When growth really gets going, stick tomatoes stretch powerfully towards the sky. Targeted pruning keeps tomato plants under control and produces magnificent fruit. Clever hobby gardeners do without a knife. Find out the details here.
How do I prune tomato plants correctly?
When cutting back tomato plants, you should not use scissors, but carefully snap off the shoots and leaves with your fingers. Break off any shoots between the base of the leaves and the stem and remove all leaves below the first fruit cluster.
Plea for pruning tomato plants
In the natural kitchen garden, plants should grow as Mother Nature planned. This belief goes a long way towards increasing environmental and he alth awareness. However, this philosophy fails when growing tomato plants because free growth usually leads to a poor harvest. Because they are constantly branching, tomato plants lack the strength to produce plump, juicy fruits. Regular pruning solves the problem in no time.
This perspective applies particularly to powerful stick tomatoes. An exception are bush tomatoes, which only branch into viable shoots and stop growing in height at 100 centimeters. With these tomato varieties, pruning has no meaningful effect, because fewer shoots do not result in larger fruits.
How to keep tomato plants in shape
Parallel to the start of fertilization from the second week outdoors, the constant pruning of tomato plants begins. Experienced hobby gardeners do not resort to knives because the use of cutting tools increases the risk of infection from late blight. Instead, plant parts are simply broken off. In technical language, this care measure is called auscultation. This is how it works:
- Knock off small shoots between the base of the leaves and the stem with your fingers
- move it back and forth until they break
- never pull the side shoots
- also break out all the leaves below the first fruit cluster
A stick tomato grows ever higher along its climbing support. The size is regulated at an early stage so that it does not exceed all dimensions and still has strength left for large beefsteak tomatoes. Above the fifth, sixth or seventh inflorescence, break off all other head shoots.
Tips & Tricks
All exhausted plant parts are ideal as nutritious mulching material for tomatoes. Simply chop it up and spread it on the floor. Spray nettle manure over it every 2 weeks to satisfy the hunger of heavy eaters in a natural way.