Pruning for Stronger Stems and More Fruit

The tomato plants have been in the garden for just over a week. This is what the tallest one looked like as of Monday morning. (Today, this plant has tomatoes on it!)

When I bought the plants from Country Gardens, one of the employees taught me about pruning tomatoes. He suggested pruning so that I would have 2 main shoots. He said that having two main shoots will encourage the plant to grow up rather than out. The plant will concentrate on making those two shoots strong rather than spreading the energy among many shoots. That made sense to me, so I pruned!

Here is that same tomato plant after I pruned it Monday morning.

I watered the plants after I pruned them, then that night it rained. Tonight (just one day later), there are several tomatoes on the plant! Woo hoo!

I have read on Web sites that pruning tomatoes results in larger fruit earlier in the season because the plant puts its energy into fruit production. So far, I'd have to say that my plants are proving that point!

To prune the smaller "suckers" (that really is what the branches are called), I just pinched them off the plant. To prune the larger suckers, I used scissors. Evidently, I should have sterilized the scissors between plants so as not to transfer diseases from one plant to another. I guess I'll have to find out how to sterilize scissors!