How Low do you prune

[mobiledynamics]

Riddle me this. Is there any benefit to pruning all bottom leaves below the 1st fruit. I saw a couple of places that wrote this

I generally prune as the season progresses, getting the lowers which obviousy touch dirt. Then as the mid-lowers progreses, droop down and touch dirt, I prune those.
I don't go all edward scissorhands going up.

However, I am doing something different this year with doubling up in a pot, so I may do some airy maintainece pruning

[imp]

The riddle would be in how YOU want to grow your tomato plants.



If you grow single stem with lean and lower, if you allow your plants to sprawl, and so on.


For me, I tend to try to keep clear anything that touches the ground or about to do so. I'll prune anything that is, to me, getting out of hand and messy or too dense for air to circulate. But that is just me and also due to the climate where I grow, too.

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by mobiledynamics

Riddle me this. Is there any benefit to pruning all bottom leaves below the 1st fruit.

I think people give this advice because it's just an easy way to get people to prune off the lowest foliage without overdoing it.

Originally Posted by mobiledynamics

However, I am doing something different this year with doubling up in a pot, so I may do some airy maintainece pruning

It really depends on the plant. Some plants have a very "open" habit. Others have very dense foliage.

When I grow the latter, I will remove foliage from the inside of the plant to improve airflow. That foliage doesn't see much sun anyway, once the plant has grown enough that it becomes "internal" foliage.