this is my first time here, so i wasn't sure where to put this. is there a chat feature in this website? i'm freaking out because i think i totally overpruned my heirloom tomato plant. can someone help me? thanks
what to do? i overpruned! hi. i am totally new at gardening and came across this site in the hope of getting help to my problem. i read today about pruning tomato plants,which i hadn't done, and so i got carried away and now i feel like the only branches i left were the ones that had flowers. i think i don't know the difference between a sucker and a branch. i thought if the branches with leaves didn't have flowers on them and they weren't the central branch, i had to take them off. SO, now i have a big tall thing with no side leaves and i'm freaking out that i ruined the plant. i read afterward that overpruning will cause sun something-or-other. sunburn but i forget the term. now everything is exposed. can someone tell me how to know which branches to leave on so i don't screw up my other plants? the one i did was deboro plum. i have yet to do my green zebra and black prince. do i move the pot closer to the pot next to it to shade it a bit? these are all in pots on my deck. thanks so much! also, is there a feature to chat with another member online to get quick feedback? thanks again!
I don't know if there is a chat feature as I just started coming here myself. Can you post a photo? How exactly did you prune them? Did you cut back the leaves? Remove the suckers?
I have killed tomatoe plants in many ways but never by over pruning. Give it time it will most likely come back. You may have less tomatoes.
Removing suckers from Tomato plants. http://www.durgan.org/ShortURL/?IVEEN 1 April 2008 Pictures explaining the method. Suckers are removed from tomato plants to prevent; crowding of the fruit, to increase the size of the fruit. If a sucker is allowed to grow it will produce a stem similiar to the main stem, and the fruit will be extremely crowded and sometimes difficult to pick. One or two suckers can be allowed to grow if desired, but they should emanate from the area above the first cluster of fruit. The suckers should not be removed until they can be clearly identified as such. Avoid removing suckers from the main header area due to possibly confusing suckers with the header or a fruiting branch. Two weeks before the end of the season remove the main header. This will allow the remaining fruit to enlarge and ripen. The plants will often get 4 to 8 feet high, and will need support in most cases.
thank you jan, jeanne, and durgan. sorry i couldn't get back sooner, but there have been some medical problems since i last posted... well basically, i removed everything but one leaf branch (stop laughing). right now, the main stem is bald and nothing is growing out of the side of it. the two groups of two tomatoes are still hanging there, still green, so i guess they are surviving. the one leaf branch i left looks a little yellowy and wilted. the rest of the leaves on the plant, which are coming from the top above the whole area i had pruned, look fine and healthy. there are small flowers up there and a few spouting tomatoes. at this point those are tied to the top of my deck railing since they had no where else to go (it was bending over). i hope that's alright. now since i'm afraid to take anything off the other two plants, i've left them alone. is that okay? they are in containers so how confusing can it get? i'm starting to think i should just see what i get and not take anything off of them. i planted them as small plants at the beginning of the summer and the little growth i have isn't even ripe yet.
The main reason for removing the suckers is to prevent wild spreading of the plant. Actually if room is available, I probably would never seriously sucker the plants. I have two plants growing in the garden without suckering and they cover about a four foot diameter circle, and both have numerous large green tomatoes. They ripen more slowly if not suckered and sometimes the sucker banches break off, but no big deal.
I hope your health problems are over. They are certainly a priority. As for the tomatoes you didn't tell us if you had determinate or indeterminate tomatoes. Determinate will do fine in pots. No need to do any trimming. They stay short. The indeterminate, on the other hand, will have branches that will fall over the side of the pot when they get too heavy unless you find a way to support them.
