Should I pick leaves from tomatoes? When to start and whether to pick off the bottom leaves of tomatoes

There is no clear answer to whether it is necessary to trim the leaves of tomatoes. Some gardeners say that this procedure is mandatory, others argue that this should never be done. And in fact, why remove leaves from tomatoes if they play a big role in the life of plants, and the bushes feed on them? We tried to answer these and other questions in detail in our article.

Experienced tomato experts recommend be sure to pick lower leaves, since they come into contact with the soil and are a source of infection. Therefore, the lower leaves on tomatoes are torn off to prevent late blight and other fungal diseases.

Leaflets in the middle of the bush Be sure to cut off in those regions where there is little sun. Large leaves shade the fruits, causing tomatoes to ripen poorly. But if your region has a lot of sun or the weather this year is rich in hot sunny days, the foliage should be left so that it shades the fruit.

Removing leaves also provides benefits such as ventilation bushes This is very important in greenhouses, especially with dense plantings.

And one more reason why the leaves under the vine are torn off from tomatoes - nutrition will flow directly through the trunk to fruits, without wasting money on foliage.

Attention! Foliage should be removed gradually according to the principle of interchangeability. Read below when and how to properly trim leaves on tomatoes.

You definitely need to cut it off yellow, old leaves and leaves with various spots. Firstly, they can be infected, and secondly, the plant will spend strength and nutrients restoring them, which will delay fruiting.

When to remove leaves from tomatoes

The lower leaves of tomatoes can begin to be removed 10-14 days after planting, when the plants have taken root in the new location and begin to grow.

And now ATTENTION! Be sure to leave at least 3-4 leaves under the flowering brush. Until the fruit begins to set on the cluster, you need to leave three to four leaves under it. As soon as you see that the cluster is fully formed and small green fruits are hanging on it, the leaves under it should be torn off.

One more rule – Leaves above the brush should not be touched! You can continue to break out the leaves after the brush above has fully formed. That is, if there is only one brush and leaves above it on the tomato bushes, we do not touch them. When the first cluster bears fruit, remove the foliage underneath it and wait for the second cluster. Leaves above We cut off with the first brush after the fruits form on the second brush. In the same way, we gradually break off the leaves under the other trusses on the tomatoes.

By the end of the season, tomatoes practically no longer need leaves. Ripening fruits have enough nutrients, which they receive through the stem. At the end of summer or beginning of autumn, in many greenhouses, and even in open ground, you can see tall tomato bushes without any foliage, but with a lot of fruit.

How to properly pick leaves from a tomato

Tomato leaves should be removed so as not to damage the trunk:

• lift the leaf up (namely up) and press it to the trunk of the plant;
• a crunching sound means the leaf has broken off;
• Now you can simply delete it.

Nand in no case should you pull the leaves down or to the side. Otherwise, the trunk will be damaged, as a result of which bacteria and spores of fungal diseases can penetrate into the plant through the resulting wound. To put it simply, the damaged area will become a source of infection, and the tomatoes may get sick.

If it is not possible to break off a leaf painlessly for the plants, cut it using pruners or scissors, leaving a small stump.

Before use, disinfect the instrument in a solution of potassium permanganate.

Attention! It is recommended to remove a maximum of one or two leaves at a time, otherwise you can harm the bush, as the water balance of the plant will be dramatically disrupted. Pick 1-2 leaves per week. During this time, the wounds at the site of the removed leaves will heal, and the bush will grow. But if the plants grow quickly, you can break out the lower leaves 3-4 times a week, tearing off 2-3 leaves at a time.

We hope that from our article you understood when, how correctly and what leaves need to be removed from tomatoes. We wish you good harvests in the new summer season!

Tomato crops need care, just like any other (greenhouse, hybrid). The issue of leaf loss on tomato bushes for summer residents is no less important than the schedule for watering and feeding plants. When to pick leaves from tomatoes in a greenhouse - read our article.

It doesn’t matter where you collect red, ripe fruits: on the street or in a greenhouse. The removal of excess and diseased foliage is difficult to dispute.

So, the reasons why leaves on tomato bushes need to be removed:

• the lower leaves (especially if they are large) evaporate a lot of moisture, which the whole plant needs so much. In addition, these leaves take a lot of useful energy for their growth, instead of sending it to the formation of fruits;
• increased density due to leaves in the greenhouse disrupts air exchange, which can lead to fungal infection or invasion of harmful insects;
• The leaves, wet after watering, begin to come into contact with each other and with the soil. This will almost certainly lead to late blight or other bacterial disease.

