Tomato plant care - Ask Extension
Should the tomato plant be pruned and if so when?
Knowledgebase
Tomato plant care #869079
Asked May 19, 2024, 8:46 AM EDT
Should the tomato plant be pruned and if so when?
Anne Arundel County Maryland
Expert Response
Here is our page on Growing Tomatoes in the Home Garden:
https://extension.umd.edu/resource/growing-tomatoes-home-garden/
It recommends pinching out some suckers, which are
shoots that arise from axils (the angle where a plant stem and leaf branch meet). These shoots will eventually produce flowers and fruit. However, moderate pruning will increase fruit size, hasten ripening, and keep your plants more manageable.
Prune staked tomatoes to one to three main stems (plant spacing can be reduced in these situations). Remove all other suckers weekly. It is especially important to remove suckers that emerge from the plant base. Pinch shoots off with your fingers.
Now and through the season as needed is fine.
Christine
https://extension.umd.edu/resource/growing-tomatoes-home-garden/
It recommends pinching out some suckers, which are
shoots that arise from axils (the angle where a plant stem and leaf branch meet). These shoots will eventually produce flowers and fruit. However, moderate pruning will increase fruit size, hasten ripening, and keep your plants more manageable.
Prune staked tomatoes to one to three main stems (plant spacing can be reduced in these situations). Remove all other suckers weekly. It is especially important to remove suckers that emerge from the plant base. Pinch shoots off with your fingers.
Now and through the season as needed is fine.
Christine
Is additional fertilization tequired?
My tomato plants have been in my soil since late April. They are planted on half 55 gallon drums. They were planted with a couple bags of top soil with a bag of “Black Cow” additive and topped off with “Pro Mic”.
My question is with this preparation is additional fertilization required and if so when.
Plants are about seven feet tall and has fruit showing
Tomatoes benefit from regular fertilization, whether in containers (which tend to lose nutrients a bit faster, due to more frequent watering) or in the ground. How often to fertilize again will depend on what was used earlier in the season; different fertilizer formulations will last for different amounts of time. Liquid-applied versions, for example, act more quickly but don't last very long, and dry-applied (granular) versions will generally do the opposite. The package or product label should say how often a dose should last ("feeds for three months," as an example). Our Maintaining Container-Grown Vegetables and Fertilizing Vegetables pages includes recommendations for fertilization that covers the basics, in addition to the page Christine linked to previously about growing tomatoes in general. Tomatoes like a consistent supply of nitrogen [N], so that is one nutrient to focus on when choosing the N-P-K of the fertilizer to use.
Miri
Miri
