How To Prune Tomatoes - And Why Its So Important! Episode 210

Jim and Mary talk about how to prune tomato plants - and why it's so important for their success! See how to prune your plants to allow air and light in, and why it helps keep your plants disease and pest free.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Welcome to the Simple Garden Life Podcast, a program dedicated to keeping the yard
of gardening simple, fun and alwaysrewarding. Now Here are your hosts,
Jim and Mary Competti. Hello andwelcome everybody. I'm Jim Competti along with
my co host and wife Mary Competti, and today we are going to cover
the subject of pruning tomato plants,not just when they get overgrown, Mary,

(00:24):
but throughout the entire growing process.And it really does make a difference.
It really does make a difference inthe success of your tomato plants,
you know, starting from just afew weeks after their planet all the way
to the end of the season.Yeah, it really does. And as
we talk about it, it's nota process that you wait till they grow
to do this. We'll get intothe whole thing today, but it really
matters that if you start early pruningthese back, allowing some air in,

(00:47):
it leads to a better harvest.It's a whole lot of good things and
we'll cover them all today. Oneof the things we want to hit right
in front, and we'll get tothis is about a lot of people think
pruning is only about pinching suckers.You used to hear that a lot in
the old days. We'll cover that, but we're actually talking about pruning branches
off to open up space at thebottom and through the middle of the plant
and keeping it from getting too big. Yeah, I'm pruning and pinching are

(01:10):
two different things, but we'll coverthem both today. Yeah. One of
the things that's more important anything elseis that earlier you get started in this
process, the better. So ifyou're listening to this and you're like us
right now, we're in June,which seems like the middle of August because
we're in a massive heat wave already, but you get started early in the
season when these plants are young,it really makes a difference. So why
do you prune? I guess that'sthe first subject we want to cover.

(01:30):
You know, left to grow asthey please, tomato plants pretty much morph
into a tangled mess of stems,shoots, roots, you name it,
leaves, and it's not just amess or an isore, but it really
causes problems for the tomato plants.Yeah. I think we've all had that
neighbor, that friend, that gardner, and maybe even ourselves that have at
a tomato plant go a little bittoo wild. And you can't even see

(01:52):
if there's any fruit on the stems. That's right. And you know,
here's the important thing about tomatoes.You know, they need air, light
and nutrients to bloom better. Andif they bloom better, that means you're
going to get more tomatoes. Andwhen they grow wild like that, it's
not so easy for them to getespecially the air and the light and the
nutrients themselves. Also, people don'tthink about this, but when your tomato

(02:14):
plant is all tangled up and itrains, or you get a light rain,
some of that rain never gets downto where it needs to go.
It's just shield it off by thatthick growth. So, you know,
overgrowth blocks light and air. Itcan keep you know, water from reaching
the roots. And when plants becomeovergrown with a lot of stems and all
those resources that the plant uses andthe nutrients they're going towards, you know,

(02:36):
building all of that growth, that'snot necessarily good for producing tomatoes.
Right. The whole goal of havinga tomato plant is to have actual tomato
fruit at the end of the season, not to have as many branches that
you can have or have a tall, tall tomato plant. You know,
in your garden. Yeah, wetalk about this with fertilizing. Some people
think, you know, my tomatoesare just huge and they're bright green,
or not my tomatoes, but myplants. But I'm not getting allot of

(02:59):
tomatoes. Well it's concept. Whenyou over fertilize, you get all this
foliage growth and it doesn't do anythingto help. But you know, pruning
takes some of that back, andas you'll see, it really directs the
resources right to the tomatoes. Soyou know, too much leaf canopy near
the ground also is a big difference, and that's what we're going to talk
about first as we get into this, because it not only allows that light

(03:23):
and air and but it makes iteasier for you to water and it really
helps with pest and disease control.Right, And I think the first step
in all of us and pruning ourtomato plants is to take those branches off
the bottom. Your plants aren't hugeyet, but you really don't want your
stems and leaves to be touching thesoil. That's right. So okay,
so we'll get to that. Let'sgo to this sucker's question. We talked
about this a little bit earlier,so let's tackle the subject. Suckers are

