Help with my humongous tomato plants!!

[Snowcapper]

I am a first-time grower of anything and decided to give it a go this year. Had quite a bit of success with various things. My tomato plants have gone absolutely mad and they are MASSIVE!!

The canes and string aren't really doing anything to help now, and it looks a mess. I have some out the front and some in my back yard.

Can I cut them back? What can I do with them? They look a mess. Please help!

Have you pinched out the side shoots?
Once the tomatoes are there you can remove some of the leaves.

@Beebumble2

Have you pinched out the side shoots? Once the tomatoes are there you can remove some of the leaves.

Oh nooo I didn't know about this! Have I left it too late? They are insane, I can't even work out what's what at the minute because they are so bushy. There's three plants in each container (which you can't even see any more )

Yeah

You're supposed to pinch them regularly.
It encourages the tomatoes to grow rather than the leaves.

Look up pinching the shoots and get rid of all of those ones. Then you can prob get rid of a few lower ones too. They’re supposed to have a lot of air around the leaves.

www.sundaygardener.co.uk/pinch-out-side-shoots-on-tomatoes.html - BUT your side shoots are probably the size of quite a substantial plant each, and will have flowers or even fruit on them. If you can bear it cut them out cleanly. Will help the plant focus on fewer, better fruits.

Oh dear! I have massively messed up with this. I will have a good look at them and see if I can work out what to cut and what to keep. Hopefully I won't kill them off!

I have flowers but no fruit yet. Also thank you everyone for the advice

It depends if they are vine or bush types whether you need to pinch the side shoots or not. Vine you do, Bush you don't. Three per container is probably too many of either type though - I wouldn't put more than one plant per container of that sort of size.

The good news is that tomatoes root quite easily, so if you have space then you could push any huge side shoots you may remove into a separate container and there's a good chance of them becoming an independent plant.

What everyone else said . This is usually me. This year is the first time I’ve managed to plant toms on time, actually stake them and pinch out side shoots. Hence the crap weather in the SE. Sorry everyone.

Ooh I have no idea what type they are. I now realise three per container was far too many! I actually ended up with so many seedlings I had to throw loads away and still ended up giving away 40 tomato plants I had grown on. I've learnt my lesson for next year haha!!

Ok I am having a look and cutting but I honestly have no idea what is a side shoot or not. I think my side shoots now have side shoots...

Err on the side of ruthless snow. I’d remove the lowest two/three leaves just because they’re there, then look at the main stem and try to work your way up ID’ing the side shoots (which may indeed also have side shoots at this point). I wouldn’t strip it bare but fewer leaves = more chance of tomatoes, basically.

(I’m saying this authoritatively as though I don’t have the same issue every year )

Ok I didn't feel like I was cutting that much out but they have shot out so much that one side shoot had about a million other branches. Now they look pretty bare! At least I know what I am meant to do next time. Keep your fingers crossed for my poor tomato plants

Prune away all shoots that are not bearing flowers or baby fruit.

You’ve got some flowers so looking good. Now get some Tomatorite liquid feed and feed the plants to get a good crop.
Gardening is a lifetime of learning. Enjoy the journey.

Thank you, I have some of the tomato feed stuff but it says to start feeding once there's a second set of fruit. Is that right or should I do it now they are flowering?

You're right about a lifetime of learning! I have grown mini cucumbers (sadly died but I am unsure why as they were doing so well!) and most of my sugarsnap peas have died off but I realise I planted too many in one planter. My sweetpeas, sunflowers, cosmos, marigolds and alyssum have done really well! I had a thread on here with tonnes of amazing advice so it's all thanks to mumsnet

Oh and nasturtiums which have flowered and are gorgeous!

Those look much better now OP!

Yes feed once the fruit are there. Sorry I missed that bit out.

Fab thank you!

Btw, watch out now that each plant is back under control. Nee side shoots can start to form, you'll spot them as a tiny leaf sprouting where an existing shoot joins a main stem. That's what you want to pinch out. The plant wants to make more leaves, you want to focus it on fruit

@RainingZen

Btw, watch out now that each plant is back under control. Nee side shoots can start to form, you'll spot them as a tiny leaf sprouting where an existing shoot joins a main stem. That's what you want to pinch out. The plant wants to make more leaves, you want to focus it on fruit

Thank you, I'm definitely going to check every day now!!

@Snowcapper don’t get too hung up on rules, most of them are there to change a good crop to the best possible crop. So don’t beat yourself up for not knowing the rules.

I can’t see a noticeable difference between years when I consciously pinch out and years when I don’t. So mostly I don’t. I don’t mind my tomatoes being jungly. The other reason for pinching out is to stop them wasting energy on tomatoes that won’t have time to ripen. More of a problem outdoors than in a greenhouse

I've just grown some tomato plants from some supermarket vine tomatoes that I was going to throw out. I don't know whether that means they will produce fruit or not. I'm also new to this so have been following this thread with interest. I've just pinched out lots of side shoots.

There are a few shoots with dodgy leaves - could anyone identify the problem for me please? 95% of the leaves are okay. I've turned the leaves over and can't find any pests.