Why Cutting The Top Off Your Tomato Plants Is The Best Hack

If you've got a bunch of beautiful young tomato plants, the last thing you probably want to do is cut them back, but it will get you more fruit in the long run. According to Tiffany Selvey, House Digest's Garden Editor and in-house Master Gardener, "Some varieties benefit from being pruned into a two leader system, which makes the plant easier to trellis and promotes better airflow for a healthier plant." Before you cut back the plant, however, be sure you have an indeterminate variety of tomato, which keeps growing as long as the season allows. Determinate and other types are bushes and will not benefit from this method. 

To prune your tomatoes to grow with two leaders, instead of a single stem, look for the first flower cluster. It will be growing on the main stem, which you want to keep. Then look for the first sucker below the flower cluster. This will be your second leader. Cut away any suckers below that point, or any that are forming on your two leaders. This is one of the handiest hacks for growing tomatoes, but maintaining this double-leader system throughout the season is important to yielding the best results. If you stay on top of the two leaders by pruning and training them, your plant will focus less on producing foliage and more on fruit.

Pruning is as much art as it is science, and the goal is usually to promote fruit over foliage. But there are also many ways to support your tomato plants, and that typically will play a part in how you prune them. For indeterminate tomatoes, Tiffany Selvey recommends a sturdy trellising system. "Some indeterminate tomatoes can grow vines up to 20 feet long in one season, so be prepared to provide support and occasional pruning to keep your plants managed." You will want to prune your plants and remove suckers so they don't get too big or heavy for your support system and bring it all crashing down. Additionally, consider air flow. To do this, trim the lower leaves. Keep the leaf immediately below the lowest fruit cluster and anything above it. 

As we mentioned, indeterminate varieties will grow as long as the weather allows; however, about six weeks before your first frost date in the fall, you may want to top your tomato plants. Find the growing leader on each vine, and pinch it back, just like you did early in the season. This will signal to the plant that it should put more of its energy into making sure the existing fruit matures. For gardeners with a short growing season, this is exceptionally helpful. To get the best harvest, avoid these crucial mistakes when pruning your tomatoes.