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  • Home
  • About, Services, Contact
  • Ask Amanda
  • Roses
    • Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses
    • Climbing Roses
    • Portland's Rose Test Garden
    • Rose Insects & Diseases
    • Pruning Roses
    • Rose Sawfly
    • Rose Bloom Balling
  • Pruning Basics 101
    • Pruning Tools
    • Winter Pruning
    • Pruning Grapes
    • Pruning Clematis
    • Prune Your Own Garden Registration
  • Lawn Basics
    • Lawn Reno, Seed & Sod
    • Lawn Maintenance Schedule
    • Spring Lawn Care
    • Moss in Lawns
    • Lawn Alternatives
    • Lawn Grub Control
  • Mulch & Mulching
    • Living Mulches - Groundcovers
  • Propagation
    • Growing Seeds Outdoors
    • Growing Seeds Indoors
    • Taking Cuttings
    • Seed & Plant Catalogues
  • How to Garden Topics
    • Fall Garden Chores
    • Planting Know-How
    • Soil Building
    • Watering Tips & Techniques
    • Drought Gardening
    • Sheet Mulching, Lasagna Gardening
    • Cover Crops
    • Composting
    • Compost Tea
    • Houseplant Winter Care
    • Hummingbirds in Winter
    • Winterize Your Garden
    • Ponds in Winter
  • Growing Food
    • Spring Veggie Gardening
    • Fall Veggie Garden Clean-up
    • Crop Rotation, Succession & Companion Planting
    • Harvesting
    • Growing Potatoes
    • Winter Veggie Gardening
    • Taming Tomatoes
    • Speeding up Tomato Harvest
    • Tomato Tips
    • Saving Tomato Seeds
    • Tomato Troubles
  • Plant Pests 1
    • Plant Pests Part 2 - Controlling Insects
    • Garden Inspections
    • Helping Pollinators
    • Brown Marmorated Stink Bug
    • Dogwood Anthracnose
    • Viburnum Leaf Beetle
    • Dormant Oil/Lime Sulfur
    • Japanese Beetles
    • Peony Blotch/Measles
    • Slugs & Snails
    • Horsetail, the Weed
    • June Beetle
    • Powdery Mildew
    • Soil Solarization
    • Rhododendron Leaf Spot
    • Plant Rusts
    • Black Knot
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    • Choosing a Container
  • Feeding Plants 101
    • Fertilizers & Ratios
    • Nutritional Deficiencies & Toxicities
    • Organic Plant Food
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    • Colourful Fall Plants
    • Abelia
    • American Sweetgum
    • Ash (Fraxinus) Trees
    • Astilbes
    • Azaleas, Deciduous
    • Aubretia, Rock Cress
    • Aucuba, Japanese Spotted Laurel
    • Autumn Crocus
    • Bear's Breeches
    • Beautyberry, Callicarpa
    • Black-eyed Susans
    • Bleeding Heart, Lamprocapnos spectabilis
    • Calla Lilies
    • Dahlias
    • Daylily
    • Delphiniums
    • Devil's Walking Stick, Aralia spinosa
    • Dwarf Alberta Spruce
    • Dwarf Burning Bush
    • Elderberries, Sambucus
    • Evergreen Clematis
    • English Daisies
    • Fall Asters
    • Flowering Currants
    • Flowering Quince
    • Fritillaria
    • Garden Peonies
    • Garden Phlox
    • Ginkgo biloba
    • Grape-hyacinths
    • Handkerchief or Dove Tree
    • Harry Lauder's Walking Stick
    • Heathers
    • Heavenly Bamboo
    • Hellebores, Lenten roses
    • Himalayan Sweet Box
    • Hydrangeas, Mophead & Lacecap
    • Jack-in-the-pulpit, Cobra Lily
    • Japanese Anemones
    • Japanese Forest Grass
    • Japanese Maples
    • Japanese Skimmia
    • Japanese spirea
    • Japanese Spurge
    • Katsura Trees
    • Laurustinus viburnum
    • Lavenders
    • Lily-of-the-Valley Shrub, Pieris japonica
    • Mediterranean Spurge
    • Mexican Mock Orange
    • Montana Clematis
    • Mountain Ash
    • Oriental Poppies
    • Oriental Lilies
    • Paperbark Maple
    • Pink Dawn Bodnant Viburnum
    • Poinsettias
    • Oregon Grape Holly
    • Ornamental Kale
    • Peruvian Lily, Alstroemeria
    • Phalaenopsis, Moth Orchids
    • Persian Silk Tree
    • Portuguese Laurel
    • Rose of Sharon
    • Shrubby Cinquefoil
    • Sneezeweed, Helenium
    • Snowberry
    • Snowdrops
    • Star Magnolia
    • Strawberry Tree, Pacific Madrone
    • Stewartia
    • Torch Lily, Kniphofia uvaria
    • Tree Peonies
    • Tuberous Begonias
    • Variegated Wintercreeper
    • Virginia Creeper
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    • Winterhazel, Corylopsis
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Tomato Taming

