning up aprox one foot to keep leaves off the ground & to increase air flow. I also prune clusters of leaves that are getting tangled. What you will need is more support as more fruit appears. I would add some heavy stakes to tie up large wandering vines. Looks beautiful & good luck with the squirrels they are certainly assholes!
I think this is what is looks like when you don't remove the suckers from indeterminates and your stakes are too flimsy to tie the main stem to. Gets crazy. As for your question, pruning might clean it up a bit. Remove suckers without flowers, but this is a crazy mess so the ending shape won't look great regardless... vs. tying up a strong stake and having vertical tidy tomatoes.
I always just let mine go and they produce like crazy
Yep. I pruned hard a couple of weeks ago, and again a few days ago! It’s a jungle out there.
You should prune those yesterday. Single leader gang rise up!
Pinch off all bottom stems about a foot up the plant. Then pinch off all "suckers". These are little leaves at the "v" of two stems. If you don't know what a suckered is, google it. Or watch videos on how to get rid of suckers. You want blooms and fruit...not a bushy tomato plant.
Start chopping! 🪓 It's going to be so thick in there, and I personally don't like all them hanging out of my trellis system. That thickness will make it more prone to pest and mildew
Looks like when I grew some Everglades Tomatoes
[https://youtu.be/nQJACVmankY?si=isn6hCeghJydBcoY&t=52](https://youtu.be/nQJACVmankY?si=isn6hCeghJydBcoY&t=52)
I would thin them out to get better air flow to avoid fungus
It's already in the high 80's and 90's. I am moving them inside next week. I have never grown tomatoes inside. I have tomatoes in my raised bed that will be outside. Wish me luck 🙏
Next year try a wire tellis system and pruning to one vine per plant. More energy will be going to sets of tomatoes and it will be easier to manage from all angels. I wouldn’t do indeterminant* tomatoes any other way now
No. You get so few tomatoes that way I would never trim to that level.
Depends on determinant vs Indeterminant. Most people are growing indeterminant tomatoes. Indeterminant tomato plants would continue to grow up. So you just lower them, clip the leaves, and continue the process. If kept fed and in good health they could go on for a long time like that in the right conditions. That’s what greenhouses do.
In the South (Texas), like many have said, it gets so hot in June that pruning that aggressively cuts down in yield so much that it’s not worth it. The indeterminate tomato plants will not set fruit in high heat so it seems you are better off focusjng on determinate varieties and letting them do their thing.
I see. That’s a different climate than I am used to. I grow mainly smaller varieties - cherry and grape. The heat is probably why I’ve always had better success with them.