assumed it would help the plant focus its growth on the new flowers and tomatoes vs the long leaves that have nothing on them—was this a bad choice?
by Competitive-Read242
37 Comments
tacticalAlmonds
I probably wouldn’t have done it. Prune the bottom 10 inches or so otherwise you pruned a lot of greenery that is going to help produce those fruits. It needs to capture light someway.
Comprehensive_Goat28
This is one of the biggest misconceptions I see online… it’s not your fault, there’s so many self-described plant gurus that advocate for this. Pruning this severely is only recommended at the END of a season. Otherwise, just take off the leaves and shoots under where tomatoes are growing.
ohbabypop
Yes.
12345esther
As a general rule, start by just taking away the leafs below the lowest fruit. And from there, just when they start looking off (older, yellowing, etc). This is a ‘tad’ too much…
Competitive-Read242
ok guys let’s all point and laugh at me for a second
i clearly forgot everything i learned in HS biology 😂😂
restoblu
At that point just prune it at the base
/s
Suspicious_Note1392
Plants need leaves to photosynthesize and to protect the fruit from the sun. I just trim the lowest leaves (the ones that touch the ground) and call it good. I live in humid Alabama and have no problems with airflow as long as I don’t plant them too close together and my tomatoes produce outrageous amounts of fruit. Last year I literally had so many tomatoes that I actually had to start giving away tomato sauce.
Your plant will probably be okay but don’t prune it anymore, tomatoes are resilient. Recommend leaving it alone.
hatchjon12
Yeah, terrible choice.
betterspaghetter
What’s happening with this laundry basket planter?
robotdebo
She nakey
RobotOrchid
It looks like a fluffy cat that got shaved down and just has fluff around its face. I hope your plant recovers and you get tomatoes!
ywoi
They’ll be fine! Tomatoes are one of the most stubborn plants. But you’re right- little overkill on the pruning hehe. I think as a general rule about the bottom third of leaves should be pruned off.
In my experience the most important thing for tomato pruning (aside from removing the lowest leaves, but this is moreso to reduce the risk of disease) is removing ALL the suckers. That will do what you were wanting with removing the leaves- signal to the plant to direct its energy into growing the main stalk.
I circled in blue the suckers I’m talking about. Tomatoes want to bush out but don’t let ‘em! These will be fine to leave, but don’t let any more suckers grow- just snap them off. Then about above the red line is where I would stop pruning lower leaves off.
Peakgrind
It looks like it got enough shock from the pruning to bolt and flower/set fruit prematurely(this means it thinking it’s dying so it’s trying to make babies as fast as possible), I try to keep it to lower than 10 percent of foliage, when trimming, at a time to ease shock and then give it at least a week between trims to collect itself… side note nice blackberry bush
TacticalSpeed13
I don’t understand why anyone would prune almost the entire plant anyway at that point, the plant must be diseased so it’s time to pull out of the ground entirely
Agreeable_Classic_19
Shame!
Twindo
You’re supposed to prune suckers not sun leaves, there’s a big difference between the two 😭
Hour-Watercress-3865
We only prune dying branches or ones touching the dirt. We end up with more fruit than we can eat every time. What would the benefit of pruning all the leaves possibly be??
skeeg153
Oh dear. It maybe wasn’t the best idea… but your plant should bounce back. Just maybe don’t do that much again
Totalidiotfuq
You prune up to the first fruit, then stop lol.
ssinff
earnest question, why would you assume that? How do you think a plant gets energy to produce fruit?
Alive_Doubt1793
I heard if you cut the plant in half and shoot at it with a bb gun itll REALLY get the message to focus on making a fruit and stop f*ing around
Major_Shop_40
I love your enthusiasm! I recommend looking at a land grant college tutorial with good diagrams, like this –
Leaves are solar panels for the plant. Imagine you have every appliance in your house running and using electricity – you don’t improve the situation by tearing solar panels off your roof, right?
You might avoid a brownout by considering unplugging a giant appliance you might not really need (a sucker that could create an additional main stem). But – it might not be that big of an issue.
A plant doesn’t care about feeding you, it cares about making as many seeds as possible. It has no objection to making a ton of small fruits. The advice about pruning suckers is about making sure the plant doesn’t create so many additional main branches the fruits are small overall (like a brownout – so many drains on energy supply, everyone gets a bit less). But this advice is mainly because people tend to like big ripe sweet fruits. This matters if, say, you want a few beautiful BIG slicer tomatoes.