Amanda's Garden Consulting 

Just a Snip Here and There ....

pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
Before
pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
After
Tomato plants have the tendency to grow wild, especially when they ae happy. Long sinuous stems beget even more stems with flowers, fruit and leaves competing for space, air and light. Shoots bend and break under the weight of the ripening fruit. Tomatoes rot on the vine as they go unnoticed, while others become diseased due to the crowded conditions. Suckers run rampant taking up precious space and blocking light, while they pump out even more flowers and fruit. The season just isn’t long enough for all those flowers to produce harvestable tomatoes.

pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
A stem that is no longer supported has bent under the weight of its fruit.
pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
Suckers form at stem axils and are best removed before they become too long.
pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
At the end of the season shorten stems to a cluster of fruit to promote ripening.

​Ongoing maintenance throughout the growing season is beneficial.  Plants generally respond favorably to some judicious pruning and training as they grow. Since plants grow quickly, it should become a weekly task to keep them in check to make sure stems are supported and to remove overcrowded growth. If you leave it too long, then you’ll be removing too much at one time – which causes stress followed by wilting and disease. Only remove one quarter of excess growth at one time. Water well after pruning and fertilize with an organic fertilizer to help the plant bounce back.

pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
This sucker needs to be removed despite the flowers as it is superfluous growth.
pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
Remove suckers at their base.
In August and/or September growing healthy fruit that ripens in time before frost arrives is the name of the game. Flowers and immature fruit should be removed. So should foliage that shades developing fruit and stems that continue to pump out flowers at the expense of existing fruit. ​
pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
To encourage this cluster of Pozzano tomatoes to ripen, cut the remainder of the stem off.
pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
Once the rest of the stem has been removed the fruit should ripen quickly.

pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
Remove suckers and any excess growth that form along stems.
pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
At the end of the season cut off new stems at their origin.

pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
Ouch! Keep on top of tomatoes as they grow to prevent such vegan cruelty!
pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
Upon further inspection, this side shoot (sucker) also had to be removed.
pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
The stem was bent over because it was too long and overloaded with fruit.
pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
The sucker is removed.
pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
To reduce the weight, cut the stem just above a a good cluster of fruit.
pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
The same stem is secured to the sturdy tomato cage.

pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
Leaves that shade the tomatoes slow down ripening.
pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
Once the leaf is cut back (not removed) air and sunshine can penetrate.
pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
Leaves are hiding the fruit within.
pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
Care must be taken esposed don't become sun scalded, if they have been in deep shade.
Pozzano tomato,Early Girl tomato,pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
Tamed Pozzano and Early Girl tomatoes.
pozzano tomatoes,pruning tomatoes,training tomatoes,tomato suckers,how to grow tomatoes,growing tomatoes,taming tomatoes,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda's Garden Consulting,garden website
Pozzano tomatoes.

What to Remove

  1. ​ongoing: Remove suckers as they develop and preferably when they are small.
  2. ongoing: Ensure all stems are supported so they don’t bend or break.
  3. ongoing: Straighten and secure all bent stems.
  4. ongoing: Remove suckers that develop on existing fruiting stems.
  5. ongoing: Remove any diseased or damaged fruit and plant parts asap.
  6. late summer: Cut back stems to a cluster of ripening fruit.
  7. late summer: Remove flowers and immature fruit clusters that will not have time to ripen before frost.
  8. late summer: Expose ripening fruit by removing or cutting back some of the leaves that shade them. Be cautious not to remove too much foliage, especially if the fruit hasn't seen the light of day.
  9. after pruning: Water and fertilize with an organic fertilizer.
Picture
Pozzano tomatoes before.
Picture
Pozzano tomatoes after.

