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You are here: Home / Veggies & Edibles / Time to: strip your tomatoes

Time to: strip your tomatoes

August 31, 2010 by Andrea Bellamy 5 Comments

denuded tomatoes

My tomato plants, post end-of-summer pruning.

It’s not quite time for the annual winter garden clean up (just typing that made me feel a little ill), but it’s a good idea to start to prepare for fall by planting your winter garden, and by pruning your tomato plants.

Why prune? Two reasons: to focus the plant’s energy on ripening its existing fruit, rather than on producing new flowers and starting new fruit, which won’t have time to grow and ripen before the first frost, and to allow light to reach and ripen still-green fruit. Now you know.

Prune off flower and leaf brachs, leaving just the fruit and the main stalk(s). And if that doesn’t work and frost is imminent, you can always harvest and ripen your green tomatoes indoors.

Related posts:

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Filed Under: Veggies & Edibles Tagged With: pruning, tomatoes, winter gardening

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Stevie says

    August 31, 2010 at 4:08 pm

    …and to remove all the blight! Damn blight.

  2. Kristin says

    September 1, 2010 at 9:13 am

    so glad mine are in greenhouse, no blight and the season is just a bit longer. Great post!

  3. Gigi says

    September 1, 2010 at 7:14 pm

    Thanks for tip on pruning.

    Thought you might appreciate this cool time lapse video about an urban community that turns their junkyard into a sustainable garden in just one day.
    http://www.youtube.com/kiacanada#p/a/u/0/13x4lySlXW4

    Take a look at how Kia is driving change.

    Enjoy!
    Gigi
    @kiadrivechange
    facebook.com/kiacanada
    youtube.com/kiacanada

  4. Laura says

    September 1, 2010 at 8:08 pm

    I think I may do this! I’ve got a bunch of big plump brandywine’s that just need to ripen. I’m worried they won’t before we leave for vacation. I hate to rush a season, but common baby!

  5. dining table says

    September 3, 2010 at 2:34 am

    Those tomatoes looks so healthy and I think they are ready for harvest. I can tell that you are taking good care of those tomatoes. I wish I can help you harvest your tomatoes.

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