If you are growing small tomatoes to begin with, additional main stems may not be big of a deal, especially if you feed your plants well. Gasp 😅 I haven’t seen major benefits to pruning suckers on small varieties in my garden, only fewer tomatoes overall. (Also, determinate tomatoes aren’t trying to make a bunch of main branches, so there’s not much benefit to chopping things off – the above relates to indeterminates that keep sprawling.)
I live in a humid climate and didn’t prune at all last year, only removed leaves that were in the dirt and would rot anyway. I still had more tomatoes than I could use, I was feeding them to the chickens. No diseases. Airflow has as much to do with where your garden is as it does with number of leaves. Always be sure you have a problem before you try to solve it.
Happy gardening OP! I love your positive attitude in the comments.
uglyandscared
We have issues of blight and other fungal issues in the community garden where my plot is. To avoid infection, I prune almost as much as you did here. Tomatoes bounce back so well. Indeterminate ones at least.
baconball
Damn! That is unfortunately way more pruning than would ever be needed, but mistakes happen and there’s no teacher like experience.
Luckily tomato plants in particular are pretty hardy and can usually bounce back, but this one may likely not do much at this point, at least for a while. Some good organic feeding will certainly help it!
I typically prune the yellowing, older leaves off from around the bottom, and if it gets too bushy elsewhere I might trim some foliage back to promote airflow which can help prevent disease. I will also prune the top if it’s getting hard to manage or too big for its own good.
nyjets10
my dude what on earth is happening….you know the plant needs leaves to photosynthesize right?
muchandquick
Gave that plant a Brazilian wax
MyNameIsNotRyn
You can’t get leaf fungus if you got no leaves 😏
whatsinthecave
I know these are potted, but tomato plants directly in the ground when bought as starts, can also be planted almost completely underground. If you have a long leggy start, you can plant it down until only the very tip top. Maybe 3-4 inch, is left sticking out of the ground. It gives the tomato a nice long leg up, it creates a strong root base. And helps the tomato self water better.
Headstanding_Penguin
I have had a tomato seedling completely eaten by snails but it was still a green stem left (all leaves gone) I left it and now after a week of sun, it’s showing the first tiny leaf again… Tomatoes are vigorus, it might put a bit more enwrgy into growing than fruit for a moment, but it will likely bounce back
reverieofearthwormz
I would prune below so the leaves don’t get soggy and leave a few more leaves at the top including the mainstem (obv). Pruning a lot does help the plant focus more on fruit production but the plant also does need to photosynthesize through the leaves so it’s important to leave enough leaves to do that, and also to provide some shade from hot summer sun.
NerdizardGo
I’m wondering if this would be worth planting significantly deeper in a much taller pot after harvesting the tomatoes on the bottom. Might as well get a bunch more roots out of this brutal pruning.
high6ix
I grow determinate every year and just leave them alone. Let the plants do their thing. I trim only what’s laying on the ground or really close to it and remove any crowded or obviously not too good looking stems but that’s it. Gardening with all of its ins and outs and frustrations is still an enjoyable hobby and worrying about every little sucker or stem is not something I’m going to be concerned about. Plus if it’s determinate especially…let it live its best short life while it can. Let it grow…let it groooow
Arsnicthegreat
Looks at it this way, mature leaves are a carbohydrate net source i.e. they provide far more photosynthates/resources than they require to maintain. New foliage, flowers, and fruit are all net sinks i.e. require more sugars than they provide to the plant. You need a certain amount of mature sources to maintain a good amount of sink growth, or things stall out. Really only prune off the lower leaves that touch the ground to avoid easy fungus infection, and then thin out suckers on indeterminate plants as needed to prevent a huge tangle of competing branches; a lot of folks try to maintain 2 primary leaders, but i find i get fine results if a few more slip past me when things stsrt really getting underway. With determinates, just prune any low leaves touching the soil and don’t touch anything else. You want as many mature leaves and branches as you can get to maximize your yield.
Competitive-Read242
i appreciate all the helpful information yall, this is indeterminate and truthfully i can’t tell yall why i thought pruning that much would be good. a lot of info i’ve researched on here for husky cherry tomatoes came with a lot of contradicting information and frankly, seems much more difficult than yall make it sound! i assumed this plant was supposed to grow up and not out, so i pruned it thinking it would help the plant grow upwards and produce more fruit as it’s indeterminate
whatyouarereferring
Don’t actually worry the people saying this is *bad* are just as big plant gurus as the guys saying to prune this way
It’ll recover in like a week tomatoes don’t give two shits if you prune them hard
Unable-Ring9835
Leaves provide the plant the ability to soak up the sun and protect the stem and fruits fron the sun.
You can prune off suckers but the main branches are usually kept unless they’re touching the ground or are very close to the ground .
