Growing Tomatoes

[workhorse]

Hi All,
I have at the moment a number of tomato plants growing in the greenhouse, and they stand at around 30" tall. Apart from picking out unwanted growth, should I be thinking about removing any of the lower leaves to encourage general growth. I did read somewhere, that tomatoes don't need all their leaves to grow, and by reducing the leaves encourages fruit growth, or is this a load of rubbish.

[rustylady]

Please use the search button, I'm sure this question has been asked (and answered) before. Generally speaking the answer depends on what variety of tomato you are growing.

[Flummery]

It's one of those things that's really up to you, Workhorse. Some people take them out to encourage air circulation, which it does. Others leave them on. I, being a sloppy kind of gardener, usually intend to take them off but never get around to it. You'll get a decent crop either way. (Unless we have another blighty year!)

[markwcel]

we tend to remove all the leaves under the first flowers...

[zazen999]

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. i try to to get the energy into the fruit; but last year lost most of them to blight. I stripped them all pretty much bare, sprayed with the anti-blight stuff and for a few weeks they perked up then all the fruit went black in one go and I lost them. the ones in the courtyard were fine though, and i chopped those as well.

Apparently I didn't know this until last year but my grandad [who got me into gardening as he grew his own for years] used to grow toms exactly the same was that I do - i didn't realise it but must have absorbed alot of his ways even though he never actually talked about 'how' just 'what'. So, if it was good enough for him, it'll do for me. provided I have the time of course.

[Moyra]

It very much depends as someone has already said whether you are growing Cordon method or bush. If Cordon which it sounds like remove the bottom pair of leaves if they get tatty or yellow and remove all shoots in the leaf joint with the stem. When you have sufficient height and trusses (I usually stop at around 6) then you can pinch out the top shoot. As the fruit grows and you need more light to it to ripen which is usually bottom trusses first then you can remove the leaves below the truss and I actually sometimes half the leaves just above to the next truss. This keeps the plant healthy taken in sunlight through the leaves and at the same time gives more sunlight to the fruit as it ripens. You can work your way up the plant removing leaves and halving leaves as your fruit develops. I hope I have explained it simply enough this is the method I USE and can recommend for Cordon growing not Bush.