Which leaves need to be plucked?

If you think carefully, tomato leaves (like all plant leaves in general) are a full-fledged part of the plant that fulfills its assigned role.

However, the goal of growing a cultivated plant is to obtain healthy and large fruits. Therefore, we will approach the cutting off of excess foliage rationally.

The following are subject to removal:

• blackened and dry leaves;
• leaves with black spots (from which infection can spread);
• leaves growing on the north side;
• leaves growing deep in the bush (they interfere with air exchange);
• leaves and stepsons grown in the fruit cluster;
• leaves growing at the very bottom;
• leaves growing at the top of the bush;
• so-called stepsons (growing in the leaf axil).

If for some reason you are late with planting, and extra leaves have already appeared, wait a week. Let the bush take root well.

How do you know if a plant needs cleaning? Take a close look at your greenhouse or ground tomato bushes. Have they become too branchy? Get down to business with confidence.

There are no strict rules regarding leaf breaking, but experienced gardeners consider it acceptable to remove 3-4 leaves 2 times a week. If you notice the spread of any disease, do not delay this action. Urgently remove all diseased leaves and treat bushes.

If your tomatoes are grown outside, do not touch them in rainy weather. Wait for a dry and warm morning. This way, dirt will not get into the micro-wounds. You can break off the leaves, or you can use pruning shears. The main thing is not to remove thin strips of skin, as this can harm the plant.

Leaves growing in the shade will not bring any benefit; they can be safely removed.

If you are bothered by the wounds left on the stems, you can make a simple disinfectant solution from potassium permanganate. Many gardeners always keep such a solution at hand, on a shelf in the greenhouse. You can also use it to clean the pruning shears before starting such work.

If there are no ovaries on the brush yet, you need to wait until it breaks. As soon as there are enough fruits on the cluster, feel free to tear off all the leaves below it.

Some gardeners remove absolutely all the foliage (leaving a little at the top) when 8-9 clusters with future red fruits appear on the bush.

In August (when the fruits are already ripening), you can safely pinch off all the excess on the tops of the bushes. The plant will not “pull” new ovaries; let it spend all its energy on the existing fruits.

Don’t forget about staking the bushes; it will not only ease the load on the stem, but also allow the leaves to receive more sunlight.

Regulate the amount of moisture. Excessive watering will only cause harm. The foliage will actively grow, and excess moisture can cause various diseases.

Why are stepchildren removed?

Gardeners with experience are unanimous in the opinion that stepsons should always be removed. Stepchildren are shoots that appear between the main trunk and its side shoot. Here are some mandatory recommendations for freeing tomato bushes from stepchildren:

• all shoots under the hands must be removed (this will improve air exchange and provide access to sunlight);
• 2 times a week you need to look through all the bushes and remove several lower leaves (and if the plant is quite healthy, then cutting off 6 or 7 leaves will not hurt);
• Until the ovaries begin to form, do not touch the upper leaves under any circumstances.

How to properly remove excess shoots, read in the next paragraph.

How to properly remove stepchildren:

• It is better to do this activity in the morning (before 12 noon). Plant micro-wounds will heal faster;
• on a cloudy day without sun, it is better not to touch the plants;
• to avoid disrupting the movement of plant sap, leave 2-3 leaves at the top;
• When breaking off the process, do not point your fingers down. A strip of thin skin that is removed can open the way for fungi and bacteria. Point your fingers up;
• if the shoots are hard, take a pruner, having first cleaned and disinfected it;
• the juice of tomato leaves is very caustic - before working with bushes, put on a robe, hat or headscarf, and gloves;
• do not cut off the stepson at the root. Leave 5 mm, it will gradually dry out and will no longer grow. If you tear it out completely, the shoot will appear again.

As you already understood from our article, pruning tomato bushes is not a waste of time, but caring for the plant and an excellent measure for obtaining tasty and healthy tomatoes for you and your family. To understand the process, watch a video about this agricultural procedure.

Tomatoes are very popular among gardeners and are grown on almost every plot of land. To obtain a high yield, not only timely watering and adequate fertilizing are required, but also... Many articles have been written about the need for stepsoning and do not raise any objections among summer residents. But whether it is necessary below the flower brush is a moot point. Novice amateur gardeners especially doubt this.

Removing leaves from tomatoes

Why should you remove leaves?

