This is an important consideration when looking into tomato companion planting. If you are short on space in your vegetable garden, pruning tomato plants will help to keep them under control, creating more space for other plants. In addition, removing leaves allows better air flow around the plant, so reducing the chance of diseases developing when leaves remain wet, and also allows more sunlight to reach the ripening tomatoes. 'You may have fewer fruit on a pruned plant, but they will be bigger,' explains Amy Enfield. Pruning – or pinching out side shoots – should result in the tomato plants producing larger fruit and earlier in the season. Pruning tomato plants helps them to put their energy into producing fruits rather than producing more foliage. 'When I first started growing tomatoes, I largely left them to their own devices, occasionally tying them to their supporting canes, not realizing that the cordon varieties need pinching out in order to thrive,' says keen grower and Period Living editor Melanie Griffiths. This bottom-pruning is recommended both for determinate varieties (like San Marzano and other paste tomatoes) as well as indeterminate tomato varieties like Purple Cherokee, Early Girl or the cherry tomato family. Indeterminate tomato plants do benefit from being pruned for a number of reasons. Remove all tomato leaves from the bottom 12 of the plant, or up until first flowers. (Image credit: Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash) Do tomato plants need to be pruned?
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