How to Trick Tomatoes into Producing Earlier and Ripening Faster

what's going on growers it's James  Prigioni coming to you live from jersey   today me and tuck are going to  share with you how to trick tomato   plants into producing earlier bigger  harvests that ripen quicker let's go! it's june 11th here in new jersey and i already  have tomatoes on my vines getting ready to ripen   the way i grow tomatoes allows me to harvest  tomatoes two weeks earlier than usual the   convenient thing about this is not only do they  form earlier when you do this but the tomatoes   actually ripen quicker when you use this technique  to grow the tomatoes in order to trick the tomato   plant into producing fruit earlier that ripens  quicker what we need to do is reduce the number   of growth points also known as suckers on the  tomato plant so when we remove these what we're   essentially doing is taking all the energy that  would go to those suckers that would be wasted in   a lot of leaf growth and stuff and redirecting it  to the one top and to the rest of the plant when   we do this we're basically tricking the plant into  focusing all of its attention on the production of   fruit on flowers and on its overall health so it's  kind of like shifting all that attention on to the   things that we want we don't want to just waste  all the energy on growth we want to redistribute   that energy into producing flowers and producing  fruit that ripens quickly i'm going to take you   over to a tomato plant now that i haven't worked  on yet and show you how i trick it into earlier   production before i do that though i just want  to let you know we got the new merch this is the   summer merch i think it looks just awesome i love  it so much definitely my favorite design ever so   if you guys like the merch make sure you grab  some at jamesprigioni.com it's only a limited   time thing let's get over to the tomato we're  going to be working on now right here is a tomato   plant that i haven't done anything to yet so i'm  going to explain and show you how i get this thing   to earlier production so what we first want to  do is remove all the suckers let's go into what   a sucker is or growth point so at the top of the  plant right here you'll notice this is where the   leaves are unfolding this is where the new growth  comes from but if you look down here this is   also a top as well so the plant will grow in this  direction and keep on folding if we leave that on   you'll notice there's a bunch of growth points  between each crotch where the stem meets a leaf   in that crotch we have a sucker or a growth point  so those are all over the plant if you notice   if we allow these to grow this plant is going to  grow incredibly bushy and it's just going to grow   out in all different directions it's going to have  so many points of growth that it's going to focus   a lot of its attention just on growth so what we  want to do is go around and remove these suckers   or growth points so the best time to do it is when  the plant is young and you can just snap them off   just like this so the first thing we're  going to do is go around and remove all   these suckers or growth points because they  just pull so much energy from the plant   the idea is we want one growth  point at the top of the plant so we're going to move this one too and then  we're just going to continue removing them   all these suckers here and there's even some up  top here so when we remove all those suckers now   the only growth point is at the top of  the plant so the plant's going to just   grow up that means it's only going to focus its  growth at this one area and it's going to have   more energy to focus on the production of  flowers and ultimately fruit now look down   here and you'll notice how much different  that tomato plant looks after we finished the next thing we want to do is get  a steak or tie in the ground because   this tomato plant needs to be tied to something  because we're going to be growing it vertically   so let's do that i'm going to get a steak  in right now i'm going to move some of these   wood chips out of the way and then just get  this stake in it's best to put the stake in   before you plant a tomato plant but this is  okay it's going to get in as deep as i can   and this tomato plant is going to get really tall  so we want to as tall of a steak as we can get there we go that'll work perfect i think tuck's  getting thirsty tuck where yeah boy want a drink   i think tuck's getting thirsty he's running around  it's a pretty hot day he's playing with his toys   but we got these water bottles too  if you guys want to check them out   at the website as well so they're pretty cool   with a little grow design the summer grow  design on it keeps the water nice and cold if you guys love seeing talking to videos just hit  the subscribe button and throw some hearts down   in the comments for the boss he's always a part of  the videos and we like to try to keep him hydrated   out here because if he doesn't have enough water  and it gets too hot this guy loves digging his own   holes then now that we have our steak in we're  going to start tying our tomato to the post   so what i do is i just take this tomato twine  it's really strong string and i tie it to my steak   cut a little piece off i then take these tomato  