How to trim tomatoes in open ground with your own hands: instructions, diagrams, best techniques

Types of tomatoes

Indeterminate are tall plants (vines), reaching up to 1.5-2 meters in height.
Determinate ones are medium-sized.
Superdeterminate bushes are classified into a group of low-growing but strong bushes.

Each type has its own method of properly trimming tomatoes.

Reasons for pruning tomatoes

Lighting. The bushes need bright sunlight. If there is a shortage of it, the bushes will reach towards the sun, which will result in little or no harvest. Also, if the bush does not receive enough light, the fruits will be small and tasteless, and may even rot.
Diseases. Various diseases that affect both the vegetative parts of plants and the fruits are more likely to spread in dark conditions than in sunlight.
Fruit quality. A large number of unnecessary stepsons and foliage will lead to the fact that all strength, nutrition and energy will be directed to the growth of shoots, and not to the ripening of the fruits themselves.
Trimming tools

The reasons considered indicate that tomatoes need to be trimmed, so you should pay attention to what tools you can use to do this.

There are three main tools:

large scissors are used to trim young seedlings;
Garden pruning shears are the most convenient tool to use. The tool has a spring that allows you to easily move the blade to the sides;
an ordinary knife - for breaking unnecessary stems through the blade.

After finishing work, it is important to remember to disinfect tools. Solutions suitable for this include: furatsilin, potassium permanganate and hydrogen peroxide.

How to prune tomatoes in a greenhouse?

At home, gardeners often build greenhouses or greenhouses for growing seedlings. However, not everyone can afford to make a large structure, so they plant the sprouts too closely, as a result of which the leaves grow and the tomatoes begin to interfere with each other’s proper development. To avoid the death of sprouts, it is necessary to trim tomato leaves in a timely manner, even in closed ground.

Reasons for trimming tomato leaves may be the following:

Increased lighting. In order for all the stems to grow dense and strong, the sprouts need plenty of sunlight. Therefore, if there is a large accumulation of seedlings in the greenhouse, a shadow will be created.
Prevention of diseases such as late blight. The plant becomes diseased from below, starting with the lower leaves that touch the ground. If a healthy tomato comes into contact with an infected plant (touches the leaves), it will also get sick.
Bush formation. Depending on the tomato variety (indeterminate and determinate), it is necessary to give the plant a certain shape in order to ensure favorable growth and fertility. A video on how to properly form tomato bushes can be seen below.

The procedure for pruning tomatoes must be performed only with sharp and clean (preferably sterile) tools, such as pruning shears, garden shears, etc. After cutting the infected leaf, the scissors must be processed and cleaned before continuing to cut off other shoots.

Pinching and pinching is done only on a healthy tomato.

Removing stepchildren

Indeterminate varieties of tomatoes (“Vezha”, pear-shaped tomatoes, “ox heart”, etc.) form one trunk, which will stretch in length. To properly form the plant, it is necessary to remove all the stepsons. A healthy tomato should be tall, but not wide. To trim tomato shoots you need:

the first time - two weeks after the seedlings were planted in a greenhouse or greenhouse;
the second and subsequent ones - every week or once every 10 days throughout the flowering season.

Planting tomatoes in a greenhouse occurs in the early stages of shoot growth so that they do not take energy away from the trunk. It is recommended to trim the stepson when it reaches a length of 3, maximum 7 centimeters.

To prevent another stepson from growing at the site of the cut shoot, you need to remove the branch at the very base, leaving a small foam 1-2 centimeters long.

If a summer resident grows tomatoes in one trunk, then it is necessary to trim all the stepsons without exception.

Removing Tomato Leaves

Unlike indeterminate tomato bushes, determinate tomato bushes (“Amelia”, “bil”, “pride of the mountains”, etc.) do not cut off all the stepsons, but only partially remove them, but gardeners need to trim the leaves regularly. First of all, deformed and damaged tomato leaves are removed, as well as those that have wilted or dried out. A tomato in a greenhouse may itself try to shed unnecessary foliage, and the gardener’s task is to help the plant.

In addition to damaged ones, leaves that touch the ground or neighboring tomatoes must be trimmed, as they can cause the spread of diseases between tomatoes. In addition, if other plants grow near the tomatoes, then contact with the leaves can be destructive for the latter, since tomatoes have protective hairs (poisonous).

