Nikki's experimental garden: Tomato Pruning Experiment, Week 1

This year, I planted 16 tomato plants. Eight (four Oregon Springs and four Legends) went out April 15th (under cover and PacNW cold tolerant varieties) and eight more (two Sun Golds, two Green Zebras, and four Grandma Mary Pastes) went out May 17th (also under cover). After I made sure they had everything a growing tomato plant needed, I pretty much left them alone. This time last year, the Oregon Springs gave me their first tomatoes on July fourth. This year is hotter, so I thought I'd get them ever earlier, but that is not the case. July 17, and I have had not a single red tomato on any of my plants.

I started thinking about what i could do to remedy this, and I came to a decision. Some gardeners insist that pruning off nearly all the leaves and all the side branches paradoxically gives MORE tomatoes than to a plant that has never been pruned. This made very little sense to me in the past, because tomatoes produce just as many fruit on the side branches as their main branches. And, since leaves photosynthesize, they should give energy to the plant, not take it away. I have decided to prune 25% of my tomatoes. I have so many healthy plants this year, I can stand to spare some of them to science. And since I am growing so many different varieties, I can compare a pruned tomato to it's unpruned sibling.