TOMATOES – PINCHING BLOSSOMS AND/OR PRUNING PLANTS? (2024)

FAQs

Should you pinch flowers off tomato plants? ›

There may be minor benefits to removing some percentage of early flowers from your indeterminate tomato plants, but choosing not to pinch will not harm your tomatoes!

In warmer zones, experts often recommend “Missouri pruning,” where the leaflets on the end of each sucker are pinched off, leaving the two base leaflets in place. As these leaves enlarge, they help shade fruit and protect it from sunscald. The practice of pinching back suckers allows only one or two main stems to grow.

Pinching out your tomatoes is an essential part of tomato plant care. The reason for this is the tomato plant is a naturally bushy plant, and if you let it grow as it wants to, it will put all of its focus into growing foliage at the expense of fruit.

Avoid pruning tomato determinate varieties or pinch back only suckers that appear below the first flower cluster, or you will reduce your yield.

Remove all leafy suckers beneath the first fruit cluster so they won't slow the development of the fruit. Suckers are the little shoots that form in the spot (called an axil) where the leaf stem attaches to the main growing stem. In northern regions, many gardeners go further, removing all suckers as they appear.

Removing the side-shoots is simple – every time you water, check the plant for any shoots sprouting just above each leaf, from the joint between the leaf and the stem. Pinch these out or snap them off.

The advantage in removing the lower leaves is that the plants energies go into producing fruit rather than a lot of foliage. Also the lower leaves tend to get powdery mildew so it is good to remove them to stop disease spreading.

Removing some of the leaves will help the sun reach the tomatoes, and they will ripen faster. The plant will focus more energy on growing the tomatoes if you remove some of the leaves too. I remove all of the leaves up to the first tomato bunch on the main stem.

Usually, indeterminate tomatoes grow best with one or two low side shoots; so, remove all side shoots above this. The lower shoots help make the plant more stable and is where they bear fruit.

After the plant is 12 to 18 inches tall, allow the first set of blossoms to grow.

How to keep tomato plants short and bushy? ›

Remove the Suckers

The tomato suckers are found in the “armpits” of the plant which is where the main stalk (or stem) and the leaf stems (or branches) meet. Locate the suckers and trim them off. If you do not prune the tomato plant, it will get very bushy with lots of big strong stalks that bear lots of flowers.

You only need to worry about pruning if you're growing a vining type, aka an indeterminate tomato. Bush tomatoes, or determinate tomatoes, are basically self-pruning because they're meant to only grow to a certain size and then stop.

Yes, it hurts, but for many leafy herbs, flowers and a few vegetables, pinching is essential to grow good crops. A form of pruning done on tender young stems, pinching resets the maturation process by forcing the plants to resume leafy growth.

A: If your tomatoes are 6-10 inches tall and have blooms forming, they should be repotted into 1-gallon containers. The early 80-degree heat may have encouraged your tomatoes to grow a bit faster. When you repot them, remove the lower leaves and plant them to just below the lowest remaining leaves.

To prevent tomato blossom drop, ensure plants are healthy with lush green leaves, provide adequate humidity levels, avoid extreme temperatures (both high and low), and encourage pollination by planting in full sun and attracting beneficial insects like bees.

Determinate tomatoes need no pruning other than removing all suckers below the first flower cluster because pruning won't affect their fruit size or plant vigor. If you do any pruning at all above the first flower cluster on determinate tomatoes, you'll only be throwing away potential fruit.