Garden Tips: Pruning Tomatoes

Tomato plants are generally easy to care for, but they do need a bit of attention during the growing season.

Specifically, they need pruning to encourage rooting early in the season and fruiting later on.

While your plants are still growing, trim off lower leaves - especially those close to the ground - and any early flowers. Ideally, your plants should be 12" before they start to grow fruit.

Once they're in flower, trim off any leaves that shade your fruiting branches. This will ensure enough sunlight reaches your fruit.

Finally, tomatoes grow extra branches called 'suckers' in the joint between main branches and the stem. These suckers should be trimmed to redirect energy to fruiting.