Pruning Tomato Plants - The Right Way

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Pruning tomato plants is yet another important task that must be tended to when growing tomatoes in your garden. Pruning tomato plants will also help the plant to thrive and it will minimize the possibility of disease. Left to fend for itself the tomato plant would end up taking up about 4 square feet of space, it will probably have about 10 stems, and it will ultimately be hounded with disease. Using a device such as a tomato stake or even a tomato cage will help you to take proper care of your plants.

Next you will want to tie them in the case you are using stakes with a soft string such as soft yarn or something like that. Then you will want to prune them by removing all of the leaves below the first flower cluster on the plants. You also want to make sure that each leave section has plenty of room to grow, and capture the sunshine. The plant needs the light to produce the sugars that are necessary for it to live.

When you see a plant that has yellowing leaves, the leaves have turned yellow because that section is using more sugar than it is producing. This is due to lack of sunshine in the case of outdoor plants, and still not enough light on those growing indoors. If you are taking proper care of your outdoor plants, you will get larger fruit from it, and it will steadily produce until the first frost occurs. That can turn into a LOT of tomatoes!

Some little things you need to consider too are:

1. Keep the plants and leaves off the ground.
2. You should not let too many stems branch out from the plant. Keeping them tied will take care of this.
3. Never tie a plant off when the leaves are wet.
4. Give your plants plenty of room to prosper! It's far better to have 50 plants that are thriving than to try to have a hundred plants that are cramped for space!
5. Keep the plants pruned. Removing leaves to make room for the other leaves to prosper is actually more beneficial to the plant.

Home-grown tomatoes are the absolute best tomatoes! Of that there is little doubt. That's one of the reason that tomato plants in the home garden are so popular and they are the number one produce item grown by home gardeners. Add to that fact that compared to some other fruits and vegetables, the work involved in growing tomatoes is relative minimal, and the rewards are great. There's absolutely nothing better than walking out to the garden to gather the makings of the freshest salad in the world!

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