Tomatoes.

[bramble]

I am wondering if those peeps who grow tomatoes removes many of the leaves as it comes closer to the end of the growing season.
I have seen some posts on facebook with conflicting reports...any Opinions?

[Nicos]

I usually remove the lower leaves as the plant is maturing…Been doing the odd one for a few weeks now.
It does help with the airflow but also reveals the tomatoes to the sun to help ripen them.

At the end of the season I remove any manky looking ones which can’t be contributing much to the plant, but no…not most of the leaves.

No idea the science of why…I’ve seen other people doing it and it seems to work well.

[Containergardener]

I remove quite a few, lower and elsewhere as Nicos said.

[Jungle Jane]

I remove all leaves underneath the tomatoes,on a dry day so healing is better. Then I keep removing leaves up the plant as there’s less & less tomatoes. In the end there only two or three leaf branches left (in Sept/Oct) I leave the leaves alone that are level with or growing above the truss. I do it to help with ripening I grow all mine outside.

[Peanut]

I do too, they start to die off naturally, so I take those and any below the lowest truss off and any others that look ropey. I also do this with my cucumbers.

[Florence Fennel]

Same here - mine are outside and I remove all the low growing leaves and any that are blocking light from the trusses.

[smallblueplanet]

Yep, we remove leaves (and sometimes shoots from the main stem) as they get bigger to help with air circulation and light, also if they seem to be 'growing for no reason' at the end of the season when their energy can go to the fruit - that last is probably nonsense but it sounds scientific! Lol.
We also do similar with aubergines and sweet and chilli peppers, they also get pinched out depending on their vigour and growth habit.

[DGV]

I Strip mine of all leaves from Sept to help get the remaining sun to the last of the fruits and ended up will a large container of leaves for the compost.

[Vince G]

Yep likewise.

Leaves removed in early August to about 4 feet up the vines, to expose the lower trusses.

I'll strip all remaining leaves when I come back from hols week after next to expose the upper trusses.

Monty does it so that's good enough for me, and the logic is sound!

However I do wonder if it's a combination of sunlight and heat that does the ripening. I have some enormous peppers that have been green for some weeks, but I've had both the front and back flap open on the polytunnel. We were due high winds a few days ago so I shut both flaps. Went in the poly today to find 2 nearly yellow peppers, nearly ripe in 3 days flat

[ameno]

However I do wonder if it's a combination of sunlight and heat that does the ripening.

It's exclusively heat. Sunlight on the fruit makes no difference at all, except for the fact that direct sun warms the fruit more.
Fruit have no means of responding to light, after all.

[Vince G]

Interesting thanks. I shall think more about how I ventilate the poly next year, perhaps I'll shut the front flap to the prevailing wind and leave the back flap open