Learning to Prune -- At Last!

Four years ago, we grew the Godzilla of tomato vines. We couldn’t stake it up high enough or fast enough to keep up with its growth.

It was a productive plant and produced fabulous tomatoes. But its branches were so thick we could barely reach in to grab the ripe ones without destroying the green ones. And we won’t even discuss the ones that were out reach inside the dark maw of this behemoth.

I swore after trying to tame that plant, I would learn to prune. And now, nearly two months after planting our pony packs of cherry and Roma tomatoes, we’ve done it! We’ve pruned!

Probably not enough and probably too late, but at long last I think I understand what needs to be removed: the suckers, the sprouting leaves that grow in the crotches (axils, if you want to be technical) between the leaves and the main stem.

I started pinching and clipping unsure if I was getting a sucker, a branch or a flower bud. But the more hands on time I spent with the plant, the clearer the suckers were to me. Eventually, I realized that even if I was clipping off flowers and buds, we had so many on the vine that it didn’t matter if I made mistakes.

I suspect our worst pruning mistakes were made weeks ago. We thought our cherry tomato plants would be small and bush like — determinate tomatoes. This type of tomato only needs to have the suckers removed below the first flower cluster. Pruning anything more than that won’t improve fruit size or plant vigor.

Our cherry tomato plants are clearly indeterminate. They have multiple stems and they are growing into tall octopi. Karen has done a great job of tying them upright to bamboo stakes. She’s also gone in a cut away branches so that more sunlight can get in. Right now the plants are producing and look extremely healthy.

The Romas are getting fat and colorful. They are much more civilized plants; not so tall and not so wild.

Gardening takes a lot of faith: faith you're doing the work "right enough" and faith that a plant will produce despite the mistakes you make. Time will tell what our pruning has wrought. More later.

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