Well ive gone and done it now

dorisday

Recently read somewhere that you could take off the leaves below the flowers on tomato plants and you will get a better crop SO yesterday having nothing to do I decided to do it to all of my tomato plants!!!! They are all about 2.1/2 ft tall and all got flowers on but now they have no leaves/stems below the flowers but for the main stem which is a good thick upright stem. They are still alive this morning but are looking a bit bare below the flowers, greenery still growing above the flowers still.
Have I done the right thing? or am I going to regret it? First year for growing things and it did say to experiment a bit so I did;)

tbw

dorisday wrote: »

Recently read somewhere that you could take off the leaves below the flowers on tomato plants and you will get a better crop SO yesterday having nothing to do I decided to do it to all of my tomato plants!!!! They are all about 2.1/2 ft tall and all got flowers on but now they have no leaves/stems below the flowers but for the main stem which is a good thick upright stem. They are still alive this morning but are looking a bit bare below the flowers, greenery still growing above the flowers still.
Have I done the right thing? or am I going to regret it? First year for growing things and it did say to experiment a bit so I did;)

I thought it was OK to remove lower leaves once the fruit was well formed - so that they ripen better. Not sure about doing it so early - but, its done now so too late to worry about it. I doubt the plants will die as it sounds like you have plenty of greenery further up. Give them a good feed, keep them watered and you should be OK.

savingmummy

I`m glad you`ve asked this.
I have read everywhere that this is the `to do` part of care for tomato plants.
Last week i was given some tomato plants and was told different, the man told me the plants need the leaves.

foxgloves

Years ago, I did a summer job on a farm and the only thing it entailed was picking tomatoes & 'leafing'. 'Leafing' was going along rows of ripening tomatoes and taking off the leaves below the lowest truss and it was done to help speed up the ripening process so that the sunlight could get to the fruits at the bottom of the plant better. I do the same to my home-grown plants, but only late on in the season when the fruits are well-formed. I've never heard of doing it earlier, but, hey, I was 15 when I worked a summer on that farm, so advice could have changed.

Primrose

I think you've probably been a little premature in removing the lower leaves. Normal advice is to remove them below the first truss of fruit once they are a reasonable size to help them ripen. Before that time, the leaves are part of the plant's mechanism for absorbing the elements from sunlight. Make sure you keep them well fertilised and they may be OK but possibly a little later to fruit than they otherwise would have been.

Zazen999

I don't know - I take off all the lower leaves as they grow as I don't want too many in the greenhouse...one whiff of mould and they all can get it. I always have plenty of toms. Some do, some don't - the most problems with toms occur outside with blight so fingers crossed on that front.

dorisday

Oh well its done now cant stick them back on:cool: Thanks for all the comments I shall await to see the end results and put it down to premature experimenting

Lotus-eater

I take mine off later when they are discoloured mostly and aren't really giving anything to the plant and when I have fruit that are about ripening. Not this early usually, although a few come off because they are in the way of the French Marigolds which are companion planted, or in the way of each other.
But I don't take off huge amounts from each plant at one time, I don't want to shock it.
But also, tomatoes carry on growing through anything and don't really seem to notice, so I don't think it will take that much difference.