November 21, 2024

VIDEO: To Prune or NOT to Prune Tomato Plants?


Should tomato plants be pruned or not? I answer this question about pruning tomatoes and more!

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Self Sufficient Me is based on our small 3-acre property/homestead in SE Queensland Australia about 45kms north of Brisbane – the climate is subtropical (similar to Florida). I started Self Sufficient Me in 2011 as a blog website project where I document and write about backyard food growing, self-sufficiency, and urban farming in general. I love sharing my foodie and DIY adventures online so come along with me and let’s get into it! Cheers, Mark 🙂

28 thoughts on “VIDEO: To Prune or NOT to Prune Tomato Plants?

  1. I found your video really clear and easy to understand and I will put all your tips into action tomorrow. Thank you for this! You have a great way of explaining things. All the best from Suffolk UK.

  2. Hi there, I was wondering if you could tell me the name of the small root stock tomato is that you showed at the end of this video. I would like to grow some. My daughter had a similar bush, and it had heaps of fruit, but I didn't manage to get some seeds from it. Cheers.

  3. Guess I'm a beginning gone and I've been following you for a while thanks for all the great tips keep up the good work I'm in Kentucky I'm making videos also thank you for everything

  4. Has anyone used the Mobotallor Secrets to grow taller fast naturally? Simply just do a google search. On there you will discover a great suggestions about how exactly you can grow taller fast naturally. Why not give it a shot? maybe it will work for you too.

  5. Once you picked all tomato's off one branch, should you cut that off or leave it there? Will new ones grow to replace the old or do you need to get rid of the whole thing in order to get more tomato's?

  6. Very interesting! It has been a hot humid summer in our area. My tomato plants are indeterminate. They are about 6 ft high and loaded with tomatoes. I only prune the suckers off, and the bottom leaves. If I were to try get a bigger yield I don't think the plants could hold up!!

  7. I used the same strategy, and had great success. I chose to grow indeterminate plants like Better Boy and Super beef steak Hybrid. I could plant 3 each and get 15 to18 bushels a year, that I cooked down to about 120 quarts. My plants got to 8 to 9 feet tall every year and I had so many tomatoes I would give them away. My season was shorter in Wisconsin, but if you do things right, you WILL get way more than you can handle. So many people plant dozens of plants and can't get anywhere near what I used to get. You don't need that much space, just good prep work in the soil and good planning for the growth! You can kill the weeds with black plastic in early spring, just cover your garden with it. It absorbs heat from the sun, which encourages growth, and at night the cold kills it off. Do this early in April and repeat til the end of May. Then til your ground every other week to keep killing competition off. Then add 20/10/10 fertilizer to the soil,(or if organic, then try chicken waste, horse waste). I'd stay away from cow waste because they eat everything, so you will get lots of weeds in your fertilizer. When planting time comes, I always set my soaker hoses just where I needed, then covered in black plastic , with holes for water drainage. Stake down that plastic, then its time to plant. Pick your spots not far from the hoses, cut the plastic and remove a large coffee can full of dirt. Replace with PEET moss, and mix in the dirt into the hole, then plant your plants! If you do this one step, you will avoid split tomatoes, and increase your yield by 10% if not more. This creates a consistent water supply that stops splitting of skin. This will save you over half your crop how ever you grow it, With GMO fertilizers or with organic! I used to use Concrete wire for tomato cages, It's 5 feet wide, comes in 50 to 100 foot rolls, and if you cut it on the 5 foot end 1 foot into the mesh, roll it up in 7 foot lengths, you get a 3.5 foot diameter cage that will withstand most all wind storms, (Not all). Plus you can reach through the 6 inch square holes and get almost every tomato from inside the cage. Use copper sulfate to protect against blytes, The lime in the soil helps with Blossom end rot( but egg shells will do the same if you raise chickens), and if you use miracle grow with all of these, I guarantee you the month of August will be a cross between heaven and Hell!

  8. Thanks Mark! I’m growing my first veggie patch because of your videos 🙂 I’ve grown tommy toe tomatoes and am about to go and prune the small suckers off.

  9. Great vid mark always love watching and learning from you I just staked a egg cherry tomato from organic tomato seeds from woolies Out of the tomato itself I used the your method I learnt from one of your vids of Leaving the seeds in water before planting I have already harvested a few cherry tomatoes and plan on crossing it with a bigger rounder variety of cherry tomato just to be a bit of a mad scientist in the garden and get some freak genetics

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