I tend to prune about 75 percent of suckers and leave the rest to grow so the plant doesn’t just produce what it has and fizzle out early in the growing season.
cannadaddydoo
I never understand why people want to remove all the leaves from their plants. It would be like removing your engine from your car and wondering why you can’t drive. It’s how the plant gets its energy and powers its metabolic processes.
37 Comments
I probably wouldn’t have done it. Prune the bottom 10 inches or so otherwise you pruned a lot of greenery that is going to help produce those fruits. It needs to capture light someway.
This is one of the biggest misconceptions I see online… it’s not your fault, there’s so many self-described plant gurus that advocate for this. Pruning this severely is only recommended at the END of a season. Otherwise, just take off the leaves and shoots under where tomatoes are growing.
Yes.
As a general rule, start by just taking away the leafs below the lowest fruit. And from there, just when they start looking off (older, yellowing, etc). This is a ‘tad’ too much…
ok guys let’s all point and laugh at me for a second
i clearly forgot everything i learned in HS biology 😂😂
At that point just prune it at the base
/s
Plants need leaves to photosynthesize and to protect the fruit from the sun. I just trim the lowest leaves (the ones that touch the ground) and call it good. I live in humid Alabama and have no problems with airflow as long as I don’t plant them too close together and my tomatoes produce outrageous amounts of fruit. Last year I literally had so many tomatoes that I actually had to start giving away tomato sauce.
Your plant will probably be okay but don’t prune it anymore, tomatoes are resilient. Recommend leaving it alone.
Yeah, terrible choice.
What’s happening with this laundry basket planter?
She nakey
It looks like a fluffy cat that got shaved down and just has fluff around its face. I hope your plant recovers and you get tomatoes!
They’ll be fine! Tomatoes are one of the most stubborn plants. But you’re right- little overkill on the pruning hehe. I think as a general rule about the bottom third of leaves should be pruned off.
In my experience the most important thing for tomato pruning (aside from removing the lowest leaves, but this is moreso to reduce the risk of disease) is removing ALL the suckers. That will do what you were wanting with removing the leaves- signal to the plant to direct its energy into growing the main stalk.
https://preview.redd.it/2z2fusqozo6f1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c70b6ed1022eef1461db8c61f4eadb315a1b9fb4
I circled in blue the suckers I’m talking about. Tomatoes want to bush out but don’t let ‘em! These will be fine to leave, but don’t let any more suckers grow- just snap them off. Then about above the red line is where I would stop pruning lower leaves off.
It looks like it got enough shock from the pruning to bolt and flower/set fruit prematurely(this means it thinking it’s dying so it’s trying to make babies as fast as possible), I try to keep it to lower than 10 percent of foliage, when trimming, at a time to ease shock and then give it at least a week between trims to collect itself… side note nice blackberry bush
I don’t understand why anyone would prune almost the entire plant anyway at that point, the plant must be diseased so it’s time to pull out of the ground entirely
Shame!
You’re supposed to prune suckers not sun leaves, there’s a big difference between the two 😭
We only prune dying branches or ones touching the dirt. We end up with more fruit than we can eat every time. What would the benefit of pruning all the leaves possibly be??
Oh dear. It maybe wasn’t the best idea… but your plant should bounce back. Just maybe don’t do that much again
You prune up to the first fruit, then stop lol.
earnest question, why would you assume that? How do you think a plant gets energy to produce fruit?
I heard if you cut the plant in half and shoot at it with a bb gun itll REALLY get the message to focus on making a fruit and stop f*ing around
I love your enthusiasm! I recommend looking at a land grant college tutorial with good diagrams, like this –
https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/tomato-pruning/
Leaves are solar panels for the plant. Imagine you have every appliance in your house running and using electricity – you don’t improve the situation by tearing solar panels off your roof, right?
You might avoid a brownout by considering unplugging a giant appliance you might not really need (a sucker that could create an additional main stem). But – it might not be that big of an issue.
A plant doesn’t care about feeding you, it cares about making as many seeds as possible. It has no objection to making a ton of small fruits. The advice about pruning suckers is about making sure the plant doesn’t create so many additional main branches the fruits are small overall (like a brownout – so many drains on energy supply, everyone gets a bit less). But this advice is mainly because people tend to like big ripe sweet fruits. This matters if, say, you want a few beautiful BIG slicer tomatoes.
If you are growing small tomatoes to begin with, additional main stems may not be big of a deal, especially if you feed your plants well. Gasp 😅 I haven’t seen major benefits to pruning suckers on small varieties in my garden, only fewer tomatoes overall. (Also, determinate tomatoes aren’t trying to make a bunch of main branches, so there’s not much benefit to chopping things off – the above relates to indeterminates that keep sprawling.)