Picture
Early Girl before.
Picture
Bush Beefsteak before.
Picture
Early Girl after.
Picture
Bush Beefsteak after.
Picture
Tomatoes tamed, for the time being.

Tomato Taming & Ripening 

There’s a few techniques to encourage tomatoes to ripen and to prolong the harvest.
Remove:
  • existing flowers and buds. This allows the plant to concentrate its energy on ripening existing fruit instead of growing new ones.
  • stem ends. Cut just above a cluster of ripening fruit.
  • lower leaves especially ones that touch the ground.
  • diseased foliage and fruit, split and overripe tomatoes.
  • small fruit to allow bigger tomatoes to mature.
  • excess fruit on overloaded plants.
  • small and new suckers
  • any diseased, sickly, buggy and sick fruit 
  1. Apply Epsom Salts: Provides magnesium. Mix 2 tablespoons of Epsom salts to one gallon of water. Either apply the solution to the soil or mist the foliage. Or apply a cup of Epsom salts around each plant and water it in well. 
  2. Stop watering. The lack of water encourages ripening, however, don’t allow plants to wilt.
  3. Milk: Spray plants with 1 part skim milk and 9 parts water. Repeat every two weeks. 
  4. Cover plants at night. This not only keeps plants warmer it keeps plants drier reducing blight and other diseases. Use breathable fabric such as tablecloths, floating row covers. Don’t forget to uncover plants in the morning.
  5. Watch for frost. Extend harvest by covering plants when frost is predicted. Use floating row covers, sheets or other breathable fabric. Plastic has no insulating value.
  6. Inspect & harvest daily

But Wait...There's More...

There's certainly more to growing veggies than this article. Check out the links below for more information. 
  • ​Spring Veggie Gardening
  • Crop Rotation, Succession and Companion Planting.
  • Taming Tomatoes
  • Speeding Up Tomato Harvests
  • Tomato Tips
  • Tomato Troubles
  • Tomatoes Seedlings to Plants
  • Growing Potatoes
  • Harvesting
  • Winter Veggie Gardening
  • Building a Potager (French Kitchen) Garden
  • How to Build an Easy Veggie Garden Trellis
  • Plant Pests Part 1
  • Plant Pests Part 2: Controlling Insects
  • Slugs & Snails
  • Growing Seeds Indoors
  • Growing Seeds Outdoors 
  • Soil Building
  • Compost Tea
  • Composting
  • Fertilizing & Feeding Plants

