Tomatoes are an easy-to-grow plant for home gardeners and among the most widely grown home garden plants. While the plants grow easily, they require care and pruning to keep crops healthy and make a fantastic harvest. Tomatoes need staking to keep fruit off the floor and reduce fruit decay. Pruning can also be significant, as it helps create bigger fruit and slimmer, healthier plants also increases air flow, which reduces the danger of infection.
Choose a couple of main stems. When growing tomatoes with two main stems, choose the 2nd main stem from among the shoots that grow from the first or second leaf-stem axils, and remove all of shoots below it. Growing plants with a couple of main stems sends more nutrients to fruit instead of sending it to unwanted shoots.
Prune to remove any new suckers. Check weekly and remove any new side or lateral shoots while they’re still tiny. You can pinch off the limbs with your fingers if you remove them before they grow larger than 4 inches long; that also helps avoid plant injury. Pinch a sucker between your finger and thumb, bending it to one side until it breaks.
Top the plant in summer season. When the main shoots get to the surface of the service, cut off the tops of the main shoots. This directs plant energies to ripening fruit on the vine. Taking away the tops doesn’t hurt the plant because any new fruit group would not have time to ripen before the growing season ends.
Remove any yellow or wilting leaves as they develop. Yellow and wilting leaves are normal on tomato crops as they grow. Removing these leaves help reduce the danger of infection and maintain the plant looking fresh.