Tweet
Now that it’s the time we’re planting out our tomatoes and looking forwards to harvesting plentiful love apples I find that a certain question arises in my mind - do you remove the lower leaves to your tomato plants?
I’ve heard it told that this is to stop them using up the nutrients - but surely all healthy leaves use up the nutrients when they are photosynthesising so removing the leaves would be removing some of the sugar factories available to the plant.
Then there’s the point of view that it’s to prevent disease splashing up from the soil. Which diseases? Late Blight doesn’t live in the soil and needs a living host, other virus and bacterial diseases such as wilt enter at the roots so leaf removal won’t matter either. In addition to this the majority of growers in the UK will have their tomatoes growing in a polytunnel or greenhouse which means that they don’t have to worry about rain splashing the soil and they can be more precise with the watering so they don’t cause splash back either.
I’ve also heard from some that it’s to prevent then using up the sugars as when they are shaded they can’t photosynthesise as effectively and use up more sugar than they produce.
Or that it’s to allow air to flow through the plant so that they don’t get mould.
Surely adequate plant spacing would resolve the shading and air flow issues?
So the first question is
If yes then the supplementary questions are
I’ve heard it told that this is to stop them using up the nutrients - but surely all healthy leaves use up the nutrients when they are photosynthesising so removing the leaves would be removing some of the sugar factories available to the plant.
Then there’s the point of view that it’s to prevent disease splashing up from the soil. Which diseases? Late Blight doesn’t live in the soil and needs a living host, other virus and bacterial diseases such as wilt enter at the roots so leaf removal won’t matter either. In addition to this the majority of growers in the UK will have their tomatoes growing in a polytunnel or greenhouse which means that they don’t have to worry about rain splashing the soil and they can be more precise with the watering so they don’t cause splash back either.
I’ve also heard from some that it’s to prevent then using up the sugars as when they are shaded they can’t photosynthesise as effectively and use up more sugar than they produce.
Or that it’s to allow air to flow through the plant so that they don’t get mould.
Surely adequate plant spacing would resolve the shading and air flow issues?
So the first question is
- Do you remove the lower leaves of your tomato plants?
If yes then the supplementary questions are
- Why do you remove them?
- When do you remove them?
- How many do you remove?
. For a start I always grow one more than I intended to ( very weak willed 
). Then once the tomatoes get to a certain size ( getting close to that point now ) they start to confuse me. I'm not sure what are armpits for removing and what aren't 
I do have a tiny greenhouse now (6x4) and I intend to put 3 plants in there, everything else will be outside, so I’m crossing my fingers for the weather. This year I’ve been nipping out shoots from the armpits. And I’ve started to remove the lower stems, mostly because people on YouTube say it avoids splash back and improves airflow in the plant. I intend to leave a few inches clear, with no leaves touching the ground, and I like it because it makes them look tidy 
I grow tomatoes fairly close together so I believe this promotes air flow around the base of the plant.
Comment