Today on Tomato Lover I’m delighted to hand over to Hoylandswain for a guest post on pruning tomatoes.
There are differing approaches to pruning. Some growers only remove leaves up to the first truss . Some go further, Hoylandswain is a ‘go further’ advocate. And whilst his plants may be light on leaves they are heavy on tomatoes so I wanted to ask him more about his approach.
Guest Post By Hoylandswain.
The first time I grew tomatoes, I tried something called the ‘ring-culture’ method. It was an undeniable disaster for me, as, later, were growbags. The greenhouse was eventually full of festering foliage, foul fungus and fetid fruits. Noisome nothing was the outcome.
So here I am, just doing what I think prevents that ever happening again.
Outside or under glass, I take off all side stems of cordon varieties and, after the first truss has set, start removing all but the top three fully-grown leaves, continuing to keep just three all the way through.
Why? Outside, the more leaves, the more likely the wind damage and the greater the risk of blight from rain; inside, the more leaves, the darker the greenhouse and the more restricted the healthy circulation of air.
I think that the plant then devotes its attention to upward growth and to the fruit, rather than foliage, which makes for better results.
In a summer like this one, I’m convinced that it’s the best way, as the plant tops can dry out very quickly between the downpours.
I read somewhere that you don’t need to do this with bush varieties and that seems to be right; with tumblers, I just remove the yellowing leaves, which lets light and air through to the fruits within the growth.
Pruning cordon varieties lets me pack more plants into a small space, with chilli plants in the microclimate between the rows. Inside, pruned stems aren’t so thirsty as all those leaves, so the watering lasts longer.
So, there you are: bitter experience leading to better things. Here are photos of this year’s red cherries and tumbling toms to show that it does work, especially in the Pennines, where ripening is a bit later than for you down south!
Many thanks to Hoylandswain for his guest post. It’s great to see how other growers get results.
