Training tomato plants is a foundational technique for maximizing a successful harvest in the home garden. Training involves the physical manipulation and support of the plant’s structure to manage its vigorous growth habit. This method ensures that the plant directs its energy efficiently, resulting in higher-quality fruit and a more productive season. This guide covers the essential methods necessary to effectively train tomato plants for maximum yield and improved plant health.
Why Training is Necessary
Training tomato plants provides numerous benefits that directly contribute to a larger and healthier yield. Without external support, the heavy, sprawling vines and fruit clusters will typically rest on the ground. Allowing foliage and developing fruit to contact the soil significantly increases the risk of soil-borne pathogens, such as fungal diseases, splashing onto the plant’s tissues during watering or rain events.
Lifting the plant off the ground and managing its structure dramatically improves air circulation throughout the canopy. Better airflow helps the leaves dry more quickly after moisture exposure, which reduces the likelihood of fungal infections establishing themselves. Training also focuses the plant’s energy on fruit production rather than excessive vegetative growth, leading to earlier and more abundant harvests. A supported plant is easier to navigate, simplifying tasks like pest control, watering, and harvesting ripe fruit.
Understanding Tomato Growth Habits
The intensity and method of training depend entirely on the tomato variety’s inherent growth pattern, which falls into two main categories. Determinate varieties, often called “bush” types, grow to a fixed, predetermined height, usually between three and four feet. These plants set most of their flowers and fruit within a relatively short period, providing a concentrated harvest suitable for canning or preserving. Determinate plants require minimal pruning, as removing side shoots would reduce their overall yield.
In contrast, indeterminate varieties exhibit a vining growth habit and will continue to grow, flower, and produce fruit until frost kills the plant. These varieties, which include most heirloom tomatoes, can easily reach heights of six to eight feet or more and require constant, robust support. Indeterminate plants offer a steady supply of fresh tomatoes throughout the entire growing season, but their continuous growth necessitates more intensive and consistent training and pruning.
Support Structures and Methods
Selecting the correct support structure is the first mechanical step in training the tomato plant.
Staking
Staking involves driving a single, tall support, such as a sturdy wooden or metal pole, into the ground next to the plant. This method is best suited for single-stem training and requires the main vine to be loosely secured to the stake every 10 to 12 inches as it grows. Using soft ties or strips of cloth prevents the thin stem from being girdled or damaged as the plant expands in diameter.
Caging
Caging is a lower-maintenance approach, where a wire structure is placed over the young plant to contain and support its bushy growth. This method is especially popular for determinate varieties, as the cage supports the plant’s wide, multi-stemmed structure with minimal tying or pruning needed after installation. The branches naturally rest on the cage’s horizontal supports as the plant increases in size.
Trellising
Trellising encompasses various systems that use horizontal wires or twine strung between posts to support multiple plants in a row. The “Florida Weave” technique is a common trellising method where twine is woven back and forth between the plants and anchor posts, effectively creating a supportive wall that sandwiches the row of plants. These systems provide high-density vertical support, which is advantageous for large plantings of indeterminate varieties.
Pruning for Health and Yield
Pruning involves the selective removal of plant tissue to redirect the plant’s energy and improve its health.
Removing Suckers
The primary focus of pruning is the removal of suckers, which are small shoots that emerge in the axil, the angle between the main stem and a leaf branch. If left to grow, a sucker becomes a secondary stem that diverts photosynthesized sugars away from fruit development on the main vine. Removing these suckers, especially on indeterminate plants, forces the plant to concentrate its resources into developing larger fruit on the primary growing points.
Managing Foliage
Another important practice is removing the lower leaves on the main stem, particularly those below the first flower cluster. These older leaves are often the first to show signs of disease and are most susceptible to being splashed with soil-borne pathogens during watering. Clearing the bottom 12 to 18 inches of the stem creates a clean zone, significantly improving air circulation at the base of the plant and minimizing disease transmission. Late in the season, some gardeners practice “topping,” which involves removing the growing tip of the main stem to halt vertical growth. This action forces the plant to dedicate its remaining energy to ripening the existing fruit before the season ends.