How To Grow Tomatoes

Pruning tomato plants is another required task that must be done while growing tomatoes in your garden. Pruning tomato plants will help your plants thrive, and will minimize the possibility of disease. If left unpruned your tomato plant could take up 4 square feet of garden space, would have too many stems, and would without doubt be underperforming due to disease.

Using tomato stakes or tomato cages will help you take proper care of your plants. By tying or “training” your plant you keep it from becoming wild and overgrown, and give it the support that it will need when it begins to produce large, juicy fruits. You’ll want to tie your tomato plants to stakes using soft, flexible string to prevent damaging the stalk and stems while it grows.

To start pruning your plants, begin by removing all leaves below the first flower cluster on the plants. Also ensure that each leaf section has plenty of room to grow, and capture the sunshine in order to produce the sugars that are necessary for the plant to thrive. If your tomato plants leaves begin to turn yellow, it is a sign that your plant is using more sugar than it is producing, which is the plants way of telling you that it is not receiving enough sunshine.

A recap of pruning, and tomato plant care tips :

1. Do not let the plants stems or leaves touch the ground.

2. Avoid having too many stems branch out from the plant, by tying them to stakes, or caging your plant.

3. Give your plants plenty of room to grow. It’s better to have 10 plants that are thriving than to have 20 plants that are competing for space!

4. Make sure your plants get plenty of sunshine to prosper.

If you are properly pruning your tomato plants, you will be rewarded with larger, juicier fruits, and your plants will produce until the first frost. You can look forward to a long season of LOTS of delicious, red tomatoes!