The 3 phases of growing tomatoes, and why I am extending the ‘neglection’ phase this year! Get Your Copy of my latest book, The Self-Sufficiency Garden: https://geni.us/SelfSufficiencyGarden
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44 Comments
If you cut off a strong sucker, you can put it in water or wet soil and you get another plant. I do it for years and I have tons of tomatos – l just run out of space every summer and end up planting them at the weirdest places imaginable.
Honestly I tend not to cut out the suckers on my tomatoes. No need at all… and be had such great success with them!
I was planting my toms into the ground in the greenhouse, now for some reason, I seen to have horse tail weed growing inside the greenhouse. Is there a way to get rid of it?
Glad you recommended Charles Wilbur's book !
Alabama grower who set (and still posthumously holds) the world record for outdoor grown tomatoes, in both the size of the plants, and weight of harvest.
I had never heard of pruning tomato plants until last year, well into our gardening season (we have a short growing season here, similar to yours, but less rain.). I have 3 favorite gardening channels that happen to be from the UK, that’s where I learned about the pruning. So of course I went out and pruned all the tomatoes and I had a good tomato crop, my first tomatoes being ripe the second week of July. I will be pruning this year and I am going to be following your technique that you discussed today. Also I always read you couldn’t start sweet corn because it didn’t like to be transplanted but I know you did it so I have sweet corn sprouted ready to be transplanted in 3-4 weeks when our frost should be gone. I preordered your book and will be getting it this month which is good because I need help with my successive planting program.😂. TeresaSue
Where did you get your Comfrey from Huw ? My Comfrey is only started growing now In Wrexham north Wales bocking 14 so it does not go everywhere !!! From Russia. PS Love your channel God Bless.
This is very interesting to me. Because I grew tomatoes for the first time last year and I didnt know anything about it. So I just left them as is and they where producing fruit in abundance until october. 🤷🏼♀️ They also bent ever which way even towards the ground and I only supported them after some of the fruit turned red while touching the ground. It was a happy accident but I am not going to fuss over them more this year
Im growing tomatoes for the second time. The first were in the ground and did ok, these are in buckets in a "greenhouse" made of mosquito netting because I'm in West Africa and the sun is too strong. They're doing much better! I couldn't go more than a day without watering, we're getting up to 43°C with 7% humidity. I agree about the suckers, i removed them last time and left them this time and im sure it's helping with a more successful crop.
In warm climates tomatoes can grow high and dense which looks like climbing beans Bush or a tree but I don't think total neglect is the best way in uk and similar climates. Your approach seem completely reasonable, kind of in the middle so it could do wonders.
However, I think that i can't do it myself. See, after this few weeks of neglecting my plants, I will end up with multiple stems and flowers on every one of them. I can't bear the thought of cutting a stem with a flower 😅 anyways, in some of my tomatoes I missed a sucker last year and end up with flowers so I left it. I've never pruned leaves as well. I think there were more tomatoes on more "neglected" plants. Indeed they were smaller, but only last ones at the end of the season. Still they stored nicely so it didn't bother me at all.
I prune any tomatoes about 4oz or larger, to two stems, leaving the first sucker above the lowest fruits, which is naturally a strong stem.
But I don't prune cherry tomatoes at all, or magic mountains, 4th of july, or Juliet. Very successful. It would be a big mistake to prune tomatoes, which give huge harvests – but only if they have plenty of blossoms
I never used to even eat tomatoes until I started growing my own for my wife!
You are such a lovely young man Huw! Wonderful to see someone young loving Nature and respecting it.
I don’t know how necessary it is to stake tomatoes, I’m often away for a couple or more weeks at a time…
A Moroccan friend I knew used to go off every summer, he said in his country nobody stakes toms, they just let ‘em grow on the ground?