clips which work amazing the style of tying   up tomatoes whether you do this with a string or  with a stake just works so incredibly well i don't   think i'll ever switch how i do it so we take  these clips like this and we just clip it around our tomato as such just like that  then we're going to go up higher   best place is like right above one of the knots or  the growth points on the bamboo tie another piece and then we're just gonna continue training clipping  and training this tomato   up the stake as it gets taller i'll  probably bring it closer to the steak just like that our tomato is going to  continue growing up the stake nice and strong   with only that one growth point right  there so another thing i like to do when   the tomatoes are about this height is i like  to remove the leaves the lower leaves about   the first foot or two of leaves on the plant  so you'll notice some of these leaves down here   they're a little damaged these are  the leaves that are going to get   infected by things like fungi and early blight  first because they're so close to the soil so   when it rains the soil the rain splat can  splash splash up to these leaves and then   bring in some soil-borne organisms onto these  leaves and actually cause some pathogens and   some issues so we're going to remove those  lower leaves even this one here that's also   going to help redirect the energy to what we have  on the plant to its growth points to its flowers   and to the production of that fruit leading to  earlier ripening as well so here's the tomato   plant after we finished you can see it's thinned  up a lot so removing those lower leaves is also   going to open up a lot of air flow which is  going to also reduce any issues with fungus   after i finish doing all this  stuff i'll take my wood chips   put it back around the base of my plant like this  as a thick mulch to hold in any kind of moisture   if you live in a location that gets very hot  and just has extremely strong sun what you might   want to do is when you're tying and pruning  your tomatoes is leave a sucker about right   in the middle of the tomato plant leaving one is  okay and the reason we want to have this here is   when the sun gets extremely strong we want  a little bit of shade for those tomatoes   if you live in a super hot location because if  your tomatoes are sitting on the vine and it's   and the sun is just beating down on them  especially for your beefsteak tomatoes that   take a long time to ripen they could get something  which is called sun scald which forms these little   gray patches on the tomato itself and it's  essentially just sunburn so in a location   that i live we don't have those kind of issues it  doesn't get that hot and the sun isn't that strong   so i remove these suckers in the center but again  if you live somewhere maybe down south like texas   or something that gets extreme heat you may want  to leave a sucker every little bit just to help   shade those tomatoes a bit but i don't need it  so i'm going to remove this sucker right here when your tomatoes get so tall that they start  to grow above your steak or your tie say this   tomato right here started to grow so tall that  it was all the way at the top what i could do   is come by and pinch off that growth point or  that sucker right at the top and by pitching up   that growth point the only growth point there  is what it will do is it will encourage more   fruiting and flowering lower on the plant so if  we have a tomato plant and we remove the only   growth point it's going to want to send out other  ones lower so when the tomato gets so tall that   you know it's just higher than your actual steak  or your string you really want to pinch off that   top that top growth point but if you're like me  and you have a tomato set up on a system like this   i've got these rollers where i could just press  a button and it rolls out some more string this   way i can actually lower and lean my tomatoes  when you grow tomatoes like this it will extend   your harvest window by two weeks which is super  valuable it will also cause the tomatoes that   are on the vine to ripen earlier and quicker  which is a great thing too and another thing   is if you plant your tomatoes closely it will  increase your yield so much it will shock you   the reason for this is basically because if we  don't remove the suckers on the tomato plant   say we left like this sucker right here on the  tomato plant what this sucker will do in time   is it will essentially grow into a whole new  tomato plant connected to this plant it's like   almost like this plant sprouts a whole new plant  on it which seems like it would be awesome and   really convenient but it's actually not because  if we allow this to happen all over the plant   then it's just going to focus so much of  its attention on just the production of   more growth more leaves we don't want that we  want to focus its attention on production on fruit   on flowers then we'll have a good harvest on this  one plant if we allow all those suckers to grow   in all different directions this tomato plant will  end up being like say four feet wide just sprawled   out in all different directions instead of doing  that we could take four plants and and plant them   in that same four square foot area so if you allow  it to sprawl