Pinching the tops of tomatoes

Regardless of where the tomato grows: in a greenhouse, on open ground or in a greenhouse, its top must be pinched. In any conditions, especially favorable ones, the tomato will first of all direct all its forces to stretch upward. To direct the plant’s energy to fruit formation, it is necessary to systematically trim the tops of the bushes using sharp garden shears or pruners.

Both tall and low-growing varieties need to be pinched. There is no need to carry out any special treatment or procedure before starting to cut off the top part of the tomatoes, since the plant calmly tolerates pinching.

If the bush is formed from several stems, then you need to shorten each top, without exception, since only in this case there will be a good harvest. Thanks to pinching, the fruits will significantly increase in size and become more fleshy.

The pinching procedure in a greenhouse can be carried out from April to August. If the growth of tomatoes continues in the fall, then a repetition is possible in the autumn.

Steps in pruning tomatoes

Determine the type of berry being grown.
Recognize the shoot that needs to be removed. You need to select the tiny branches that have just appeared near the stem. They are the ones who will take energy from the main shoots and prevent the bush from bearing fruit.
Be sure to remove all emerging shoots with leaves located below the original inflorescence. This will lead to the strengthening of the plant itself and a greater supply of beneficial vitamins and minerals for the fruit.
It is necessary to leave thick shoots. If the tomato has a thick stem, then it is necessary to pinch off only the tip of the shoot to prevent damage or death of the entire plant.
Remove yellowed leaves. The appearance of yellow leaves is a normal condition for any plant. They need to be cut off constantly to maintain a healthy state.
Trim the tops of the tomatoes. This must be done to achieve maximum growth and retain nutrients.

how to properly pick tomato leaves

Angela

Is it necessary to pick off leaves from tomatoes and how to do it correctly?

Here's what a specialist says on this issue.

“Of course, the leaves of tomatoes need to be plucked, just do it correctly. I grow this vegetable in one stem and periodically cut off its foliage.

You need to know when to pick leaves from tomatoes. The first time I do this is when the fruits on the first cluster begin to set. You cannot remove more than three leaves from a tomato at once - the plants will experience stress.

When the fruits on the second cluster are formed, I tear off the leaves between it and the first cluster. Then between the second and third and so on until there are 4 leaves left at the top of the shoot. With such proper pruning of leaves, the fruits of tomatoes grow faster and are not affected by diseases.

My dacha neighbors ask me when and how to properly pinch tomatoes? Probably all gardeners have heard the recommendation to pinch the top of the main stem of a tomato at the end of the season? So, I haven’t done this for a long time. I once noticed that after pinching the top, almost on the second day, stepsons begin to grow from the axils of the removed leaves. In this case, the main shoot stops developing, and the roots of the plant spend all their energy on restoring the bush. The filling of tomato fruits stops.

Instead of pinching the top of a tomato, I pluck out its young flower clusters, which will not have time to form a harvest by the end of the season. DETAILS: https://www.liveinternet.ru/users/3953262/post163971647/ https://otvet.mail.ru/question/25307325

Ir$S

All that are dry, spotty, and ugly. And those that interfere intersect with each other.

Stages of pruning tomatoes at the roots

Before asking the question: is it possible to prune tomatoes, you need to note that this process begins from the roots.

Picking. Before planting in the ground, you need to remove the plant from the pot, clean its roots from excess soil and cut off a third of them.
When planting tomatoes in the soil, you must again carefully trim the roots, avoiding damage to the entire bush.

Further formation of the trunk

Is it possible to remove other greens from tomatoes? In addition to the lower leaves, those that grow in the middle are also removed - they are useless, since they do not participate in photosynthesis in any way.

By the end of July, many tomatoes have already grown to the ceiling of the greenhouse, so the top can also be cut off. Why must the top also be removed? The main task of this procedure is to stop the formation of the trunk. If this is not done, then many tomatoes simply will not have time to ripen.

In general, leaf trimming is a trick invented to speed up the harvest by 7-14 days. But at the same time, the following must be observed: proper watering and complementary feeding, both in the greenhouse and in the open area.

Pruning stepsons

Stepchildren are side shoots that appear as shoots grow. If the stepsons are properly processed, they can be planted in the soil to produce new plants. But gardeners say that it is necessary to reduce the weight of the plant in order to obtain more useful minerals. It should be remembered that to prevent the death of tomatoes, you must use special tools and not your hands.

Formation of determinate tomatoes

Plants in this group are formed, as a rule, in three ways.

