Holy Smokes! Are my plants growing or what? I can't believe it, especially if you take a look at where they were two weeks ago! Between constant rain and putting fertilzer in my pots these things have turned into green giants. I even added more dirt to the pots but it doesn't even look like I did. I've also figured out that two of the plants in my big white pots are pepper plants, so I'm down to two tomato plants, four pepper plants, one rosemary plant and the new addition of a sage plant. But now I have another question. Should I trim some of those leaves off the tomato plants? They're feeling a bit bushy.
I'm feeling much better about my garden and I owe much of it to you out there who read my posts and give me advice, so thank you, thank you, thank you!
tomatoes + peppers: week 16
Holy Smokes! Are my plants growing or what? I can't believe it, especially if you take a look at where they were two weeks ago! Between constant rain and putting fertilzer in my pots these things have turned into green giants. I even added more dirt to the pots but it doesn't even look like I did. I've also figured out that two of the plants in my big white pots are pepper plants, so I'm down to two tomato plants, four pepper plants, one rosemary plant and the new addition of a sage plant. But now I have another question. Should I trim some of those leaves off the tomato plants? They're feeling a bit bushy.
I'm feeling much better about my garden and I owe much of it to you out there who read my posts and give me advice, so thank you, thank you, thank you!
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June 19th, 2009 at 7:20 am
some people trim off the secondary branches to keep the plant from becoming a tangle of leaves, making it easier to harvest tomatoes (and prettier). I haven’t and my plants are healthy, but getting to some tomatoes requires a bit of digging.
June 19th, 2009 at 10:44 am
oh, how i wish i had a green thumb! i can barely keep my succulents alive. who can’t keep succulents alive?!?
June 19th, 2009 at 11:41 am
From what I can determine, people have differing opinions on pruning tomato plants. There’s a really great guide to pruning tomatoes at http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/pruning-tomatoes.aspx. I think in general though you don’t want to remove too many leaves, particularly from top, cause they help shade your tomatoes from being sun-burned.
In my own personal experience, whether you should prune or not seems to depend on the plant. Last year I pruned some of my sun gold tomato plants, and they got really lanky with very few leaves, while other tomatoes I had did great with the pruning.
June 20th, 2009 at 6:09 am
I’m a farm girl, and perhaps am out of the loop, but I’ve never even heard of pruning a tomato before. Ours are always beautiful bushy full plants that happily produce tons of pretty sizable tomatoes. (I really don’t need tomatoes bigger than a burger bun.) Even the potted/patio plants I’ve kept since moving to town have done great without pruning. We do use tomato cages to keep the bigger ones from flopping over.
Love the blog, by the way!
June 22nd, 2009 at 6:38 pm
you’re plants are looking fantastic.
i started tomato plants this year and my dad grew them when i was growing up. they are quite bushy when full grown. my dad never pruned his plants and i am not pruning mine. they are doing great. i would recommend using a tomato cage to help support the branches to help support the weight of the growing tomatoes.
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:44 am
I have trim some secondary branches since my plants are also getting pretty big with all the NYC rain and since i did 10 more small tomatoes appeared. I only trimmed branches at the bottom and when they slouch. But again it might depend on the plan or type,I have plum tomatoes…
Good luck!
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Mines fell down the window ledge!!! They were doing good, maybe too good, and fell down with a gust of wind last week when it was rainy… I replanted them, I’m curious to see what will happen.