one plant in a four square foot area   if we stake the tomatoes like we're doing here  we can plant tomatoes every square foot if we   want especially like i do it with the strings we  can plant tomatoes one foot apart and we're using   that vertical space so when we're doing this  it's making it so the tomatoes get more light   more airflow and are a lot easier to harvest  from so we can get the we can get almost like   four different plants in four square feet rather  than letting the tomato just sprawl out in every   different direction and make like you know six  or eight different plants on that one plant   the yield ends up being bigger on one plant when  you don't remove the suckers but the yield of four   plants in the same square foot area ends up being  a lot bigger because we're utilizing that space   your tomatoes get bigger and you get more rounds  of harvesting because if it's something like a   cherry tomato the cherry tomatoes form quickly  and they ripen quickly so the plant can go from   ripening the tomatoes one round of tomatoes to  the next one to the next one so it's almost like   again you get more rounds of harvests now  i'm in the location where i have my tomatoes   planted one square foot apart come in here you'll  notice we have one two three four tomato plants   planting this in a four square foot section  if i was to let them sprawl i would only be   able to fit one tomato plant here now i have  four so when we grow like this we're getting   bigger tomatoes that form earlier ripen quicker  and are higher in vitamin c because they get   more actual direct sunlight so growing tomatoes  vertically like this and tying them actually helps   let us use time to our advantage so we're using  time and space to our advantage because we can   get those tomatoes actually quicker so the only  maybe drawback of growing tomatoes like this   is that it takes a little bit more work to  actually come out prune them and tie them   but in my opinion it's completely worth it because  the absolute ease of harvest so as these tomatoes   continue to grow up the string it's so easy to  just go by and grab the tomatoes and find them   to harvest them when you let the tomatoes sprawl  all over the ground it's sometimes hard to find   the tomatoes so you might miss a few and also it's  so they're so much more susceptible to disease   so this way gets us tomatoes that are  bigger earlier better and have less   susceptibility to any disease issues so in my  opinion this is the way to go that's today's video   growers thanks for watching i hope you enjoyed  it i hope you got something out of it i've been   growing tomatoes like this for years now and since  i've converted to this style of growing tomatoes   i don't think i'll ever go back it's so convenient  you get earlier tomatoes and it's just it's just   a beautiful way to do it in my opinion the system  is enjoyable in basically every single way if you   guys enjoyed the video though hit the like button  hit the subscribe button share with your friends   don't forget to check out the new spring merch at  jamesprigioni.com it's only going to be a limited   time thing so you can notice it's getting dark  here it looks like we're going to have some storms   we're supposed to have some bad weather today  but fortunately we have all of our tomatoes tied   nice and we have them coming here we have a a  piece of wood down here that we're tying our   string to this way the sw the wind won't rip  at the root of the tomato so when the wind's   blowing and it pulls up the string it won't  pull at the roots of the tomato it will pull   out the piece of wood at the bottom that's a  little addition that we added this year and i   think it's going to be extremely helpful so in my  opinion i can't really think of that many reasons   why i want to tie my tomatoes and prune them  it's just basically convenient in every single   way tuck hasn't been in the video that much today  right tucky boy he's been busy doing his own thing   a little earlier it was hotter out so he was  into digging his holes you'll notice right here   this is one of his favorite locations to dig  to dig his holes so he likes to dig these   deep holes and then laying them when it's  really when it's really hot out right boy   but overall this guy never quits he's always out  here with us he's not a part of the garden he's   the heart of the garden so we just love having  them be a part of it we also want to thank our new   channel member stacey longo thanks for being a  part of team grow thanks for contributing thanks   for having your hand in the tomatoes we're  growing the early harvest and thanks for just   making what me and tuck love to do just come  all together so if you guys do enjoy the video   make sure you check out a few more of them tuck  and james will be back again real soon we out!

Channel: The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni

Views: 603,067

Keywords: how to tomatoes, tomatoes how to, tomatoes, how to grow tomatoes, tomato tricks, tomato tips, tips for tomatoes, how to prune tomatoes, how to stake tomatoes, how to tie tomatoes, growing tomatoes, tomato clips, how to prune and stake tomatoes, organic tomatoes, James prigioni

Id: VUxi8AtGCYQ

Length: 14min 42sec (882 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 11 2022