How much can I prune a tomato plant?

southern gardener 7/30/2012, 11:45 pm

I have a tomato plant that has gone wild! It's probably about 10 feet across, and is circular in size. There are hundreds and hundreds of blossoms and baby tomatoes, but nothing is ripening. I think the poor plant is spending all it's energy make blossoms, suckers, and more blossoms!! Should I prune it back/leave it alone? Will pruning make it start ripening the tomatoes? If I do prune, how much can I cut off without hurting the plant. It's starting to cover our walkways and sidewalk! Thank you for any help!! thanks

angel1237b 7/31/2012, 12:03 am

my tomato plants are doing the same thing...they are huge...i cut three crates of suckers off of them..and still hundreds of flowers and lots and lots of very green tomatoes...i am at a loss as to what to do now...good luck...i hope it all works out for us...it would be a shame for them not to ripen...

cheyannarach 7/31/2012, 5:28 pm

You can prune the suckers off but if they have blooms and tomatoes you will lose all the maters. I recently pruned all the large suckers off my plants (not nearly as large as yours though), then I put them all in a bucket of water for about a week then replanted as soon as a few roots formed, This was about two weeks ago that I trimmed them a week ago they were replanted and I already have a tomato on one of then. I don't know how much truth there is to this but someone told me that since the suckers have the same DNA as the mother plant they should continue fruiting in the same time frame as the mother plant. You need to post a picture of this gangbuster in the big stuff thread!

southern gardener 7/31/2012, 6:08 pm

cheyannarach wrote:You can prune the suckers off but if they have blooms and tomatoes you will lose all the maters. I recently pruned all the large suckers off my plants (not nearly as large as yours though), then I put them all in a bucket of water for about a week then replanted as soon as a few roots formed, This was about two weeks ago that I trimmed them a week ago they were replanted and I already have a tomato on one of then. I don't know how much truth there is to this but someone told me that since the suckers have the same DNA as the mother plant they should continue fruiting in the same time frame as the mother plant. You need to post a picture of this gangbuster in the big stuff thread!

OK..will do about the pruning. I think the DNA thing might be right. I have been very successful with doing "suckers" and planting. they take off really well! I've given some to neighbors, and they say they are doing really well. I have sucker with fruit, and it's only about 1 1/2 feet tall with tomatoes. I will go take a picture of that monster before I hack it! LOL thanks for the info!

here is the pic. I hope it works. I was wrong, it's not 10' across, it's 12!! I put a water bottle in front for a reference Smile

How much can I prune a tomato plant? Hugeto10

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