At Rock Bottom Ranch, we follow these steps to ensure proper tomato pruning:
When plants are less than a foot tall, we remove any flower clusters to help plants maximize foliage and photosynthesis in early growth stages. Once plants are more than a foot tall (12-16 inches), we transition to pruning suckers and leaving new flower clusters for fruit production. At Rock Bottom Ranch, we use two main stem leaders per plant, we do this by designating the main stem and the sucker below the first flower cluster as our leaders. All other suckers above and below the ones chosen as leaders are removed. You can also just have one main stem per plant.
Once all leaders have been established, we remove all suckers at each new growth point weekly. Some suckers develop in odd places, like the end of flower clusters or re-set suckers where we have already removed them. It is important to check thoroughly and remove all suckers when they are small. Once the plant has 18-20 leaf sections, or is 5-6’ tall, we remove the bottom two-three leaf sets and any diseased-looking leaves. This increases airflow, helps mitigate susceptibility to disease, and diverts energy to new growth.
Larger suckers and leaves may need to be cut with clippers rather than popped off by hand. Our general rule of thumb is, if it’s bigger than a pencil, use clippers. Bigger suckers tend to be more difficult to remove and can cause harm to the plant if removed improperly.
Sanitize your hands and pruners between plants to limit the spread of disease. 6-8 weeks before the last expected harvest, we prune the tops of our main leaders to stop foliage growth and divert the plants energy to its remaining fruit production.
