Toms- To trim or not to trim? That is the question

[Cosmo and Dibs]

Should I trim the foliage on my MoneyMaker tom plants to allow the sun to help ripen the fruit, or just leave them to get on with it themselves?

My trusses are very much in the shade because of the foliage.

[scarey55]

I don't know what variety they use but all the French gardens here have nearly all the leaves cut off and the tomatoes are hanging bare on the stalks. They always seem to have big fruit on that ripens very quickly. I should think that if you prune some of the leaves you should be ok especially if they have finished flowering.

I would welcome the chance to find out if it works but mine have just succumbed to blight for the 3rd year running so - harrumph

[paulgahan]

I always trim, they don't need watering as often with fewer leaves.

[Alice]

You can remove some of the leaves - just don't scalp them.

[GrubbyGirl]

I've been trimming back the leaf stem by about half rather than removing them completely, they still seem to be doing ok.

[gojiberry]

Once the plant has produced the number of trusses and you have a good set then there is no problem with taking the leaves off.

Ian

[smallblueplanet]

I always take a fair amount of leaves off to allow 'airflow' and hopefully lessen the chances of blight.

[divvy]

I have just thined out my leaves to let the light in as they were like bushes and the tomatos were hidden underneath. Tonight I put the nana skin in to see if that helps too. I have only had 2 ripe tomatos so far .

[rana]

Removal of leaves, particularly where plants have become crowded, will improve airflow and reduce the incidence of grey mould and possibly blight later in the season. In addition the fruits will ripen better.

[Uncle Albert]

My recollection is that "old" leaves provide a tiny fraction of the energy the plant needs. The small developing leaves are where the important stuff is carried out. By mid July, I've trimmed all the leaves from the lowest 2' of the plant, plus any big leaves further up, and by mid August, I'll have cleared up to 3' or so.

[vicky]

I have been told (old boy gardening wisdom here) you should leave one leaf above your highest truss as that 'draws the water up'. I would be interested to learn if it was true or not.

[Squizz]

This is my first year and I was so happy to see that my healthy tomato plants had side shoots that reached, almost, to the other side of the greenhouse, until I was told that this was not how it should be! oops!

[Cosmo and Dibs]

When you say that you remove the 'leaves' do you mean the whole 'branch', or just the actual leaves?