(03:46):
not okay, So what are they? I guess that's the first question.
Not people, No, they're not. They are the small shoots that sprout
from where a stem and a branchconnect you. It's it's really the best
way I've always described it is,it's what forms right that v area between
the two you know of when youhave a stem come up, that's a
sucker. A sucker is never goingto produce fruit, and so in the

(04:08):
old days, everybody would always pinchthose off. Here's the thing you can
do it. It does help alittle bit. It's going to conserve some
resources. I will say, youknow, you can do it with your
fingernails. You can just punch themright off and it's going to take that
out. I've never had a bigproblem with leaving some suckers on. I
mean, I know there's people thatare just really like, you've got to
get everyone. I don't think itmatters as much as physically pruning your tomato

(04:32):
plant, like we're going to getto But it's not a bad practice because
again, none of those are goingto produce tomatoes, right. Those suckers
do take some nutrients away from therest of the plant. So if you
see if you pinch them off anddo it while you're pruning, so you're
not doing double duty work. Yeah, and you know what, it's just
I always it's so big because alot of people think that is the only
way to prune a tomato plant,and it's not. You you're taking the

(04:54):
suckers off, they're not going toproduce fruit. But I wanted to cover
that subject, you know, beforewe get into the heart and the soul
of pruning. So we're going totake a quick ad break before we do
so, though, I just wantto remind everybody that you can sign up
for our podcast at simplegardenlife dot com. We also have a whole slew.
What we've done now is we havean article that goes along with every podcast

(05:15):
and vice versa. That way,you know, some people like to read
that information and it's it's a littledifferent. I mean, it covers the
subject, but we also put allthe resources in that article. Anything we
talk about, whether it's today's article, we'll talk about, you know,
what you can use to prune,and when we've done fertilizing articles, we'll
talk about different kinds. We putall those links to everything right in there
on that article, so you canhave an easy resource to help you out

(05:38):
again at simplegardenlife dot com. Andthen if you can't get enough gardening,
you can check out our other twomain gardening sites, which are Old World
garden Farms dot com, the originalthe Mother of it All that started at
Mary, and then this is MyGarden which really gets into specific plants.
But again, simplegardenlife dot com iswhere you can sign up to follow along
with our our podcast and also getall of our detailed articles on gardening.

(06:01):
So we'll take a quick ad breakand we'll be back with our question of
the week and we'll get into theheart and soul of pruning your tomato plants.
And we are back and let's goto our question of the week.
Mary and I like this week's question. Yes, this is from Michael who
lives in Huntsville, Alabama. Heasked what is the best tool to use
for pruning tomatoes? And do Ineed to worry about treating where it cut

(06:23):
off large limbs from the plants.We get the treating question a lot,
and I think it stems from whenpeople are used to trimming bushes or trees
in the fall and used to paintthem or spray or you know, cover
those because the SAP's coming out firstand foremost. You do not need to
treat what you've cut at all withanything. There's products out there. The

(06:43):
branch is kind of heal on itsown. That sap actually runs out a
little bit, closes off pretty quickly. No worry about that, Michael.
So you can prune away. Youknow, we like to prune early in
the morning or late in the evening, just because it's easier on us.
It's also a little easier on theplant too, and that that will help.
But no need to tread them atall about what to use. This
is a great question. So Mary, you know, she'll go out and

(07:04):
she does a lot of sucker pruningin earlier in the year. She uses
their fingernails. She'll just cut themright off and always laugh at it.
And I'm like, you know,that's the best perfume in the world,
right, because if you don't likethat, you know, a good sharp
pair of garden scissors are great.Um if you grow heirloom tomatoes though,
and we'll have a link on this. Garden guru has one is really good

(07:26):
at they're ratcheting pruners. You canuse them all over the garden if your
hands, if you have a littletrouble with the strength in your hands and
scissors get tired. These are reallynice. They ratchet down. They'll cut
anything, way more than tomatoes.But they do a really, really good
job. So one more note,go ahead, Mary. No, they
also they not only ratchet, butthey also spring back, so it makes
it nice. Let's work on yourhands. Yes, I mean they really

(07:46):
do. They. I like thatbecause you just carry them everywhere. Again,
always carry some some wipes with you, some antibacterial wipes or a little
bit of you know, bleach andwater, just a teaspoon less that even
in a gallon of water, anddip those in between plants. If you
do have disease on your plants,it is so easy to transmit it from

