Backyard Tomato Gardening Tips - Dealing With Overgrown Tomato Plants

When you think about pruning tomatoes, you haveYou can pinch back some of the new growth, but let
to figure there are three different strategies basedsome of them grow out. Keep pulling unnecessary
on where in the growing season you are. There willleaves off, but be aware that this is the hot time of
be different tomato gardening tips to use with thethe summer and the ground and the tomatoes need
ultimate goal being avoiding overgrown tomato plants.the shade the leaf provides. Your goal is to still
Everyone has their own opinion about this, so readingchannel the nutrients to the tomatoes and not the
more tomato gardening problems and how to solvefoliage.
them will be a good plan. This article talks about theEventually, there is nothing you can do, you can
issues based on personal experience, not theofficially be classified as having overgrown tomato
textbook version.plants. You officially have tomato gardening problems!
At first when the young plants are growing, yourOne of the better pruning tomato tips for this
pruning tomatoes activities center on the new leavessituation is to calculate how much time is left in the
and new growth shoots that appear between thegrowing season. Usually it is well into August when
leaves and the main stem. You only want one mainyou get to this point, so look ahead. Once the
trunk and that can grow to be large and sturdy byaverage date for the first frost is about 30 days
snipping off the lowest leaves on the vine. Byaway, you can start cutting off all the new growth,
eliminating the side shoots, all the energy goes to theand flowers, a lot of the leaves and let the tomatoes
new tomatoes and lets them grow larger. Once thealready started mature.
tomato plant gets tall enough, about the height ofDo the best you can for as long as you can is some
the stake, things start to change.of the most practical tomatoes gardening tips and
Tomato plants at this size become more difficult toadvice there is when dealing with overgrown tomato
keep up. What you will do is turn things around andplants. You could really apply that advice to other
let the new shoots form and cut off new growth attomato gardening problems like your fungus and pest
the top. With this tomato gardening tip you keep theissues, too. Everyone really needs to think about
same principal, but in reverse. You will get a bushierbeing sure not to overdo it by putting in more plants
plant, but it will not outgrow your stakes or cage.than you need in the spring!