Tomato plants - removing leaves ?

[sarahkeast]

Last year when my mum was visiting she took over half the leaves off all my tomato plants, saying there were too many and I needed to let the light in. No idea if this was the right thing, but it was already done.....

I have never seen this recommended in any books or mags etc.

Does anyone do this ? should I be doing it ? I keep the side shoots off and take a few leaves off just to reduce crowding [they are pretty close in greenhouse] apart from that I water not as often as I should [2-3 days] and feed with either stinky nettle stuff or tom feed every week or so.

Thanks

[pops]

i take off the really yellow ones down the bottom, but no! i wouldn't take any more off! :D

(now that i've said that i'll probably be shot down by an Ish guru! :D )

[chickenchargrill]

I've heard of people doing that, supposed to direct more energy into the fruit. I don't though, just any that look poorly and the side shoots.

[red]

I take off the lower ones that are liable to get splashed with water. its not about letting light in, but the air.. more air flow - less chance of blight

[gregorach]

I've always heard that you shouldn't take any leaves off above the lowest remaining truss... Whether it's true or not I don't know.

[RuthG]

If you are not supposed to let water get onto the leaves, how do you stop the rain doing so on outdoor toms??

Personally I never take the leaves off, unless they are wilted and yellow, or they are those in between leaves that you are supposed to remove to allow the plant to make fruit properly.

[grahamhobbs]

It is recommended that you take off the leaves below (Gregoarch think you got it mixed up) the lowest truss of tomatoes. This is partly to increase air flow but also more energy goes into the fruit. Some recommend that you only leave the first 7 leaves down from the top, it is supposed to increase yields.

[JulieSherris]

And here's me.... well, I chop EVERY little branch to just the 2 leaves nearest the stem. I wait until the flowers start & then once I am feeding, I do it on a weekly basis. My old nan used to say that it was for 2 things - one for the light to get to the fruit easier, which is more important at the end of the season when the last lot needs to turn colour. And secondly for the airflow around the plant & to reduce blight.

I always get a half decent crop doing things this way, and it does mean that you can get more plants into the polyhouse/greenhouse/tommybed....

I also don't water my toms too late in the day, as they don't like going to bed with their feet wet

[wabbit955]

have alway remove leafs but after all the fruit has set
seams to work for me

[Odsox]

I agree with some of the others regarding airflow, I always try to avoid stagnant air at the bottom of the plants, especially as I'm a mean bugger and grow them far too close together.
So I remove the first three or four leaves when the plants have made about seven trusses and then gradually remove more as the season progresses, until October/November when there are no leaves at all ... just (hopefully) ripening last few tomatoes.

My indoor tomatoes and hydroponic tomatoes have all their leaves left on, as the humidity is a lot lower and I figure the plants grow better when they have the maximum number of leaves to photosynthesize, especially during winter with lower light levels.

[snapdragon]

I guess it might be different depending on where you are, The first time I grew toms was on the windowledge of our office in central manchester, we were advised to remove the lower leaves as each truss set (and told about the side shoots too which one lass misheard and pinched the flowerbuds out)
I deduced this was for glasshouse toms, so for outside toms I just reduced the leaf and removed the lower ones so they wouldn't rot

(this year I haven't planted any as we've had blight three years running- willing to bet it'll be a bumper year? )

[MKG]

So that's one who deadheads strawberries and another who pulls the flowers off tomatoes.

Both of them women. I wonder ...

Mike

[boboff]

Take your Mums advice, not a load of saddo's on tinterweb..... If it works great, if not then your mum will be happy.....


It is not going to hurt at all though, you have to do your own thing, if you want split the crop in two, do as you Mum says on half, do what you want on the other, see what works best? If your Mums right big her up, if not keep stum, and say you did it anyway.

[Millymollymandy]

I only cut off any leaves which are touching the ground and then much later on I may remove a few leaves here and there to encourage ripening of the fruit, if the leaves are covering up the trusses.

When I first met my OH, before we lived together, he was babysitting my young tomatoes and I told him about pinching out the side stems. He pinched off all the leaves!