(08:07):
plant to plant, whether it's tomatoes, peppers, whatever you're talking about.
So I always make sure you cleanthose between. But great question there,
Michael. I love to talk aboutthat. And no, you don't need
to worry about putting anything on them. And those ratcheting pruners will really work
for you. So let's cover acouple more important things. Is wind to
prune. We hit that the morningand the early evening, that heat of

(08:28):
the day, they'll run a littlebit more sap and it's a little bit
harder on the plant. And thenthe important of those sharp clean cuts,
and we just talked about that withshears. Tearing cuts is more damaging to
plants, right, And you knowwe're going to get the question, and
I think we should clarify. Youdon't have to have ratcheting shears. You
can use a pair of scissors that'sdedicated to your garden. Use what you
have on hand. The ratching shearsare great for people that have arthritis or

(08:50):
have difficulty with their hands, butyou can use a pair of scissors.
Yeah, just make sure whatever youuse they're very sharp. The sharper,
the cleaner the cut, the quickerit's going to heal. Jagged edges on
a tomato plant are not good.They're going to have more spots for that
have to heal for the plant.So quick clean cuts or what you're looking
for when you're pruning. So youknow, we always ask what's the most

(09:11):
important. You know, it's pruningthe most important task, but really for
me, it can pruning can bebroken down in three distinct types of pruning,
and the first one we're going totalk about. And to me,
I think to you probably too,this is probably the most important for the
health and long term success of yourplant, and that's bottom pruning, right,
taking off those bottom limbs and foliageis very important. Yeah, So

(09:35):
determinates and n indeterminates are going tobe a little different. You know.
Determinates grow all at once and youget your produce. Indeterminates we're going to
grow throughout the season and get alittle bit bigger. Determinates tend to be
a little bit smaller, but welike to prune six to eight inches off
the bottom of our plants. Nowpeople get nervous, like, my plant's
only a foot tall right now,Jim, And I'm like, well,

(09:56):
listen, you know, you takea little bit of time. But I'm
talking. By the time these it'smature into the first of July and they've
grown to size. For determinants,you know, eight to twelve inches,
we take almost twelve to eighteen incheson our indeterminates up underneath on our airloom
tomatus. What does that do well? It does a lot of good.
First of all, it makes itreally easy for you to work your plants

(10:18):
around your soil. You can waterwhen you need to water right there,
you can get to the bottom,you can put compost around it, you
can keep the weeds free. There'snot a tangle of limbs down there.
But it also helps keeps insects fromhaving an easy lift up to your plants.
Right if the branches are down tothe ground, all insects have to
do is just climb onto the leafand can get up to the top of
your plant and seconds. Yeah,and it's also a great hiding place for

(10:39):
them, and people don't think aboutthat as well. When they're all down
low, you can't see anything andit might even not be insects. It
can be animals, small rabbits.You know, it gives you give everybody
a chance when you keep all thatlush growth down underneath. Finally, then
and probably even more important, itreally helps deter disease, you know,

(11:00):
you know blight, all these thingsthat spoiled driven from the soil. Well,
that happens when it splashes up onthe leaves. And we talk about
how important is the multiplants. Well, if you mult your plants and then
the leaves are touching the ground thatcan still happen. So by pruning up
underneath your plants, it really helpsin those three distinct ways. And I
can't stress enough if you do anythingthis year. I always tell people this,

(11:20):
If the only thing you prune isthe bottom of your plants, you're
going to help your plants more thanyou ever thought you could. Right and
now that the tomatoes are in theground, a lot of people have tomato
plants that are two to three foottall or maybe even eighteen inches tall.
Is it okay for them to goahead and take those bottom branches off,
knowing that the plant's going to growtaller. Yeah, And that's that's a
great question because sometimes people think,well I didn't get started early. I

(11:43):
don't want to. I don't wantto, you know, butcher my poor
plant here. Get those limbs off, you know, take them off,
just do them a little like forus, Like right now, we probably
are three to six inches because ourplants are small, and a few more
weeks will take another inch off toget to that full you know, eight
to twelve determinants and up to eighteenfor the big ones. But you can
do it at anytime, don't letI'll never forget Mary, the massive cherry

