Tomato plants do not easily produce large fruits. Only regular outbreaks prevent the tropical plants from producing the magnificent specimens they long for. The only question is, what exactly needs to be broken out and how to do it? Find the answer here.
How to break tomatoes properly?
To successfully sprout tomatoes, first remove sterile shoots in the leaf axils by pinching them with two fingers. Also remove competing shoots below the lowest umbel to promote the vigor and fruit size of the tomato plant.
Identify miserliness and remove them accurately – this is how it works
Every tomato plant aims to branch out extensively and develop a huge number of fruits with seeds from a large number of flowers. The plant invests all of its energy in this propagation strategy. It takes persistent and consistent pruning to direct a plant's growth toward opulent fruit. This counter-control is achieved by breaking out unnecessary side shoots, the miserliness. How to proceed:
- locate small side shoots in the leaf axils
- tweeze with two fingers from a height of 3-5 centimeters
- hold larger specimens between your thumb and forefinger and move them back and forth until they break out
- under no circumstances pull it without bending and cause large wound areas
- leave the exhausted plant parts on the ground as mulch
Since every wound on tomato plants, no matter how small, carries the risk of infection with late blight, it is immediately dusted with rock dust (€19.00 on Amazon) or wood ash. If a miserliness grows too high, it will not be fully eliminated. In this case, only remove the tip of the shoot to prevent further energy loss at this point.
Don’t let competitive instincts take their course
It's not just the barren miserliness that robs a tomato plant of its strength. Rival shoots constantly want to sprout up from the main shoot. It is therefore advisable to keep an eye out for them every time you plant tomatoes. All shoots below the lowest umbel are also broken off. A tomato plant with one or two main shoots produces earlier harvests, larger fruits and is significantly more vigorous.
Tips & Tricks
To make the stately tomatoes taste even better, they are watered with garlic broth every 2 weeks. To do this, puree two cloves of garlic and let them steep in 10 liters of water for 24 hours.