• Firstly, this procedure helps to increase the ventilation of the tomato bush and improve air access to the entire plant.
• Secondly, the less dense bush will allow the soil to dry out quickly after rain or watering. But it is known that high humidity increases the likelihood of tomato diseases with fungus, late blight, and brown spot.
• Thirdly, trimming the lower foliage increases the illumination of the entire plant, which contributes to the rapid ripening of fruits and improvement of their taste,

Why should you remove tomato leaves?

The procedure for removing leaves from tomato bushes equally applies to crops grown in a greenhouse and in open beds.

1. Lissues touching the ground, remove necessary first of all to reduce the risk of disease of the tomato bush through pathogens living in the soil. This is a preventive measure and will free the vegetable grower from using drugs to combat diseases and thereby protect himself from harmful elements contained in the drug. And it will save time on processing tomato plantings.
2. Except for the leaves touching the ground, others need to be removed, located below the raceme of inflorescences. Just don’t remove all the leaves at once. Otherwise, it severely injures the plant, causing it to become stressed, which negatively affects its development. Removal is carried out no more than twice a week and no more than two leaves from the plant at a time. Moreover, removal is carried out after the ovary is well formed and the fruits reach a certain size and begin to turn brown. Until this time, flowers, ovaries and fruits receive nutrition from these leaves. In an adult bush, the stem is usually bare up to 30 cm from below.
3. Leaves growing above the first flower cluster are removed in several stages, also focusing on the formation of the next ovary located above the leaves.

Procedure for removing leaves from tomatoes

The health of the plants depends on the correct pruning of the leaves. Experienced vegetable growers recommend carrying out this procedure on a sunny day and in the morning, so that the wounds at the site of removal can dry out quickly and do not become a hotbed of pathogens of various diseases.

The leaf petiole is pressed up and torn off. If you pull it down, the petiole will come off with a long strip of skin, which will increase the surface of the damage and the risk of disease.

removing tomato leaves

Which leaves should I remove?

Immediately, without hesitation, they remove all parts of the plants that show signs of disease, be it foliage or even fruit. If only part of the leaf is affected, then you can cut off this area. The leaves perform the main functions of providing the fruits with food and air. Therefore, all leaves except the top are removed only when 7-8 clusters with fruits have formed.

If the leaf is healthy and young, it works for the development of the bush and its harvest, so there is no need to remove it. However, over time, the leaf weakens, dries out, becomes stained, and now it becomes a nuisance to the plant, a real breeding ground for diseases. That is why it should be eliminated.

Mandatory pruning is required for leaves shaded by other tomato bushes, or growing on the north side, as these leaves will bring little benefit to the plant.

Those parts that grow directly from the flower brush are also trimmed. This is observed in some varieties: if the main bush has not formed ovaries, then several inflorescences can be left on the shoots from the flower cluster.

Sometimes, when planting seedlings in a greenhouse or in a bed, you need to remove some leaves. But you should not tear them off when planting, so as not to provoke infection of the plants. It is better to remove all the leaves down to the flower cluster after a week in several stages. This will force the plant to devote all its energy to forming tomatoes.

How to trim?

There is an opinion among gardeners that pruning can be done by hand or with any sharp tool (knife, scissors, pruning shears). In fact, this is not important. Only in both cases it is necessary to take safety measures so as not to transfer pathogens from one bush to another. Therefore, when tearing off a leaf with your hands, you need to use gloves; when cutting with a tool, you need to disinfect it with a solution of potassium permanganate, moving from bush to bush.

It is advisable to remove 2-3 leaves from the bush twice a week. But this is approximately, you need to focus on the growth of tomato bushes.

In the first ten days of August, you should pinch the growing point of the bush so that all the ovaries can ripen. And remove all leaves except a few apical ones so that sap flow is not disturbed. This will serve as a good disease prevention.

As you can see, this is a necessary operation that has a beneficial effect on tomatoes. It increases productivity, improves the taste of fruits and serves as a disease prevention without the use of chemicals. It is important that bush pruning is done correctly.

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Experienced gardeners who have tried various agricultural techniques for cultivating vegetables in their gardens can often find “bald” tomatoes in greenhouses with almost bare trunks, and large, beautiful tomatoes hanging on their branches.

How do they achieve this result, and is it necessary to deprive the bushes of green mass for good fruiting?

Gardeners' opinions on this matter vary greatly, but those who have tried the method of forming a tomato bush with the gradual removal of the lower leaves can no longer refuse it.

When should you pick leaves from a tomato? And how to carry out the procedure correctly so as not to harm the plant?