(12:07):
tomato plant that overtook our garden afew years ago, and it was in
this row and I came down oneday and I literally thought she had taken
the entire tomato out. There wasjust thousands of clippings out now, giant
pile, and I go, didyou just kill it? She goes,
no, I pruned it back intoshape. And I thought at the time,
you know, I always say thatyou can prune it doesn't hurt.
That proved the point because that plantwent on to just flourish after that,

(12:31):
and you literally took eighty percent ofthat plant. And it was scary because
we end up with a big pileof all branches of leaves that it looks
like it was a whole nother tomatoplant. But it really helped it out.
Yep. So okay, so that'sbottom pruning. Now let's go to
the second part, which is middlepruning. This is to me second most
important because it allows for lighting circulation. Now, we talk about disease,

(12:52):
and one of the thing ways theplants can get disease or mildew or all
the other things is when it's stagnantand air can't pass through it, and
air not passing through also hurts withpollination. It also hurts to not allow
a light to help coming into theplant photosynthesis and also ripening. So what
we do is we like to cleanout some crazy branches in the middle.
Mary, I guess I'll lean toyou on this one, because you are

(13:15):
you tend to be the more ofthe pruner in the middle of the season.
But you're not opening up the planthuge in the middle. You're just
removing all these criss cross branches toallow some right. You know, if
you look at your plant and whereyour steak is, if you have trouble
seeing the planet itself, you needto cut those branches off. So the
ones that are criss crossing, takethose off. You've got to give airflow.

(13:35):
If you can't see light through yourplant, you need to do some
pruning in the middle. Yeah,just a little bit, and you don't
have to open it up all theway. We're just saying you don't want
to just have this big conglobration ofleaves that are all sticking right there and
it can't get through. I mean, that's the real thing you're looking for,
right And I think this gets harderduring the season because what happens to
all of us gardeners. We startpruning our tomato plant. Then we see

(13:58):
blossoms and blooms and we're like,well, I don't want to cut those
off because those are some day gonnabe tomatoes. But sometimes you have to
sacrifice those branches. That's one ofthe most difficult things to do with pruning.
It is, it is, Butit's just like thinning. You know,
you do a little bit of itnow and it pays off with the
rest of your crop, you know, getting on a little bit better later
on. So okay, so we'vecovered bottom pruning, we've covered middle doesn't

(14:20):
take a rocket scientist, and nowthink that we're going to talk about the
top of the plant. This questioncomes in every summer, is Jim or
Mary? I know that you guysonly have five or six foot high steak
of cages or whatever. What doyou do because my airloms grow, my
airloams grow twenty feet tall. Wellthat's great. If you want to create
that kind of a structure and letthem grow and you want to get on
a ladder, go for it.But for us, we top our plants.

(14:43):
They get to a certain point ofheight. We will bend some down
and retie them to our steak ofcages. But it's okay to top your
plant. In fact, sometimes itreally helps the growth grow a little bit
better. You don't have to,but yes, you're not going to kill
that plant by topping it right,And Jim, what you're talking about,
steak stake a cage. Not everybodymight not know what we have in our
garden. And yeah, we've developeda tomato support system and we've turned it

(15:07):
steake a cage. And if youwant to learn more about that, you
can go to Old World garden Farmsdot com. Yeah, we'll put the
link on here. Yeah, absolutely, And really it's just I know we've
talked about it before, but it'sa steak in a cage. On one,
it's a real simple way to harnessyour tomatoes. But when it reaches
the top for us, you know, we have no problem at all topping
that off a little bit. Again, we just don't want our tomatoes to

(15:30):
grow together. You want that,you want that airflow, you want the
sunlight to be able to hit them, So don't be afraid to do that
at the top. Now, last, but not least, before we leave
you today, let's talk about whatdo you do with all those clippings.
And this is the other one thatreally gets to people because they're like,
whoa, I know, tomatoes,I shouldn't put them in my compost at
the end of the year. Butthese are young, they're healthy shoots.