Formation of determinate tomatoes

First method of formation: in 1 stem

Option for open ground. Again the same meaning - the summer is short, cool, the fruits on the side shoots do not have time to ripen, so we remove the stepsons. Only the main stem is left. We do not cut off the top, since the growth of such tomatoes is limited. We don’t remove the fruit clusters, we leave them all – there are never more than 6 of them anyway, and they all have time to ripen.

The second way to form tomatoes: in 3 stems

Varinate is suitable for greenhouses. For mid-late tomato varieties. It is similar to the option for forming super-determinant tomatoes, but with its own nuances. At first everything is the same: the main stem and the 2 lowest stepsons. But the side shoots need to be shortened, leaving 1 flower cluster on each, plus one leaf above it. As a result, we will get 8 tomato inflorescences, instead of 6 (the maximum that one shoot gives) - the greenhouse allows them to ripen. But you shouldn’t leave more fruit clusters of tomatoes - the tomatoes won’t ripen on them anyway.

The third method of forming tomatoes: with the transfer of the growth point to a side shoot

The option is suitable for greenhouses, but for mid-early varieties and hybrids of tomatoes. Its essence is this: we leave the main shoot, one lowest stepson, and then we leave another stepson, but not on the main stem, but on the side one. Why is that? Yes, because the growth of determinate tomatoes is limited - 6 bunches and that’s it. And the characteristics of mid-early varieties allow you to get more yield.

Therefore, we use a trick - the side shoot will give us a couple more tassels (we cut it higher, leaving the leaf above the inflorescence), and the shoot from it will give us two more (we also cut it, like the first). So instead of 6 we have 10.

And here the question may arise: why do we need a second stepson from the first? Is it possible to leave one side shoot - after all, it will also have 6 tassels? And then the total will be 12! But it's not that simple. The third cluster on the stepsons produces low quality fruit. That's why we leave only 2. To get 2 more high-quality inflorescences, you need a stepson from a stepson.

Leaf trimming

It is also worth paying attention to how to trim the leaves of a tomato. It is necessary to trim leaves from mid-June. It is necessary to remove several lower leaves to prevent contact with the soil and the impossibility of transmitting diseases. The main thing to remember is that the ovary should remain under the foliage to protect it from the sun and infections, so you should not remove all the leaves. To ensure the passage of sun and air, it is necessary to remove leaves, starting from the north side of the plants and in the very depths.

WHEN TO PICK LEAVES FROM TOMATOES

Is it necessary to pick off leaves from tomatoes
https://www.fazenda-box.ru/521-nuzhno-li-obryvat-listya-u-tomatov.html

Site visitors often ask whether it is necessary to pick off the leaves of tomatoes? Here is what Galina Chebotareva from Chelyabinsk says about this issue.

“Of course, the leaves of tomatoes need to be plucked, just do it correctly. I grow this vegetable in one stem and periodically cut off its foliage.

Instead of pinching the top of a tomato, I pluck out its young flower clusters, which will not have time to form a harvest by the end of the season.

But you still need to pick off the leaves of tomatoes.”

Reasons for removing leaves

Let's consider several reasons that answer the question: should I trim the leaves of a tomato?

the leaves are located below the flowering racemes;
more foliage is located in the depths of the bush and its northern part;
with their shadow, the leaves prevent the growth and ripening of the fruit;
are a transmitter of infections due to their location below.

What parts of the plant need to be removed?

Foliage that is on the soil is removed first. It can become a carrier of fungal diseases. Thickening shrub foliage is considered to be that which blocks access to sunlight to the ripening crop.

If the foliage does not shade, but is on the tomato, it also needs to be trimmed so that streaks do not form on the tomato shell. Brushed or defective fruits must also be removed from the bush. They will not be able to take part in photosynthesis, and for insect parasites this is an excellent breeding ground.

When the first signs of late blight, which is a widespread disease, appear, the foliage from the infected bush is removed without hesitation, without touching up to twenty-five percent of the greenery, pinching the upper part, and the untied parts of the peduncle are removed.

After these processes, all resulting foliage is removed. It is recommended to burn the foliage in special containers with additional holes at the bottom for ventilation. Infected leaves should not be placed in a common compost pit. This is an excellent place for breeding.

Tip pinching method

To increase the mass of the plant, it is necessary to pinch its top. It is necessary to find the growing point and remove it above the inflorescence (pin the top), making sure to leave 2 leaves.

Note!

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