Don't Make This CRITICAL Mistake Growing Tomatoes!

what's going on gardeners on today's two minute Garden tip I'm going to share with you a common mistake that new tomato gardeners often make without even knowing it that can destroy your tomato Harvest there are two main types of tomato plants indeterminate tomato plants and determinate tomato plants and while they are both tomatoes and the fruit is indistinguishable from each other they behave very differently whether a tomato plant is a determinate or indeterminate variety will be clearly labeled on each individual seed packet or it will be placed clearly in the listing if you like to order your seeds online or inside a catalog the overwhelming majority of tomato varieties are indeterminate tomatoes so when you watch pruning tutorials online for how to best prune your tomato plants you are probably watching videos on how to prune indeterminate tomato plants and that can cause a major problem indeterminate tomato plants are a Vine that will grow to an indeterminate length meaning it will continue to grow in perpetuity until it is killed off either by pests disease or or weather most commonly Frost and freeze indeterminate tomato Vines can grow like crazy they can produce suckers in between the leaf and the stem at the node and then those suckers will grow into new main stems that will take over an area so for that reason when you look online for tomato pruning tutorials they usually tell you to remove most of the suckers on the tomato plant itself to control the growth and try to keep it to one or two main stems single stemming has become very common because it is a great way to manage the growth of your tomato plants maximize airflow and keep them compact to a small space and that's exactly what you see right here I'm growing this big beef indeterminate tomato as a single stem Vine that I am then trellising up this piece of twine the problem is this method of pruning only works for indeterminate tomato varieties if you do this to determinate varieties you will absolutely destroy your Harvest so if you're not specifically paying attention to the seed packets or to the varieties of the transplants that you're growing and you're growing both into permanent and determinate varieties and pruning them all the same you will have a very bad Harvest and here is why determinate tomato plants are not Vines they grow as a bush they grow to a predetermined height hence the name determinate depending on the variety you'll grow they are anywhere from two to four feet tall at maturity so it's very important that you treat them very differently because they grow in an entirely different way determinate tomatoes need to sucker as much as possible because they have a very stocky short stem and it's all of those suckers that grow off at 45 degree angles at the nodes that produce all of the flowers that then become your fruit so if you prune them like an indeterminate and you remove those suckers you will not get flowers and you will not get fruit in fact determinate Tomatoes basically shouldn't be pruned at all the only acceptable growth that you can remove from determinate tomatoes are leaves below the first flower cluster once you see a flower cluster you should not remove any of the leaves so for this determinate tomato variety right here here it's okay to remove the bottom Leaf nodes that are nowhere near a flower cluster because they can drag on the ground and they can promote disease but other than that little bit of pruning that I just gave this tomato plant right now there's really nothing else that you should do to it the only other time it's acceptable to remove foliage from a determinate tomato plant is if the plant is suffering from disease and has some disease leaves that you can remove however that is usually not a problem because determinate tomato plants have a predetermined lifespan and once they start ripening their fruits they start to naturally die back and die so for that reason generally speaking the disease does not kill off the tomato plant before it dies off on its own naturally so determinant varieties are perfect for gardeners with high disease pressure for that reason the same thing I found holds true if you're growing tomato varieties from the dwarf tomato project like I am while some may be listed as semi-determinate or even in some instances indeterminate because they grow to a predetermined height and generally can't get above 3 feet tall I recommend you treat them just like a determinate variety and you don't prune them except for removing the lowest leaves underneath the first flower cluster so if you're new to growing tomatoes make sure you keep these things in mind if you're growing a blend of indeterminate determinate and dwarf tomatoes and you're unaware and you treat them all the same you can run into major problems that will negatively affect your Harvest and that's today's two minute Garden tip if you're new to the Channel please consider subscribing and hitting the Bell to 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Channel: 2 Minute Garden Tips

Views: 619,327

Keywords: growing tomatoes, how to grow tomatoes, how to prune, tomato plants, tomatoes, tomato, pruning, indeterminate tomatoes, determinate tomatoes, new gardeners, dwarf tomato project, garden, gardening, vegetable garden, fruit tree, fruit trees, gardening tips, garden tips, organic gardening, raised bed, gardening tips and tricks, gardening hacks, garden hack, garden hacks, food forest, edible landscaping, grow, growing, plants, vegetables, organic, how to, diy, 2 minute garden tips

Id: D0YrPRUnBqo

Length: 4min 38sec (278 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 30 2023