Of course, tearing off leaves for the purpose of shaping, rather than simply removing diseased and infected specimens, applies more to tall varieties of tomatoes, the upper part of which can greatly shade the lower part.

Low-growing varieties of tomatoes are not only not picked, they are not even always pruned.

The technology of tearing off the lower leaves of tomatoes did not arise by chance, it has scientific justification and is widely practiced among gardeners, so it is worth taking a closer look at it.

When using the method of removing the lower leaves from tomato bushes, gardeners pursue the following goals:

• for ease of watering. The fact is that water falling on the leaves of tomatoes during watering contributes to their rotting and the development of a complex of diseases, therefore for this vegetable only bottom watering at the root is recommended;
• to organize better ventilation and air circulation between plantings. This is especially important when using a thickened planting pattern. With the free passage of air between the bushes, the likelihood of the occurrence of various fungal diseases is sharply reduced;
• for the outflow of nutrients to growing fruits. It is the lower leaves that take away many useful elements that the roots extract from the ground. Therefore, in order for all the necessary substances to go directly into the tomatoes, these leaves are removed.

Should you periodically pluck the lower leaves from tomato plants?

Should I pick off the leaves of a tomato? Practice shows that this event must be carried out to obtain an earlier and better harvest of tomatoes, and most importantly, a healthy one. But the shaping needs to be done correctly, taking into account many factors, and not thoughtlessly tearing off the leaves.

It is important to understand that each leaf is a full-fledged organ of the plant, responsible for its vital functions, so when cutting them off, you need to be extremely careful and not rush anywhere.

You can remove leaves from tomatoes only when the clusters with fruits have already set. Some gardeners recommend carrying out this operation later - when the fruits are milky ripe, when they acquire a light green color.

In any case, the technology for picking leaves is the same and involves several stages.

How to properly pick leaves from a tomato

• Stage 1. The formation of a tomato bush must begin with the so-called “cleaning”, that is, the removal of unhealthy leaves that have signs of yellowing, spotting, rotting, curling, etc. All cut leaves must be collected and burned. To move on to the next stage, you need to wait a couple of days. In this case, the old wounds caused to the tomato bushes during pruning will definitely heal, and the plants themselves will not be subject to severe stress.
• Stage 2. At this stage, it is recommended to thin out the plants to improve lighting, so remove the lower leaves that thicken the plantings. What leaves should be plucked from a tomato? Firstly, those that grow in the middle of the bush, and you can also remove one or two pieces from each bush planted on the north side. After removing the leaves, you need to let the plants rest again. In principle, if there are few unhealthy and thickening leaves, then the first two stages can be combined into one, since it is recommended to pick no more than four leaves from the bush at a time.
• Stage 3. Here the leaves will be purposefully removed to obtain an earlier harvest: under an already well-formed brush, you can remove the lower leaves with peace of mind: 2...3 leaves per bush. This is what most sources recommend doing. But, as practice has shown, with a more massive removal of the lower leaves under the brush, nothing terrible happened to the tomato bushes. Therefore, you can try and tear off the leaves from the tomatoes under the lower brush at one time.
• Stage 4. At this stage, all the lower leaves under the second cluster are cut off, when it is already quite well formed, and the fruits themselves have reached almost the maximum varietal size. And thus, gradually, as the fruit clusters of the tomato bushes develop, almost all the leaves are torn off to the top, leaving about four apical ones. Such bald trees will bring a high harvest, which will ripen on the bushes, and not in ripening boxes.

Depending on the number of bushes planted, trimming the lower leaves of tomatoes can take quite a lot of time for the gardener. But you shouldn’t delete them in a hurry.

Accuracy in this matter is paramount. How exactly to pick leaves from tomatoes in a greenhouse and in open ground? First, you need to decide which of two methods will remove the leaves:

• tearing it off with your hands. In this case, the leaf itself is bent up along the trunk and broken off, leaving no stumps. Under no circumstances should you pull the leaf down, since when torn off it will take along many fibers and tissues of the stem. Such a wound will bring great stress to the plant;
• Using a small pruner or garden shears, the leaf is simply cut off without leaving any stumps.

And finally, some tips for removing the lower leaves of tomatoes:

1. Picking leaves is usually combined with pinching tomatoes, this saves time.
2. It is recommended to carry out shaping in hot sunny weather: in such conditions, wounds on plants dry out faster and, accordingly, heal.
3. When using scissors and pruning shears, it is important to ensure their cleanliness, that is, if diseased leaves were previously cut off, the tool must be disinfected using potassium permanganate or alcohol.
4. Since most fungal diseases “settle” precisely on the lower leaves of tomato bushes, they need to be periodically inspected, and sick and infected ones should be torn off and burned.

