how to prune cherry tomato plants in pots

Pruning tomato plants and pinching off sucker stems are two of the best ways to improve a tomato plant’s health, vitality, and production. Most sections of the plant should be easily pinched off. … This highly productive variety is a favorite for home gardens! Personally, I recommend JimZ’s Tomato secret. Cherry tomatoes generally have fewer problems when grown in a climate with low humidity. Your backyard soil can have a lot of clay content and when watered regularly, the soil will compact & sink hampering the root growth of your cherry tomato plants. If you have found this piece of writing helpful, kindly share it with your friends on Facebook and pin us on Pinterest. They hate it with all their heart. It acts as a fertilizer as well. To avoid spreading disease, prune the leaves when they are dry. Height – 30 to 55 inches (80 to 140 cm) Exposure – full sun Soil – light, rich enough. Cut out any leaves or stems near the bottom before settling the plant in the hole. Don’t plant too many plants in a single pot, ideally plant one per pot. Tidy Treats: 3′ to 5′ tall compact plant produces small bite sized one-inch fruits with unique flavor. Katherine Gohmann is a Professional Gardener in Texas. Determinate, bush type or container cherry tomatoes don’t need any pruning at all. It's a good idea to only do this late in the growing season, before the first frost. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. A common mistake many home gardeners make is using soil straight from the backyard. If you want to grow cherry tomatoes indoor, use a grow light. Pruning the tomato plant also creates a neater, less cluttered looking tomato plant . Neem products do have an unpleasant smell but it is highly effective for repelling bugs, and the smell eventually goes away. Leaving your plant without pruning could allow for unnecessary growth to occur. Otherwise, suckers will grow into additional stems and create a wide, bushy plant. Most lower branches can be cut away from the plant. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies.   If left unpruned, these suckers will eventually grow into full-sized branches—adding lots of foliage and, eventually, a few fruits. learn more about grow lights and buy one, click here. All tomatoes like a lot of sun and a lot of heat, and cherries are no different. Gold Nugget: 1-2 feet tall plant produces golden yellow cherry tomatoes. How much to prune up from the bottom depends on what type of tomato plant you are growing. They are drought tolerant and can grow 4-6 feet tall. Please help us continue to provide you with our trusted how-to guides and videos for free by whitelisting wikiHow on your ad blocker. Caring for Cherry Tomato Plants: Water the seeds or seedlings every two to three days. Ideally use a 20 inch wide pot with a depth of 18 inches for larger varieties. wikiHow is where trusted research and expert knowledge come together. Use Nutrient Rich Soil & Fertilizer. If the plant’s growing too high, you can also prune the top stems. Copyright © 2020 — www.justhomegardening.com • All rights reserved. Determinate tomato plants will likely not need to be pruned. You can however keep the main stem and one or two additional stems for 5 gallon pots. If you want to learn more about grow lights and buy one, click here. The Pot size column will tell you what type of pots you need to buy. Trimming and pruning your tomato plant is also a must, which should be done about four or five weeks after initial planting. It’s best to prune your plant in the morning when the stems will be easier to break. Overcrowding will make the tomato plants fight for nutrients, root congestion and too much shade will attract pests to attack the plant. Sucker is a new stem growing from the joint of the main stem and a leaf stem. You should at least use a 14 inch wide pot with a depth of 12 inches for cherry tomatoes. If you are growing dwarf variety space them 1-2 feet apart. For these smaller style plants, prune up so that there is about 8 to 10 inches of open space near the bottom. Katherine Gohmann is a Professional Gardener in Texas. About us. Both shorter variety determinate and taller indeterminate varieties will bend and tip over unless you provide some support. Pruning shears are not needed unless a piece is too big to break away by hand. You can add more fertilizers to the soil at the time of flowering or when the plants just start to produce fruit. Make sure to add the mulching right after you transplant the baby plants to the pots. As a rule, though, each tomato plant will need a pot of at least 14 inches (35.6 cm) in diameter. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/f\/f0\/Prune-Patio-Tomatoes-Step-1-Version-3.jpg\/v4-460px-Prune-Patio-Tomatoes-Step-1-Version-3.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/f\/f0\/Prune-Patio-Tomatoes-Step-1-Version-3.jpg\/aid1223048-v4-728px-Prune-Patio-Tomatoes-Step-1-Version-3.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"