When growing tomato seeds, we think that Pruning young tomato plants is important to help them grow into the most productive tomato plants in the long run.
Here's a video of us pruning a young tomato plant. While it's a simple thing, it's still not easy for us to prune these off emotionally, but it's totally worth it!
Clipping off First Flowers of Tomatoes will help them put more energy into growing bigger! It's hard to do but it is good to do it!
After they grow larger and are ready to be transplanted into the garden, make sure to harden off your seedlings first by slowly acclimating them to the sun over a series of days. Then, once ready to transplant, you can prune off some of the bottom sets of leaves to get a nice long stem to bury deep into the soil. You can also lay leggy tall tomato plants sideways in the planting hole so that you can get a nice wide root system.
Many gardeners also like to prune the suckers off of indeterminate tomato plants (you can root suckers in water to make more tomato plants or just compost them.) If you're growing an indeterminate tomato, look for the small new branches sprouting in the elbow spot where a branch meets the stem and just pinch it off.
We also like to prune any leaves away from the bottom of young tomato plants to keep their leaves from touching the soil. This also helps provide more air circulation around the plant so that it less susceptible to disease. Mulching around your tomato plants can also help keep soil-borne diseases from spreading to your plants, along with keeping the soil moisture in.
To grow tomatoes faster, check out our Fastest Growing Tomatoes that are fast-growing so you can enjoy a juicy homegrown tomato earlier in the season! These short season tomatoes are delicious and come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and colors.
Happy growing!