I live in a humid climate and didn’t prune at all last year, only removed leaves that were in the dirt and would rot anyway. I still had more tomatoes than I could use, I was feeding them to the chickens. No diseases. Airflow has as much to do with where your garden is as it does with number of leaves. Always be sure you have a problem before you try to solve it.
Happy gardening OP! I love your positive attitude in the comments.
We have issues of blight and other fungal issues in the community garden where my plot is. To avoid infection, I prune almost as much as you did here. Tomatoes bounce back so well. Indeterminate ones at least.
Damn! That is unfortunately way more pruning than would ever be needed, but mistakes happen and there’s no teacher like experience.
Luckily tomato plants in particular are pretty hardy and can usually bounce back, but this one may likely not do much at this point, at least for a while. Some good organic feeding will certainly help it!
I typically prune the yellowing, older leaves off from around the bottom, and if it gets too bushy elsewhere I might trim some foliage back to promote airflow which can help prevent disease. I will also prune the top if it’s getting hard to manage or too big for its own good.
my dude what on earth is happening….you know the plant needs leaves to photosynthesize right?
Gave that plant a Brazilian wax
You can’t get leaf fungus if you got no leaves
😏
I know these are potted, but tomato plants directly in the ground when bought as starts, can also be planted almost completely underground. If you have a long leggy start, you can plant it down until only the very tip top. Maybe 3-4 inch, is left sticking out of the ground. It gives the tomato a nice long leg up, it creates a strong root base. And helps the tomato self water better.
I have had a tomato seedling completely eaten by snails but it was still a green stem left (all leaves gone) I left it and now after a week of sun, it’s showing the first tiny leaf again… Tomatoes are vigorus, it might put a bit more enwrgy into growing than fruit for a moment, but it will likely bounce back
I would prune below so the leaves don’t get soggy and leave a few more leaves at the top including the mainstem (obv). Pruning a lot does help the plant focus more on fruit production but the plant also does need to photosynthesize through the leaves so it’s important to leave enough leaves to do that, and also to provide some shade from hot summer sun.
I’m wondering if this would be worth planting significantly deeper in a much taller pot after harvesting the tomatoes on the bottom. Might as well get a bunch more roots out of this brutal pruning.
I grow determinate every year and just leave them alone. Let the plants do their thing. I trim only what’s laying on the ground or really close to it and remove any crowded or obviously not too good looking stems but that’s it. Gardening with all of its ins and outs and frustrations is still an enjoyable hobby and worrying about every little sucker or stem is not something I’m going to be concerned about. Plus if it’s determinate especially…let it live its best short life while it can. Let it grow…let it groooow
Looks at it this way, mature leaves are a carbohydrate net source i.e. they provide far more photosynthates/resources than they require to maintain. New foliage, flowers, and fruit are all net sinks i.e. require more sugars than they provide to the plant. You need a certain amount of mature sources to maintain a good amount of sink growth, or things stall out.
Really only prune off the lower leaves that touch the ground to avoid easy fungus infection, and then thin out suckers on indeterminate plants as needed to prevent a huge tangle of competing branches; a lot of folks try to maintain 2 primary leaders, but i find i get fine results if a few more slip past me when things stsrt really getting underway.
With determinates, just prune any low leaves touching the soil and don’t touch anything else. You want as many mature leaves and branches as you can get to maximize your yield.
i appreciate all the helpful information yall, this is indeterminate and truthfully i can’t tell yall why i thought pruning that much would be good. a lot of info i’ve researched on here for husky cherry tomatoes came with a lot of contradicting information and frankly, seems much more difficult than yall make it sound! i assumed this plant was supposed to grow up and not out, so i pruned it thinking it would help the plant grow upwards and produce more fruit as it’s indeterminate
Don’t actually worry the people saying this is *bad* are just as big plant gurus as the guys saying to prune this way
It’ll recover in like a week tomatoes don’t give two shits if you prune them hard
Leaves provide the plant the ability to soak up the sun and protect the stem and fruits fron the sun.
You can prune off suckers but the main branches are usually kept unless they’re touching the ground or are very close to the ground .
I tend to prune about 75 percent of suckers and leave the rest to grow so the plant doesn’t just produce what it has and fizzle out early in the growing season.
I never understand why people want to remove all the leaves from their plants. It would be like removing your engine from your car and wondering why you can’t drive. It’s how the plant gets its energy and powers its metabolic processes.