Brutal

[Bigmallly]

I read somewhere (I can't remember where) that you have to be brutal with tomatoes. Do you think I have been too brutal?.......At least now I can see some fruit.........I have attached a before & after pic.

[Glutton4...]

Brutal!

I was told when the trusses set, remove the lower leaves up to the first truss, and any higher up that are shading the developing fruit!

Can't see clearly if that's what you've done, but as long as they get food and water, I expect they'll be fine.

[OllieMartin]

Doesn't look brutal enough, have you intentionally left some of the side-shoots to grow? I thought best-practice was to just have one stem with all the trusses on.
I'm ready to be put straight thought

[Bigmallly]

Doesn't look brutal enough, have you intentionally left some of the side-shoots to grow? I thought best-practice was to just have one stem with all the trusses on.
I'm ready to be put straight thought

Where's TK when you want him.

[King Carrot]

The leaves make the fuel for the engine - although older leaves do an awful lot less. However I have heard of people taking them off below a ripened truss.

I leave mine on and only remove them when there pretty much dead as I think the plant knows when it doesn't need its leaves and it brings any goodness back into the plant before it discards the leaf.


Other than improving ventilation or disease, I don't see any point in defoliating as I think temperature is the key to ripening fruit.

I think by being brutal experts might mean to use a minimum of water and feed to get tasty toms

[King Carrot]

You could always take off and pot up all your side shoots and keep them very wet for a week or so - they perk up when they've rooted.

[taff]

Nope, not been too brutal.

[zazen999]

Not brutal enough [in my book, but that's just me].....

[Bigmallly]

Thanks for your comments, I'll take a few more off.

[womble]

What I do is leave all the leaves on unless they obstruct something, like the marigolds.
In July when the tomatoes are growing and starting to ripen, I start removing the lower and more tangled branches.

As time goes on, all the discoloured leaves get taken off and more and more normal ones, as the risk of blight increases. At the end of the year, with blight scares and masses of leaves removed to help air flow, the plants can be quite bare.
I remember seeing plants in the gardens in France, basically bare stems with tomatoes on them, the fruit was virtually ripe. And thinking about it, most of them only had about 3 trusses on them as well. Maybe we try too hard for our climate sometimes.

[Tomatoking]

Hi Mally

Nope, I can still see some great big shoots and suckers.
As for leaves I tend to take them off only below ripened trusses, though I do take a few of the very low ones for air circulation, and the odd one in between if there are too many leaves touching.
Mr TK

Another thought Mally, you have taken too many young leaves off instead of all the shoots, so maybe you should leave just a couple of leaves only on some of those shoots but cut of the head. instead of cutting the whole shoot off, because like has been said they are the plants engine.

[Tomatoking]

This how they should look if they are cordon, which I think they are Mally.

[Bigmallly]

Thanks for the pic TK, it gives me a clue what I am supposed to do.

[Tomatoking]

Anytime Mally, I think you were just too brutal with the leaves and not the shoots. But nice healthy plants, so I am sure they will still give you a fair crop.
Your irrigation system seems to have done it's job well.

[Bigmallly]

I was scared to cut the shoots as I thought it was them that produced more fruit. What would I do without the vine.