How To Prune Tomatoes Kansas

Nothing quite compares to the taste of a vine-ripened tomato fresh from the garden. In order to harvest as many of these delicious fruits as possible, you will need to prune your tomato plants. Knowing which vines to let grow and which ones to ruthlessly remove can be confusing, but it can be broken down into several easy steps. If you follow this advice, you'll have a greater harvest of flavorful tomatoes to put in salads, make tomato sauce or add to delicious sandwiches.

And if you want to double, triple or even quadruple your tomato growing, here's my recommendation: How To Grow Juicy, Tasty Tomatoes.

1. What kind of tomato vine do you have? Determinate tomato plants will stop growing at a certain point and direct all of their energy into producing more leaves and fruits. They tend to produce a large crop of tomatoes that mature all at once. Most beefsteak and sandwich tomatoes are determinate varieties.
   
   Indeterminate tomatoes are a more vining, vigorous plant. They produce tomatoes that ripen over a period of several weeks. Cherry tomatoes and salad tomatoes are usually indeterminate.
2. What is your goal in pruning? Do you want extra-large, prize-winner tomatoes that may be fewer in number? Or do you want average-size tomatoes that are abundant? Both of these are reasonable goals that can be achieved by pruning.
3. What kind of pruning do you prefer? There are two types - simple pruning and Missouri pruning. Simple pruning means to pinch the sucker between your fingers and snap it off completely. A sucker is a shoot that grows between a branch and a leaf cluster. With Missouri pruning, you pinch off just the growing tip, and allow the leaves to remain. More leaves mean more energy for the plant, but it also means that you will need to prune any suckers that develop on the original sucker, so it requires a lot more maintenance....

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Author: Tonya Sandersfeld