Too many tomatoes on the plant?

sonia35515

Thanks Looking for advice please. My bushy tomato plant has produced an amazing amount of fruit but as this is my first year (we normally grow the taller indeterminate type) I’m unsure what I need to do with this. In the photo you can see the leaves and fruit are looking quite tightly packed together.

(a) Do I need to remove a few of the fruit (and ripen indoors) in order to allow the remainder to grow to size? Or
(b) Do I need to remove some of the leaves and branches to allow the fruit room to grow and to allow the sun to reach the fruit? 

sonia35515

Note that these are the pics of the plants where I have already cut off many of the leaves. (Can’t seem to upload the original pics before cutting). Just wanted to know whether I had done the right thing in removing leaves or not.

BobTheGardener

Many of the bush types sold to be grown in hanging baskets and containers don't need any support as they are meant to flop over the sides.  However, now it has grown upright, it does look to be a very strong and healthy plant so I would put in another cane and loosely tie in the stems and trusses (try loops of string, tied to the top of the cane and through the trusses of fruit.)

I wouldn't remove any more leaves as the plant needs those to feed and ripen the fruit.  PS: There is a lot of advice on the web about removing leaves from tomatoes.  It's only necessary if things get crowded and reduce airflow and nothing to do with ripening the fruit.

purplerallim

If it's a cherry variety they do tend to group together when fruiting, that looks a good crop. They will get more room as you remove ripe ones.

sonia35515

Thanks BobTheGardener, I was worried about the overcrowding on it but I’ll hold back on taking off any more leaves now.

Helix

I’m jealous! Looks loads better than mine.....