(15:50):
Can I throw them in again?I just always say this, Tomatoes to
me have no place in a compostpile. They just they are trouble.
They are carriers of disease. Theycould have all types of things on them.
We discard ours. You can ifyou have a fire pit, you
know you can burn them off andhave the ashes there, but you know,
wrap them up, put them inyou know, your city compost,

(16:11):
which is gonna get way hotter thanyour pile, right, I think,
I think if there are scientists outthere that have a perfect pH compost pile,
and you know you can do itfor the backyard gardner, typical backyard
gardner, Yes, it's just reallybetter not to put them into the compost.
You make a great point, youreally do, Because we talk about
this. If you had a superhot pile, you know those pathogens are

(16:32):
gonna get killed. You're not goingto worry about seeds from your tomato.
But I don't care unless you,like you said, unless you're really working
an amazing pile. Most home pilescan get hot, but they can't get
that hot. It's just not worthit. It's not worth it to carry
that through. So let's kind ofrecap what we talked about. You know,
suckers versus pruning two different things.You're removing those suckers, which are
you know, in the v's andthe early ages, they're not going to

(16:56):
produce fruit, So you can pinchthose off pretty early if you want to.
The well being of that is alittle questionable to me as far as
how much does it help, butyou know it does clean your plan up
a little bit. That's the firstthing. Keep your plants manageable from the
start. We talk about it allthe time. Start pruning early, Take
a few inches off the bottom whenyour plants are small, let them grow
a little bit bigger. And ifyou have a rogue branch that's just going

(17:18):
crazy, don't be afraid to trimthat back and tie it back, you
know, prune underneath more as theplant goes. That's a huge thing to
do. And to keep that bottomclear and in clear middle space. Mary
talked about it, but in themiddle of June and July, or excuse
me, July and getting into August, that middle space is really going to
be critical to get air flow throughand help ripen your tomatoes and help help

(17:38):
them keep be productive. Right.And the last one I think is important
too is don't be afraid to topyour plants. You know, if your
plants are getting too overgrown, toohigh, you can cut off those branches.
And one thing we didn't mention Ithink is also important is towards the
end of the season, when yourtomatoes is about ready to wrap up and
you know you only have a fewweeks left, if you see blossoms on

(17:59):
your plant, take them off.They're taking energy away from the rest of
your plants that are trying to ripenthose tomatoes, and by the end of
the season they're not going to beballooned into tomatoes. Anyway. Mary always
comes up with a great tip,and that is a great tip today.
So that time frame for us isusually once we get to August. You
know, we know that that tomatoplant is limited on how much it can
production. You're right, take thosenew blossoms off because again the plants just

(18:21):
use an energy for that, andyou can reripen or not reripeen. You
can ripen faster the fruit that ison the vine. So there you go.
You know, tomatoes are big forus. We love to talk about
them. Pruning is something that Idon't know about you, Mary, but
my parents never did it. Ididn't know anybody that really ever did that.
I think the old adage was Iwant this plant to grow as big
as it can, and this monstersthat can. But again, it really

(18:44):
will help, and you'll be amazedat how well kept it keeps your garden
and your plants, and how wellit helps your plants stay healthy and produce
more tomatoes. Right, and keepin mind too, this isn't just for
tomato plants. I know we talkedabout tomato plants today, but we're big
component believers in pruning your pepper plantsas well. Absolutely absolutely, and you
know, I think maybe we cando another podcast on that. There you

(19:06):
go. There you go. Sono, and if anybody has any questions,
as always, we get a lotof them, and we love it.
Drop us a line at the farmat owgarden dot com. Again,
it's the farm at owgarden dot comdress those to Mary so I don't have
to answer. We try. Wetry to answer every email that we get,
and you know, it may takeus twenty four hours or forty eight
hours if it's busy garden season,but we really make that extra effort and

(19:29):
Jim does a great job answering mostwell. I'll tell you what we were
right now in the midst of gardenseason. And I laugh in the morning
when I open up and see onehundred new emails in this But if you
know what, we honestly everything aside. We enjoy it, and we love
talking and gardening, and we lovewhen the ideas come our way. So
Mary, I think it's that time. It is, and remember whatever you
do, find the fun and gardeningand grow something beautiful. Until next week,
everybody, excuse me, see I'mjust ready to get out in that

(19:52):
garden. Until next week, everybody, happy gardening. We hope you've enjoyed
this episode. Subscribe to the SimpleGarden podcast on iTunes, Apple, pod
Cast, Spotify, or most ofyour favorite podcast apps. You can also
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(20:14):
email us at the Farm at owgardendot com. Until next time, Thanks everyone,