Pruning Tomato Plants

Pruning Tomato Plants
By Chris Downs

Pruning tomato plants is not widely promoted. Most people think you throw the seeds in the ground, and they grow. This article is going to show you how it produces growth, why you want to prune your growing plant and then share with you the difference between those that need little pruning and those that need more. You will gain the ability to choose which plants to grow, why you want to prune, and how growing tomato plants thrive to produce more fruit.

Your plant uses the Suns solar power to convert nutrients from the soil and water to produce sugar. The first month of its life, all of the sugar is used to grow more leaves. Tomato plants will grow very quickly, and will double their size about every two weeks. Eventually, the plants will make more sugar than the single growing tip of the plant can use. This will tell the plant to make more branches and start to flower. After the plant is approximately 18 inches tall, the plant will start producing fruit as well as more side branches. Without pruning an indeterminate tomato plant will continue to grow to a mangle of branches and grow wide rather than tall. The sun will not reach all of the leaves and healthy production will stop.

Why you want to prune your growing plant

By pruning, you encourage the stronger stems and thus the nutrients and attention go to the best producing stem of the plant. By pruning suckers (Side shoots generated at the base of the plant) you will maximize efficiency and minimize risk of disease of your plants. As the tomatoes grow, they will become heavy and can not only break the stems that they are growing, but they can also pull the branches to the ground and promote disease. So by pruning and supporting your indeterminate tomato plant, you will have increased fruit that will last for an entire season.

There are two types of plants

Determinate plants grow to a fixed mature size and ripen all their fruit in a short period of time. After the initial crop of tomatoes has ripened, the plant will not produce much more fruit, if any. Some of the determinate plants, also called tomato bushes, do not continue to grow in size during the growing season. They produce generally small type of tomatoes like Roma tomatoes.

Indeterminate tomatoes produce tomatoes all season long, unlike determinate tomato plants. But as I shared earlier, they tend to take a lot of space and require pruning and staking throughout the summer. They mature later than "bush tomato plants, but you can harvest from your tomato plant until frost arrives.

Growing tomatoes is an enjoyable and "Fruitful" past time and hobby. Pun intended. But now you have learned how the tomato plant grows, what the difference is between determinate and indeterminate is, as well as why pruning the indeterminate tomato plant is essential.

You can now choose which system that you want, and grow healthy, delicious tomatoes for you and your family!

Learn more about aquaculture and organic farming by visiting us at http://hisfarm.org. Also if you want to make more you money with organic farming you can click here pick up our free e-book "4 Ways To Increase Your Organic Farming Profits To Pay For Dream Home"

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Downs
http://EzineArticles.com/?Pruning-Tomato-Plants&id=7338257