the essentials in brief
- Skinned tomatoes means that the stinging shoots in the leaf axils break out
- Stingy shoots are young shoots in the leaf axils of tomato plants
- Pruning the side shoots promotes the growth of the fruit, as only small fruits grow on the pinched shoots
- Pricking reduces the risk that the tomato plant will suffer from late blight and brown rot
When, how often and why do you max out tomatoes?
When and how often? Start prizing as soon as the first side shoots appear on your tomato plant. Check your tomato plants for stinging shoots every week from June to September.
Why? Pricking out has several advantages:
- By removing the stinging shoots, the plant has more energy to develop the tomatoes on the main shoot.
- Furthermore, the pricking increases the air circulation, so the plant dries off faster. This prevents late blight and brown rot from spreading.
- If stick tomatoes are not shown, they grow into a dense bush that overhangs quickly.
In the past, tomatoes were stripped out consistently. This attitude is slowly beginning to change. A little later in the year, the stingy instincts no longer have to be exhausted as consistently as at the beginning of the season. The plant then has more leaf mass that it can use for the metabolism of substances and energy. The fruits ripen better towards the end of the season.
Structure of a tomato plant - recognize stingy shoots
Structure of a tomato plant. Each tomato plant consists of a main shoot, several side shoots and the inflorescence.
Recognize stingy instincts. The leaf axil is located between the main shoot and the side shoot. The stinging shoots often arise in this leaf axil.
As a rule, the stingy shoot is thinner than the side shoot. Exceptions confirm the rule. It can also happen that the stingy shoot is thicker than the side shoot.
Instructions maxing out tomatoes
On your tour of the vegetable garden, look specifically for new shoots in the leaf axils of the tomato plants.
Remove thin (soft) stinging shoots
- Reach for the young shoot with your index finger and thumb
- Carefully snap the drive with the Fingernails away
Remove thicker (hard) stinging shoots
- For a thicker shoot, use one Secateursso as not to accidentally injure the plant.
- Make the cut as close to the stem as possible.
- Keep the wounds as small as possible.
Any small wound can be a gateway for pathogens. Therefore, use the sharpest possible secateurs.
Which types of tomatoes are you maxing out?
Pruning only needs to be carried out on stake tomatoes, i.e. on single-shoot tomato plants. A skimp on multi-shoot growing Varieties of tomatoes like cocktail tomatoes or bush tomatoes is usually not necessary.
You never have to max out wild tomatoes.
Frequently asked questions
What if I don't play too hard?
If you don't max out your stake tomatoes, you will get more fruit. However, the plant will not be able to supply all fruits with sufficient nutrients. Furthermore, less sunlight will penetrate. The taste of the tomatoes would suffer from both factors. Due to the lower air circulation, the plant would dry out less quickly after a downpour or even after watering. This would encourage the development of fungal infestations such as late blight and brown rot.
What happens when an urge to be greedy breaks off?
If an urge to be greedy breaks down, it doesn't matter. After all, pricking out is about removing these shoots. Just remove the remaining shoot with your fingers. If the shoot is already thick, take a pair of secateurs and pinch off the shoot on the axilla.
What happens when an urge to be stingy has become too big?
You can also remove large stinging shoots. In this case, use secateurs to keep the wound as small as possible. This will prevent germs from entering.
When should the last time be exhausted?
You should stop pruning when the tomato plant's growth phase is slowly coming to an end. From the second half of August onwards, you no longer have to exhaust yourself as consistently as you did at the beginning.
How many shoots should I remove from a plant at once?
How many shoots you remove from the tomato plant at the same time does not really matter. In the first half of the season in particular, remove any stinging shoots that appear. In addition, you should regularly cut off old and diseased shoots and leaves with the help of secateurs. This will keep the tomato plant vital and healthy.
Advantages and disadvantages of pricking out
Advantages. By pricking out you support the main shoot in fruit formation. It ripens large tomatoes that ripen well. Thinning out the plant ensures that it dries quickly after a rain.
This results in fewer fungal diseases.
Disadvantage. The main disadvantage is the work involved. If you do not want to go all out, you can also opt for a wild tomato that does not require this care measure.
Another possible disadvantage is that the plant produces fewer fruits. In short: skimming = less fruit, bigger. Do not prune = more fruits, but smaller ones.
Further use of the stinging instincts
You do not necessarily have to dispose of disconnected stinging shoots, but can be used in various ways.
Pull new tomatoes from stingy shoots
You can use the stingy shoots well to grow a new young plant from them. This method is particularly interesting if it is already too late to grow with seeds and you may have already broken off a plant, for example due to a nocturnal storm. To get an offshoot from the tomato plant, leave the stingy shoot on the plant a little longer. Ideally, it is already 15 to 20 centimeters long. Then detach it and place it in a glass of water. However, remove the bottom leaves first. The shoot will form small roots after about a week. Plant the offshoot in a fresh substrate about five days later.
Mixed culture - stinging shoots as a defense against insects in cabbage plants
You can also use the stingy shoots of the tomato plant Plant protection for your cabbage use. Just toss the plucked stinging shoots to the cabbage. Of the Cabbage white butterfly does not like the intense scent of tomato plants, so that it does not even lay its eggs on the underside of the leaves of the cabbage plants. The cabbage is spared from being eaten by caterpillars. Ideally, you should plant tomatoes and cabbage next to each other.
Sick shoots as a mulch layer
The easiest way to use the stinging shoots as a layer of mulch for your tomato plants. Just leave the plucked stinging shoots in place. This will help prevent the soil from drying out so quickly. Larger stinging shoots should be shredded beforehand so that no mold forms.
More plants that can be maxed out
The pruning method is not only used on tomato plants. You can also stimulate the fruit growth of peppers, grapevines, physalis and cucumbers by removing young shoots in the leaf axils.
Physalis
When it comes to physalis, not all gardeners agree on whether prizing makes sense or not. In principle, the same applies here: more light comes to the flowers and the fruits ripen better.
With the Physalis, however, you have to note that the flowers are formed in the leaf axils. So exactly in every place that is normally exhausted. Therefore, do not skimp on unnecessary shoots until they are large enough to recognize which buds are bearing and which are not.
cucumber
With the cucumber, pruning can have even more advantages than just improving the yield. If you maxed out young shoots in the lower area, you prevent the young fruits from lying in the ground. So it is worthwhile to prune the side shoots in this area up to a height of about half a meter. When pricking out, however, make sure that the main shoot is not damaged.