Tomatoes are one of the most popular vegetable crops, so they are very often found in gardens. And what is a garden without a tomato bush?! Indeed, in this case it looks somehow unsightly. Often, summer residents have some kind of competition for the largest fruit, the most delicious, and so on. In general, if you manage to grow tomatoes year after year, obtaining high yields, skillfully avoiding the traps of late blight and other diseases and pests, then you are a real gardener.

It cannot be said that tomatoes are a crop with complex agricultural technology and increased requirements for cultivation, however, tomato bushes cannot be called completely simpletons. Take, for example, the issue of removing “extra” leaves: it seems that everything is tritely simple - take it and tear it off or cut it off, but in reality it turns out that you need to follow the rules and almost learn how to do it. The controversy surrounding the need to remove tomato leaf blades and the effectiveness of this “event” has not subsided to this day. Let's figure out what, how and when to do so as not to harm the plants, but to help them by tearing off the leaves.

Trimming the lower leaves of a tomato. © natalie

Do I need to pick off the bottom leaves of tomatoes?

Let's start by finding out in general the need for this procedure, is this what the plant needs, and so do you and I? As often happens, there are two opinions here - it is necessary or not at all necessary. But beginners often say that it’s better not to touch tomatoes at all, they say, why bother with nature, the plant itself will decide how many and what kind of leaves it should have. This is what newbies often say for the simple reason that they are simply afraid of causing harm, and from a lack of knowledge, of course. Professionals in their field unanimously repeat that it is necessary to pick or trim the leaves of tomatoes, and this will be useful for both the plant and you and me.

The fact that a number of tomato leaves are still superfluous and need to be removed is supported by the fact that usually the more leaves and shoots there are on a plant, the more actively these same plants evaporate soil moisture and absorb nutrients only in order to feed vegetative mass and only after that pay attention to the fruits. Consequently, often powerful tomato bushes with an abundance of green mass delight the owners with a small harvest, and the fruits themselves are not always tasty.

But that’s not all, for example, the lower leaves of tomatoes, due to their sometimes quite large size, very significantly interfere with the normal movement and circulation of air at the base of the plants, therefore, they simply inhibit the evaporation of moisture from the surface of the soil and adjacent leaf blades, which creates a favorable environment for the development of fungal infections, including late blight.

In addition, such tomato leaves, if not torn off during watering or under the influence of raindrops, often bend all the way to the ground and even touch it, which leads to their rotting, the formation of foci of infection and the development of associated diseases. It has been noticed that late blight of tomatoes starts from the lower leaves and slowly rises higher up the plant.

Which tomato leaves should I remove?

If the lower leaves turn yellow and spots appear on them, then they simply need to be removed immediately. This is an ideal environment for the development of most tomato diseases. Yellowed lower leaves of a tomato, among other things, are often a kind of marker of improper care, that is, if they turn yellow, it means that you are doing something wrong. In this case, the yellowed leaves can already be said to have died, so they need to be removed immediately.

In addition to removing the lower leaves of tomatoes, both healthy and yellowed, it is advisable to remove leaf blades that are beginning to dry out: it doesn’t matter where they are located - in the very bottom part or a little higher, and there are also leaves under them. Tomato leaves sometimes dry out simply due to their age: since the plant no longer needs them, you need to help it remove them, otherwise the infection will reach them.

In addition, you can thin out the middle of a tomato bush, similar to thinning shrubs, but it is appropriate to remove leaves from the side of the bush that faces north. This will ensure better ventilation of the tomato bush and reduce the risk of various fungal diseases and other infections. Fattening shoots, if they grow from the very bottom, can also be safely removed, they are of little use, and they draw water and nutrients onto themselves very strongly.

Uncut lower leaves of a tomato plant lying on the ground. © Lila Steinhoff

Pros of removing the bottom leaves of tomatoes

So, we hope it has become a little clearer for what purpose we recommend removing the lower leaves of a tomato, but we have not told you what the advantages of this removal are, but they undoubtedly exist.

First plus- this is that after removing the lower leaves, the plant becomes a little more open, air masses circulate freely at the base of the bushes, moisture evaporates normally from the surface of the soil and from the leaf blades, the risk of tomato late blight, as well as other infections, sharply decreases (but does not disappear completely !).

Second plus- this is that we remove tomato leaves that are at risk, since, as we mentioned above, they are the first to usually begin to get sick, this is also a plus in favor of minimizing the risk of late blight on your site.

