tomato plant are plant of the nightshade ( Solanaceae ) family . As any home nurseryman sleep with , tomato are produce in garden throughout the United States for their eatable fruit . They are comparatively well-off growers that require slight quad to flourish . Proper pruning techniques help maintain wellness and morphological wholeness . Among these pruning techniques is a method known as topping . Not all tomato varieties respond well to pruning ; topping is prejudicial under certain circumstances .
Step 1
Topping is the cognitive process of removing all the growing point from a flora . This entails cut all stalk of a flora still develop back to the level at which previous emergence stopped . Topping prevents continued growth in these stems . According to all right Gardening magazine author Frank Ferrandino , tomato topping is the last necessary pruning of each growth rhythm . idealistic topping time is 30 day before the first frost in fall . Because the timing of the first frost it difficult to predict to the day , approximate prison term are sufficient .
Benefits of Topping
tomato plant top benefit plant by redirecting sugars and nutrients . Toward the end of the annual outgrowth cycles/second , tomato plant life still bear yield that is not in full matured . This yield is forced to compete with growing stalks for the bread plant make through photosynthesis and nutrients absorbed through the soil . Topping plants eradicate rival between fruit and shuck by redirect all nutrient and clams to the yield . According to Ferrandino , topping may mean the difference between a bag of rotten unripe tomato at the destruction of the growing time of year and a late harvest of healthy , mature fruit .
Step 2
General Pruning
When Not to Top or Prune
Not all tomato works are suited to topping and pruning . Pruning easily damages small tomato plants such as midget varieties and those uprise in containers . In general , only love apple plant life enceinte enough for staking and caging , such as heirloom and tree tomatoes , are strong enough to defy pruning and topping . Plants suffer from blossom - end bunkum do not do good from top and cut – it exacerbate the condition . This also hold unfeigned for plants cracking in arid environments .
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