You're Pruning Tomatoes WRONG! This Mistake Will DESTROY Your Harvest!

If you enjoyed this video, please “Like” and share to help increase its reach! Thanks for watching 😊TIMESTAMPS for convenience: 0:00 The #1 Tomato Pruning Myth 2:54 When You Should NEVER Remove Suckers 4:24 1st Reason To Prune Indeterminate Tomatoes 5:49 2nd Reason To Prune Indeterminate Tomatoes 8:12 3rd Reason To Prune Indeterminate Tomatoes 9:24 Why I Almost NEVER Prune Cherry Tomatoes 10:54 Why I Stopped Removing Diseased Leaves 12:19 Summary Of My Tomato Pruning Technique 14:17 Adventures With Dal

My dad grew tomatoes and cucumbers commercially. They always removed the suckers and I think it's so they didn't get a bunch of small fruit. Due to the energy going to the suckers by taking them off it produced bigger tomatoes which would make sense. I'm not asking a question about what was in the video I'm referring to when I was growing up.

University of Michigan did extensive study on this subject. Pinching suckers had no effect on tomato production. Leaving them also had no effect.

I've been growing tomatoes for years. My grandmother taught me to prune the suckers, as have all of my friends and neighbors. I do the opposite. I remove the lower limb and leave the sucker which results in a boatload of tomatoes!! Glad I'm not the only one who does it this way.

If you want lots of smaller, lets nutrient dense fruit, keep your suckers. Trim your suckers in order to have larger, healthier fruit.

From my experience, I pick off the suckers until the main stem is thick and strong - then I allow suckers. This seems to work best for me.

Dear Dale - I have taught organic horticulture my whole life, in the UK and grown tomatoes all my life and I learned from your video - you are an excellent, excellent teacher. Thank you so much.

My growing season is too short to allow all the suckers to grow. I must pinch some off so the energy can go to the flowers and already forming tomatoes. 😊

My hubby grew tomatoes. He asked me why I cut a sucker, cuz he NEVER did....he was right. Thank you!! You get a subscription!! Jeannie in Lakeport. I am 60. First time ever tried gardening last year....hubby has heart failure, cannot garden anymore, so, I tried...will do better this year!!

Thank you! I'm an older gardener that runs out of energy. You explained it SO well that I can do the minimal pruning on my determinates and just the lower branches below the flowers on my determinates.

This is the clearest to-the-point tomato pruning video I've come across. Thank you for this!

I remove the suckers then root those suckers for more tomato plants ! Living in Ga it also helps with air circulation to remove the suckers.

Totally agree! This has been my experience the past 20 years, so I only prune as needed for air flow & get rid of disease leaves & the lower ones. I always get plenty of tomatoes. Nice to hear from an experienced gardener who feels the same too since many YouTuber gardeners I watch usually recommend pruning off suckers.

You are amazing and you have taught me so much about the things a farmers daughter knows but has forgotten or brushed away. I remember my gramps growing tomatoes the size of large grapefruits. As they grew he wove them around & into an 8ft teepee shaped iron frame and never cut them back the tomatoes literally hung inside the frame for easy picking. He never was plagued with disease as he used corn starch n a light salt spray on the garden Toward the end he sprayed with water to remove the build up and let the chickens n rabbits finish n enjoy them.. We had hundreds of quarts of tomatoes every way and gallons of fresh juice. You remind me of my papa n your love matches his..in the garden. Thank you!!

I noticed that suckers later on bear fruits….hence quit pruning them against all advice. You’re the first one to speak my mind! Thank you 🙏

Second-year, noob gardener here. Thank you! Last year, I had one tomato plant which only produced four tomatoes before the summer's heat (I'm in Texas) killed everything. This year, I have six tomato plants, and there's TEN tomatoes growing on them this morning! I found your channel to learn how to better care for my garden, and this is the tomato video I needed.

What I liked best was, its not simply about removing all of the suckers or none of the suckers. Starting at 4:24. Your "3 reasons why you may want to prune your indeterminate tomatoes" provides a basis for determining what approach may be best for our individual circumstances and objectives. Well done.

Also, your tomato plants look FANTASTIC! I'm so glad that after all these years of struggling you finally have such success with tomatoes. You give the rest of us hope!

Thank you. I overpruned my tomatoes last year and had a very low yield. I learned the hard way. Thank you for breaking down.

We call suckers "side-shoots" here in the UK. I grew tomatoes commercially for years. You start by implying that the removal of "suckers" is a very bad thing to do. But then you qualify it, depending on the method of training, variety, type, spacing, indoor / outdoor, etc, etc. Commercial growers of tomatoes will always remove suckers / side shoots because it will maximise the overall yield of the crop (not just one plant), maximise quality in terms of size, ripening and pest / disease control. Basically, it will improve crop management. Will it DESTROY your harvest? No.