Pruning tomatoes

Karen and I spent Saturday afternoon pruning tomatoes and tieing them to stakes. The tomato pictured above is an heirloom variety called Cherokee Purple. Pruning tomatoes yields fewer fruit, but the fruit themselves turn out larger and sweeter since the plant creates more sugar in the fruit and less in the leaves.

We have tried many different ways to stake and trellis tomatoes over the years. Tomato cages were unwieldy, often tipped over and made the fruit hard to access. We also tried a trellis system with nylons, but the plants were so difficult to prune that we often neglected this chore. In the end, old fashioned bamboo poles do the trick. The plants are easy to access and tie to the stakes. But, if there is one piece of advice I could offer, it would be to wear gloves when pruing and staking the plants. Without gloves, the plants get a black gum on your hands that you really need to scrub hard to get off!