Remove all leafy suckers beneath the first fruit cluster so they won't slow the development of the fruit.

Remove flowers until plants are 12 to 18 inches tall, so plants can direct more energy to the roots.

Do you know what the different parts of a tomato plant are called? Early/mid-season Try to remove suckers while they're young and you can pinch them cleanly off.

Remove any flowers present at planting time (even if they were on there when you bought the plant), so energy goes into leafy growth instead of fruiting at this early stage.

If you're planting a Bonnie plant, follow the directions on the wrapper. Remove the lower leaves when planting so you can bury plants deeply into the soil. You'll want to prune tomatoes throughout the season. How to prune tomatoes (indeterminate varieties only!) This can really help in short season climates, where getting a tomato harvest is often a race against time, thanks to early fall frosts.

When a plant's leaves and physiology have fewer fruit to take care of, that fruit ripens faster. And, since pruned plants can be put a bit closer together in the ground because the growth is so vertical, you'll have room for additional plants to make up the difference in harvest numbers. Overall, you will probably have fewer fruit on a pruned plant, but it will be bigger. Pruning at the right time directs energy toward creating and ripening fruit instead of making more leaves. Plus, fewer leaves make it easier to spot insect pests that might otherwise be hidden by a thick canopy. The leaves dry faster after a rain, so they are less susceptible to the diseases that need prolonged moisture to develop - something that can be very helpful in wet climates. With fewer leaves, pruned plants are less dense, allowing more air to move through the plants. (Looking for indeterminate varieties to plant? Try our Tomato Chooser.) Here are some reasons to prune tomatoes. If you prune determinate varieties, you may reduce the harvest. There is one big catch: You should only prune indeterminate varieties, which produce new leaves and flowers continuously through the growing season. Pruning tomato plants is an optional technique that some gardeners use to keep plants tidy, manipulate fruit size, and even speed ripening. Do you like to train your plants and check up on them almost every day? If so, then you may be a natural tomato pruner.

Download pruning tomato plants