One of my neighbors asked me if she should prune her tomatoes since a gardener friend of hers told her to. If you have indeterminate tomato plants, then the answer is yes. In case you’re not familiar with determinate vs. indeterminate plants, determinate means the plant grows to a predetermined size for that particular plant variety, bears fruit and then grows no more. Whereas indeterminate means the plant will continue to grow and bear fruit until frost.
One main reason your tomato plants should be pruned is to allow adequate air flow around and throughout the plant, which inhibits the development of some common diseases. A second reason you would consider pruning is to minimize the amount of wasted energy the plant spends on non-fruiting branches and maximize the plant’s resources to the branches that are producing fruit. This will result in healthier branches that will produce bigger tomatoes. So now that we’ve answered the question on whether you should, let’s find out when and how?
