Tomato plant branch removal

rosehenderson90

Hi folks, 

One of my allotment neighbours has removed a load of the branches from my tomato plants, so there are only one or two left on each.

I knew to remove the side shoots, but wasn't sure about the branches so keen to learn more about this practice if anyone has info?

I've not seen them yet so not been able to ask!

Want to understand if it's something i want done or not - I've not seen stems so bare before but i am new to growing tomatoes. 

Some photos:

Fairygirl

Why has he been touching your plants though?
I certainly remove foliage as the plants grow - mainly old, damaged ones, and anything that's causing some overcrowding, but only once they're no longer needed as the trusses are all well formed, and not to the extent your photo shows.
It doesn't look as if you have many trusses of fruit set yet. 

Lyn

No, it seems not something you should do!  Plants need their leaves,  I only remove the leaves from the bottom up to the first truss.   When the tomatoes are all formed you can remove a few more leaves for air space and sun to ripen. 

rosehenderson90

Thanks @Lyn and @Fairygirl

It's a community shared space and I think they might be trying to be helpful as a number of plants in the greenhouse have had the same treatment.

Though I thought perhaps not best practice as they now have so few branches on them I worried that would reduce the amount of tomatoes I'll get.  It sounds like from what you're saying thats right!

Though perhaps in the past week things became diseased and they removed things. I'm not sure yet.

Hopefully doesn't have too much impact.

Thanks for your advice!! 😊 

Nanny Beach

Yes,agree with fairy,I only remove stems and leaves late in the season to make sure that the last tomatoes ripen

Pete.8

Leaves are the engines of a plant and produce all of its energy.
Fewer leaves = less energy to grow tomatoes, so fewer and smaller tomatoes I'm afraid.
I don't remove any leaves until late in the season when all the fruits have formed and the leaves are no longer as important

rosehenderson90

Thanks @Nanny Beach and @Pete.8 - that's good to know.

One of my plants escaped the Great Branch Cull of 2021 so I think I'll be riding all my tomato dreams on that one this year!! 

Fairygirl

I think you need to have a word with the 'scissor happy' offender @rosehenderson90

rosehenderson90

Yes @Fairygirl, and failing that I may have to hide all the scissors

It must be an urban myth in our community garden as quite a few people's tomatoes have had the snip.

Now I know better  

Fairygirl

Or maybe he's just a control freak 
The problem is that he's compromising the growth, and the end result. 
It can be quite expensive growing tomatoes - time, money and maintenance, so the last thing you want is half the crop you should achieve. Would be easier just buying them!

Dovefromabove

Sometimes folk see these things being done and the reasons are only half understood, and then they lead to stuff being done at the wrong time or for the wrong reason ... but they carry on doing it 'because Old Joe always did it' ... 

I'd stick up a notice ... "I'm carrying out a comparative trial ... please do not touch my tomato plants "