Thank you for the info you share, I find it very useful and helpful. Have a good weekend – here it’s going to rain Sunday! 😅
I will try as well this year with you – I just planted my tomatoes as well today but outside and will try to do what you, on some plants and others will prun
Oh that’s good because I showed mine outside and just left them to their own devices, Ali 🌤️🇨🇦
It’s lovely to see your thoughts on a blog and to question what we have all been advised. This is where we see the real you. I am also testing the neglect stage as I did this last year and had good results. Amazing video as usual 🎉🎉
I never do anything to my tomatoes except about half of them I eventually tie up just for making room. The other tomatoes sprawl around on ground
I usually only remove suckers when the plants are bigger, and only if removing it improves air circulation, or because the greenhouse is becoming too crowded. And everything that touches the ground has to go. Otherwise It can stay. sometimes means that most if my crop comes from suckers. I've never really noticed a difference, my plants don't mind
I like this approach very much 😊 thank you for your help and support on my gardening journey 😊 great job 👏
Outdoor one, half i I will stop pruning for 2-3 weeks other one I will prun, watering is up to weather 😂 as well I have 4 tomatoe plants in conservatory, they where prun all ready in last 4 weeks but will stop 2 -3 , two of them, and other 2 will continue to prun – and keep them in conservatory and we see
Wow, so much interesting thoughts within that video. Thanks a lot for sharing!
you could water with asprin for access to silicic acid precursors as it helps fight off disease….im doing this to battle blight this year.
If you get carried away and wind up removing all leaves, is the tomato plant screwed or will they regrow and be fine?
Our climates couldn't be more different – central Texas – but the "neglect" theory certainly works here. You need those roots to go way down because the top of the soil gets too hot too soon. (A thick layer of mulch later keeps the soil moisture a little more consistent between waterings.) I always let determinates grow several branches, but it is critical to eventually prune for airflow and to remove lower or diseased leaves. One advantage to letting those suckers go at least for a little while is that propagation is so easy. When they are six or so inches long, put some in water, and in a few days you can put them in soil and you've got new plants that will catch up in no time.
I am planting out my tomatoes this weekend. I have 45 plants to get out. They go outside and in the polytunnel, it's a marathon each year. So I am going to give this a go. I am going to add worm castings and a mycorrhizal dusting as an added bonus. 🤞
Last year my determinate paste tomatoes got too big and i basically pushed them over to one side. I was pretty rough with them actually because i needed space in my tiny garden. I just let them figure it out and they recovered and kept going and going. Made some lovely salsa from them.
Last year was my first year of growing anything and I started with two tomato plants. I didn’t know anything about suckers or anything til they were well established. I got so many tomatoes!! I even had several bags of them in my freezer cause I couldn’t eat them fast enough. Even gave away a bunch. So I’m not sure how I’ll do it this year but last year worked great!
I’m not sure I could get away with not watering new seedlings in Florida with our extremely well-draining sandy soil (a blessing and a curse) but I do love experiments! Interested to see your results.
I neglect all vegetables from which I save seed. I'm breeding for resilient plants.
i heard someone had experimented with tomato suckers, can't remember who. they found that if you remove them you get larger fruit but slightly less total yield
I actually neglect my tomato seedlings already in the first stages of their growth to make them more resilient. This means to expose them to wind, cold (never less then 8-7° C), let them dry out completely and only water when they start to show that they need water. This has led to very resilient plants. I grow without cover in Germany. At least for me the neglect method works very well. As an example: My microberry last year reached around two meters and flowerd into November even tough it went through all the weather growing down a balcony. It even survived two storms with absolutely no issues at all.
Hi Huw, I've grown tomatoes for a long time in grow bags and tubs. I always start them off in a good seed compost, but then once they're in their forever place I only water them once or twice a week from the base until they start to produce fruit, then they get feed once a week. I ONLY prune discoloured or dying leaves OR if they get too bushy I will prune a little for airflow as they don't like to be smothered. I get great harvests every year. I don't pamper them and I dont hack them. I just leave them to get on with their thing. 😊
Removing suckers is an old farming practics, it's 100% not necessary except removing odd suckers to keep your plant tidy.