Home

 About, Services & Contact

Ask Amanda

Copyright © 2017
  • Home
  • About, Services, Contact
  • Ask Amanda
  • Roses
    • Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses
    • Climbing Roses
    • Portland's Rose Test Garden
    • Rose Insects & Diseases
    • Pruning Roses
    • Rose Sawfly
    • Rose Bloom Balling
  • Pruning Basics 101
    • Pruning Tools
    • Winter Pruning
    • Pruning Grapes
    • Pruning Clematis
    • Prune Your Own Garden Registration
  • Lawn Basics
    • Lawn Reno, Seed & Sod
    • Lawn Maintenance Schedule
    • Spring Lawn Care
    • Moss in Lawns
    • Lawn Alternatives
    • Lawn Grub Control
  • Mulch & Mulching
    • Living Mulches - Groundcovers
  • Propagation
    • Growing Seeds Outdoors
    • Growing Seeds Indoors
    • Taking Cuttings
    • Seed & Plant Catalogues
  • How to Garden Topics
    • Fall Garden Chores
    • Planting Know-How
    • Soil Building
    • Watering Tips & Techniques
    • Drought Gardening
    • Sheet Mulching, Lasagna Gardening
    • Cover Crops
    • Composting
    • Compost Tea
    • Houseplant Winter Care
    • Hummingbirds in Winter
    • Winterize Your Garden
    • Ponds in Winter
  • Growing Food
    • Spring Veggie Gardening
    • Fall Veggie Garden Clean-up
    • Crop Rotation, Succession & Companion Planting
    • Harvesting
    • Growing Potatoes
    • Winter Veggie Gardening
    • Taming Tomatoes
    • Speeding up Tomato Harvest
    • Tomato Tips
    • Saving Tomato Seeds
    • Tomato Troubles
  • Plant Pests 1
    • Plant Pests Part 2 - Controlling Insects
    • Garden Inspections
    • Helping Pollinators
    • Brown Marmorated Stink Bug
    • Dogwood Anthracnose
    • Viburnum Leaf Beetle
    • Dormant Oil/Lime Sulfur
    • Japanese Beetles
    • Peony Blotch/Measles
    • Slugs & Snails
    • Horsetail, the Weed
    • June Beetle
    • Powdery Mildew
    • Soil Solarization
    • Rhododendron Leaf Spot
    • Plant Rusts
    • Black Knot
  • Container Growing
    • Choosing a Container
  • Feeding Plants 101
    • Fertilizers & Ratios
    • Nutritional Deficiencies & Toxicities
    • Organic Plant Food
  • Plant of the Month
    • Spring Flowering Bulbs
    • Colourful Fall Plants
    • Abelia
    • American Sweetgum
    • Ash (Fraxinus) Trees
    • Astilbes
    • Azaleas, Deciduous
    • Aubretia, Rock Cress
    • Aucuba, Japanese Spotted Laurel
    • Autumn Crocus
    • Bear's Breeches
    • Beautyberry, Callicarpa
    • Black-eyed Susans
    • Bleeding Heart, Lamprocapnos spectabilis
    • Calla Lilies
    • Dahlias
    • Daylily
    • Delphiniums
    • Devil's Walking Stick, Aralia spinosa
    • Dwarf Alberta Spruce
    • Dwarf Burning Bush
    • Elderberries, Sambucus
    • Evergreen Clematis
    • English Daisies
    • Fall Asters
    • Flowering Currants
    • Flowering Quince
    • Fritillaria
    • Garden Peonies
    • Garden Phlox
    • Ginkgo biloba
    • Grape-hyacinths
    • Handkerchief or Dove Tree
    • Harry Lauder's Walking Stick
    • Heathers
    • Heavenly Bamboo
    • Hellebores, Lenten roses
    • Himalayan Sweet Box
    • Hydrangeas, Mophead & Lacecap
    • Jack-in-the-pulpit, Cobra Lily
    • Japanese Anemones
    • Japanese Forest Grass
    • Japanese Maples
    • Japanese Skimmia
    • Japanese spirea
    • Japanese Spurge
    • Katsura Trees
    • Laurustinus viburnum
    • Lavenders
    • Lily-of-the-Valley Shrub, Pieris japonica
    • Mediterranean Spurge
    • Mexican Mock Orange
    • Montana Clematis
    • Mountain Ash
    • Oriental Poppies
    • Oriental Lilies
    • Paperbark Maple
    • Pink Dawn Bodnant Viburnum
    • Poinsettias
    • Oregon Grape Holly
    • Ornamental Kale
    • Peruvian Lily, Alstroemeria
    • Phalaenopsis, Moth Orchids
    • Persian Silk Tree
    • Portuguese Laurel
    • Rose of Sharon
    • Shrubby Cinquefoil
    • Sneezeweed, Helenium
    • Snowberry
    • Snowdrops
    • Star Magnolia
    • Strawberry Tree, Pacific Madrone
    • Stewartia
    • Torch Lily, Kniphofia uvaria
    • Tree Peonies
    • Tuberous Begonias
    • Variegated Wintercreeper
    • Virginia Creeper
    • Weigela
    • Winterhazel, Corylopsis
    • Winter Camellia, C. sasanqua
    • Wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens
    • Witch Hazel
    • Wood Anemones
    • Yews
  • Garden Tours & Such
    • South Delta Garden Club Tour 2023
  • Monthly Flower Arrangements
    • Christmas Wreaths
  • Website Index
  • Subscribe
  • Need Help?
    • Gift Cards
  • Garden Club Events