Tomatoes are one of the most rewarding plants you can grow in your garden, producing delicious fruit if you provide the correct care and attention. Getting your tomato plant to produce a ripe, red harvest year after year can be tricky, however, one gardening expert says you can “trick” it into producing fruit.
James Prigioni, known for his YouTube channel The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni, has been cultivating tomatoes for over 12 years. During this time, he has devised several unique methods to encourage tomato plants to concentrate on producing an abundance of fruit that ripens early, grows large, and continues to yield late into the season. The gardening expert believes that when it comes to tomato plants, having excess leaves and tops can be majorly detrimental.
“We’ll show you how to trick tomatoes into producing more fruit and less leaves,” he said.
“We have been growing tomatoes for 12 years now, and throughout that time we have developed ways of forcing our tomato plants to focus their attention on production of lots of fruit that ripen early, grow huge and continue to produce late in the season.”
He suggests tips such as tying and pruning tomato plants to grow vertically. Following James’ advocated pruning technique can make tomato plants less susceptible to diseases due to improved air circulation and light penetration. This also results in a more balanced distribution of leaves, fruits, and roots, leading to healthier, more productive plants.
James recommends removing and snapping off young suckers from the main stem of a tomato plant. A tomato plant with only one top will experience significantly less stress, leading to improved fruit production.
This approach also allows the fruit to ripen two weeks earlier as the entire root system supports that single top. The plant can then concentrate all its energy on producing and ripening those tomatoes, resulting in less stress and a healthier plant compared to an unpruned tomato plant allowed to grow multiple tops.
If all the tops are permitted to mature, it places additional stress on the plant as they are all supported by a single root system. Furthermore, the tomatoes will ripen much slower due to the strain on the plant’s singular root system.
Allowing a tomato plant to sprawl without pruning the suckers will cause the plant to shoot tops out from everywhere, resulting in an overworked root system.
For the more experienced gardeners, James has crafted a slightly more intricate pruning routine. This begins with using a 70% isopropyl alcohol solution sprayed on pruners for cleaning them when moving from one plant to another, as it’s crucial not to let the plants share any diseases.
For instance, if one tomato plant in your garden has a disease issue, you wouldn’t want to pass that onto the next one, which can be prevented by spraying the pruners with the isopropyl alcohol solution. James also recommends using two types of pruners – large and small – depending on the type of cut a plant requires.
The subsequent step in James’ advanced pruning routine involves removing the lower leaves of the plant (applicable to both indeterminate and determinate bushy varieties).
The leaves that are low and near the ground may contract some disease issues from the soil when they come into contact with it, which can then spread upwards to the rest of the tomato plant. Pruning the lower leaves also aids in enhancing the airflow.
Additionally, allowing some larger suckers to grow until they flower – and then eliminating all the smaller ones from that stem – will trick your tomato plant and boost its overall harvest as it will prompt the plant to produce more fruit.