I’ve never come across this in my life but I recently moved to a more urban environment and the house sparrows have not only destroyed all 15 of my pea plants but now they are set on destroying my tomatoes. I cannot believe how destructive these creatures have become.
This guy is really good for inspiring me to just quit life and be a farmer.
My best tomato harvest was from a beefsteak tomato! I had planted it somewhere afterwards and tied it to a small stick, with the intention of attaching it to a larger stick later! I forgot this! I only found out when it overgrew everything else! I let it run its course and the harvest was bountiful! There are many differences in the size of the tomatoes! I'm curious about your outcome 👍
Not only do suckers fruit – they have a mich moe skyward trajectory and significantly less likely to get blight!
I live in the German Rheinland valley, and we had several drought years (2018/19/20/22), but I never EVER watered my tomatoes again after transplanting the seedlings into the soil in mid-May. They don't need it, they stretch their roots up to 4 meters deep and search for water on their own.
I know a few people who plant tomato plants into tomato grow bags I was thinking of doing the same this year. Would they be OK.
My volunteer tomatoes in the poly tunnel last year were, like yours Huw, the best producers.. their seeds this year have also been the most vigorous of any varieties I have planted. I had two plants last year that were mutants, in that they seemed to produce two trusses from the one branch, they were very productive, I'm curious to see how their babies develop this year… As for neglect, I'm always good at that!! I let some outdoor tomatoes just go for it last year, and they were producing loads, then in two days, blight killed all my outdoor tomatoes, including those. I know several people who had very similar problems, and I'm wondering if it was even in the same two days… the conspiracy theorist in me is saying that there was definitely something in the air… hey, hey… not very provable, I know… Still. it was a good time for green tomato chutney!
Here on the great dividing range in Qld australia, mulch is a standard thing used everywhere in the garden and pruning indeterminate tomatoes does not happen unless there is a need because the growth is too much for the support. Deep planting is a must, and in addition to the saving of the valuable solar panels for photosynthesis is the need for shade for the ripening fruit. Growing tomatoes in autumn here, summer was too hot and humid. All the best for your experiment. You should have a very big harvest if humidity is not your enemy.
I some what agree with you, I think if you are treating them as solar panels you should take the flowers off so they don't set fruit, and take away from main crop. As you get flowers or a truss every so many leaves and they come quicker on a sucker. good luck, I can't wait to see the out come.
No No No!!! You are not a lazy gardener! However this does sound really interesting and I’m going to try it! I’ve had rubbish tomato harvests for the past three years even though I’ve faithfully watered every day, plucked out every sucker, lopped off all the lower leaves and I’ve been so disappointed ☹️ each year I’ve been more and more rigorous. So in for a penny I’m going to try this it honestly can’t be worse than before.
I've never pruned suckers, no one I ever knew pruned suckers. I also had a "happy little accident" years ago. I was just about to cage and stake all my tomatoes the next day and deer got to them all that night! I was sooo upset I didn't go back out to tear them out for a couple or few weeks and just ignored them. I went out to "clear them out" and they were going like gangbusters! Tomatoes, being a vine, they had decided to live and vined allllll over the plot and intetmingled. They were FULL of blooms and tomatoes! BEST CROP EVER!! I just let them sprawl and they grew forever. Nature at it's best. Now, when I have the space, I plant them "sideways", mound them up and let them sprawl and grow and the production is insane. At one point I was getting so many tomatoes every other day I couldn't keep up with them and was giving them away! It was awesome! 🙂 I always mulch heavily with grass clippings and deep water when needed. Last year I had some cherry tomatoes in containers and I let some of the mature ones fall and buried them and now I have tubs full of tomatoes that came up on their own and overwintered just fine. Now, there were hybrids I think so who knows what I'll get but this year I am doing that with some of the heirlooms. One container had over 30+ plants in it! Good luck with your experiments! 🙂
Hello there, Hew!
I rarely remove suckers from my tomatoes, BUT if I do- they are immediately plopped into the soil for a new free plant. I do not prune any other annuals also.(U.S. southeastern)