Perhaps, we are no stranger to tomato plants grown in every family. The tomato plant is loved because it is easy to grow, easy to care for, and produces many fruits per plant.
However, many gardeners make mistakes in the care process that results in tomato plants growing many branches and leaves without stopping but producing only a few tomatoes.
This is causing many people to question how to get the best yield from tomato plants. When to stop tomato plant growth and why to do this technique. Let us answer all questions in the article below.
Why Stop The Growth Of Tomato Plants?
Before learning about the best time to stop the growth of tomato plants, many people ask why to do this.
The more branches and leaves the tomato plant grows, the more flowers and fruits the plant will produce because of the larger the roots? Is this correct information?
As you know, the tomato plant is a plant that loves light and water, tomato plants are easy to grow and develop. They can grow naturally and produce fruit without care if there is enough light and rainwater.
Therefore, if tomato plants are not pruned, branches and leaves will continuously grow quickly and produce many leaves. This is only beneficial during the growing season, especially when they are newly planted in the ground.
However, when tomato plants enter the flowering and fruiting stage, growing too tall and many leaves is a big return for the tomato clusters to develop later.
The reason is that if the root system only focuses on developing branches and leaves, it will not have enough energy to focus on flowering and fruiting. Therefore, the number of tomato flowers will be less and the tomato fruit will also have a smaller stimulus than usual.
Tomato plants will have to nurture both branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits in parallel, and will not be able to produce a productive crop.
Therefore, tomato plants grow for a certain time, you should stop their growth to ensure time for tomato plants to focus on flowering and fruiting.
Read more: Can I Plant Tomato Seeds Directly in the Ground?
When To Stop Tomato Plants Growing
You can’t find an exact time to stop tomato plant growth. Usually, this can happen in August or September if you plant the tomato plants in the right season.
However, instead of determining the exact time to stop the growth of tomato plants, you can consider several factors such as the number of tops, the number of trellises, and the right amount of flowers.
According to the experience of many gardeners, you should stop the growth of tomato plants when they have been given 3-4 trellis outside or 4-5 when grown in a greenhouse. The exact time to stop tomato plant growth depends on how long the plant has been set up and the number of flowers you want.
However, not the more flowers the tomato plant will produce more fruit and the best fruit quality. Removing the first flowers of a tomato plant is also an important task to perform.
Therefore, you need to consider the number of trusses and flowers to give the tomato plant enough energy to produce uniform, large and ripe tomatoes.
You can prune the main tops by clipping them or cutting them off regularly to ensure 3-5 truss height and 4-5 feet wide. This pruning may have to be frequent because the branches and leaves of the tomato plant are in the growing stage when they will proliferate.
You should observe the main branches that are cut off, after only a few weeks the young shoots and small branches will continue to grow, remove them so that the tomato plant continues to focus on nurturing flowers and fruits.
An important note is that at the end of the season, you should thin the foliage of the tomato plants to avoid the tomato plant’s energy being scattered too much into the leaves.
At this stage, the tomato plant is nurturing ripe fruit, leaves are not needed, so you can remove them and just keep a few leaves.
This will help the plants have a cool space, the tomatoes are nourished and exposed to more sunlight. In addition, if you feel that the quality of the tomatoes is not as good as small, uneven, and have worms or strange colors, remove them to avoid spreading the disease to other fruits.
If the bunches of tomatoes are of good quality, don’t forget to remove the pods that continue to come out because too many will make the tomato plants not have enough nutrients to feed them even if you fertilize the growth.
In the process of pruning and removing young shoots and leaves, you should make sure to use sterile scissors, gloves, and necessary tools to avoid damaging the tomato plant as well as the cuts causing damage to the tomato plant.
Summary
Tomato plants need to prune off branches and leaves during the flowering and fruiting stages so that tomato plants use their energy to fully nourish the flowers and fruits.
The fact that leaves, branches, flowers and fruits grow together will cause the tomato plant to become overloaded and not be able to produce the best quality tomatoes.
The best time to stop a tomato plant from growing is when it has produced 3-5 rigs, 4 to 5 feet wide, and usually happens in August or September according to planting time.
In addition, you also need to consider the number of flowers and young tomatoes and remove them to get the largest, ripest, and most delicious tomatoes.