Plus the third– we remove excess parts of the vegetative mass of the tomato bush, therefore, we somewhat reduce the evaporation of moisture by the plants themselves (that is, its consumption from the soil, which is especially important for summer cottages) and reduce the consumption of substances to maintain the existence of these leaves, which leads to the fact that these the substances themselves will be used to form fruits.

Tomato bushes with cut off lower leaves

When to pick tomato leaves and how to do it correctly?

So, we have firmly learned that it is necessary to remove the lower leaves from a tomato bush, now let’s figure out when this can be done and, most importantly, how to do it correctly.

Remember firmly that you should never rush to remove tomato leaves: for example, if you remove them immediately after planting the seedlings, you can only make things worse; the plants may well stop growing or slow down greatly. The lower leaves can be removed only when the seedlings have grown and become stronger; this should take seven to ten days. You can understand that tomato seedlings have taken root by activating their growth processes.

Before you start removing tomato leaves, inspect all the plants, first of all remove those lower leaves that for some reason began to dry out and turn yellow, here the risk of infection is higher, and only then proceed to removing the lower leaves from healthy plants.

If you still doubt the advisability of removing the lower leaf blades of a tomato, we recommend that you carry out this procedure first with the leaves located on the north side of the bush. The fact is that these leaves, in addition to being at the bottom, are also located in the shade, so they practically do not participate in the processes of photosynthesis, and therefore are not needed. By removing them, you will definitely not harm the plant.

A dense tomato bush that requires pruning of the lower leaves. © grozine

When removing tomato leaves, do not rush, follow some steps, for example, after removing a couple of lower leaves, do not forget about the plant, watch it. It happens that the removal of leaf blades from a tomato provokes it to lay new inflorescences; if the plant is in good flowering before they appear, it is better to remove them, since this is an additional and inappropriate load on the tomato bush. You can leave new ovaries only if the flowering was very sluggish before removing the leaves, fewer inflorescences were formed than usual or than is typical for this particular tomato variety.

Try to remove the lower leaves of the tomato by pressing the petiole of the leaf at the base and pulling it up, that is, along the stem, and not across it, as if tearing it out of the nest. At the same time, try to support the stem of the tomato and do not pull the leaf very hard, because there is a risk of the stem breaking off or breaking. You also cannot pull the leaves down; if you do this, you will be able to tear off the skin of the stem, the skin will be pulled down by the torn leaf and you will get a wound into which any infection can get into quite easily and very quickly.

It is advisable to remove the lower leaves of a tomato not in cloudy and cool weather, as for some reason many people do this, but, on the contrary, on a sunny and fine day, but always in the morning (at 7-8 in the morning, when the sun is already shining with all its might) , when the plants are at maximum turgor. The fact is that on a sunny day, the wound remaining in the place of the former leaf will heal much faster than on a cloudy day, and the risk of infection getting into the wound will be minimal.

When starting to remove the lower leaves of a tomato, you should not be too zealous; the main rule here is to do no harm. You can remove leaves no more than twice a week at a time, removing or cutting out two or three leaves, no more. Only such removal of leaf blades will not injure the plants too much, and they will survive this procedure without problems.

The basic rule when removing the lower leaves of a tomato, which must be firmly understood, is the following: if the fruit has not yet set in the brush, then on the shoots on which the brush itself is located, it is advisable to remove no more than one lower leaf, but if all the fruits in the cluster have already set, then below this cluster you can break off absolutely all the leaf blades, leaving literally a bunch of leaves only on the top of the head. But only below the brush, the lower leaves of the tomato, and not the upper ones.

The first wave of leaf removal can be safely carried out after the entire ovary has formed, and the second wave can be carried out when the tomatoes are finally formed and begin to color. Thus, we will direct the maximum amount of nutrients to the fruits, but at the same time as removing the leaf blades, it is important to moderate the amount of watering, otherwise excess moisture may cause cracking of the fruits. If it rains, then you should stop watering the tomatoes altogether and loosen the soil at the base of the plant more often to increase evaporation and prevent moisture stagnation.

Tomato bush with fruits and trimmed leaves. © Brian Barth

So, as we understand: removing the lower leaves of tomatoes is not only possible, but also necessary, in this way you can solve a bunch of problems - ensure access of nutrition and moisture to the fruits, improve their taste and weight, increase productivity and even reduce the risk of mushroom infections to a minimum. The main thing is to do everything correctly and on time.

Nikolay Khromov