Pruning Tomato Plants

[ChanellG]

My mom does this! She threw seeds in her garden area and just let them do what they do. Her tomato plants came back year after year without having to do anything with them and she had more tomatoes than I can count. They are cherry tomatoes, and she bagged them and freeze whatever she didn't use to make sauce later.

They are probably an indeterminate variety. Also, cherry tomatoes automatically are going to produce more fruit than say a beefstake or a creole. It's almost comparing apples and oranges as the different types of tomato plants perform differently based on the variety and the characteristics of that variety.

 

[Durgan]

I never got the concept of removing suckers. How much energy do they really rob from the plant? Could you imagine a whole farm field of tomatoes, and some poor sap out there plucking suckers all day long!

Suckers can make support an issue. I support using overhead strings and seldom remove suckers unless they are crowding the fruit excessively. I don't think any energy is lost by leaving the suckers in place. Support insures that no fruit touches the ground. I usually grow only indeterminate. Suckers supply shade for the fruit, also growth for converting Sun energy.
http://www.durgan.org/URL/?KTFZR 17 July 2014 Tomato Plant Supports

 

[Pat]

I have never pruned my totmato plants, I support them with a cage and let them grow. I do remove the fruit as it becomes ripe. I may try to cut back a plant to see how much better it will grow or not grow at all.

 

[ChanellG]

I have never pruned my totmato plants, I support them with a cage and let them grow. I do remove the fruit as it becomes ripe. I may try to cut back a plant to see how much better it will grow or not grow at all.

Don't do it, Pat! As discussed above, only indeterminate tomatoes should be pruned. If you have the kind of vines that just keep going and threaten to take over the yard, then sure, go ahead and prune periodically, but chances are that's not what you have since you haven't been trimming them. Also, remember there's a difference in pinching the tips so the plants bush out more.

 

[ChanellG]

When I first became interested in growing tomatoes, a friend told me to be sure to prune the plant to have the best results...

So which is the best method?

I just saw an article online that I think is the answer to all of your questions. It discusses just how, why, and when to prune tomato plants, and gives very good reasons for doing so:

http://www.harvesttotable.com/2009/04/how_to_prune_a_tomato/