There are many debates in the tomato gardening world, from pruning to fertilizing and more.
Topping – trimming the central stems of the plant – is another one of those tasks many gardeners wonder about. Is it essential to growth and health? Is it a largely unnecessary additional task? Or is it somewhere in between?
While topping isn’t strictly necessary for your plant’s health and growth, it does come with a few benefits to consider when deciding what’s best for you.
4 Benefits Of Topping Tomato Plants
1. Improving Growth
Topping tomatoes at the beginning of the season can facilitate branching and produce stronger central stems. These stems are more resistant to wind damage and can hold the weight of heavier fruits.
If growth becomes leggy later in the season, topping can fix this problem and produce stronger growth towards the end of the season.
2. Better Flowering
When your plant is focused on growing upwards, it has less energy to produce flowers on the lower parts of the stem. If you notice few flowers around blooming time, topping can redirect the plant’s energy toward flowering for that period, ultimately giving you more fruit overall.
3. Controlling Growth
Mid to late season tomato growth can also get out of hand. As the stems continue to grow, they grow taller than the existing stakes or your tomato cage, leaving them vulnerable to snapping with high winds or heavy fruits. Topping will temporarily control this growth, making your plants more resistant to damage from the elements.
4. Better Fruit Production
Toward the end of the season, tomato plants will continue growing until frost sets in. You may still have blooms or green tomatoes on your plant that need to grow and ripen as quickly as possible. One way to speed up this process is to top the plants. All the energy that went into stem and leaf production will now go toward fruit production.
The Downsides Of Topping Tomato Plants
There are a few downsides to topping too.
Firstly, topping a determinate tomato plant (those that grow to a predetermined height) will stunt growth as the central stem will struggle to grow past that point. You need to ensure you know what type of plant you’re dealing with before topping to prevent this issue.
Secondly, it is another time-consuming task among many time-consuming tomato growing tasks. For hands-off gardeners who like to leave their tomatoes to their own devices, topping can seem ‘over the top’ (excuse the pun).
Topping is not necessary for all plants in all situations, but it can be beneficial when done correctly. Much like pruning, it’s something to strongly consider, but not something that will majorly impact the growth of your plants.
When To Top Tomato Plants
Determinate tomatoes should only be pruned at the very end of the season when you’re looking to grow and ripen the last fruits before the weather gets too cold. Topping any time before that will stunt growth and limit your harvest.
Indeterminate tomatoes can be topped throughout the season as needed as they will continue to grow back.
At the beginning of the season, top indeterminate tomatoes to improve growth or prevent leggy stems before fruit set. Mid-season topping can control height and unruly growth when the stems outgrow their supports. And, much like determinate tomatoes, end-of-season topping will direct the energy toward producing the last fruits before the plant dies back at first frost.
How To Top Tomato Plants
Deciding whether to top your tomatoes is the hard part. Once you’re ready, actually topping them is incredibly easy.
Start by grabbing a sharp, cleaned pair of pruning shears. If you have recently dealt with diseased plants, make sure you disinfect them before use on your tomatoes with a 5% bleach solution. This will prevent any potential spread from the shears to the plant.
Then, identify the central stem on the plant. Trim it off by making a clean cut right above a leaf node at the point where the stem outgrows your supports. Keeping the node on the stem will ensure it grows back stronger from that same point.
If trimming toward the end of the season, identify the best-performing fruits and cut the stem above that point. Don’t cut too much as exposure to direct sun during high heat can cause sunscald in your last ripening tomatoes.
Unfortunately, as is the case with pizza, one topping is not usually enough. The stem will generally grow back quicker, meaning you’ll need to continue cutting to keep it below your installed support. Grab your shears every week or two when you head out to water and simply trim off the excess as required.
You can throw these trimmed pieces on your compost heap, or use them to propagate even more tomato plants.
Simply root your cuttings in water or soil and they will develop roots along the stem.
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If you grow tomatoes, you probably have a collection of metal tomato cages stacked somewhere in your garage or shed.
Maybe this year, you’ve decided to use a different way of supporting your tomatoes. Goodness knows there are plenty of methods to try.
Don’t let those tomato cages sit unused; there are plenty of other veggies in your garden that could use some support – flowers too.
1. Peas
Peas need support too!
Tomato cages are great for peas. Flip the cage upside down and plant your peas around the outside of it. Train them to grow up the cage for easy picking once your peas are ready. You may want to use landscape pins to secure the stake into the dirt.
2. Runner/Pole Beans
Just like peas, climbing beans such as runner or pole beans will benefit from a sturdy structure to cling to. Make sure you use the largest tomato cages you can get your hands on for your beans. Again, flip the cage upside down, secure it with landscape pins and plant your beans around the outside of it.
You might even consider planting a head of lettuce inside it. The beans will shade the lettuce as they grow and as the summer sun heats up.
3. Peppers
Use a few of the smaller tomato cages to support larger pepper plants. Keeping the peppers up off the ground as they grow helps keep soil-borne diseases at bay and keeps abundant fruit from snapping the stems of your pepper plants.
4. Cucumbers
Bush cucumbers benefit from the support that a tomato cage offers. You can train the plants to grow up inside the cages making it easier to find your cucumbers as they grow too. Likewise, flip the cage upside down and use it to trellis climbing varieties.
Related Reading: 12 Cucumber Trellis & Support Ideas
5. Cucamelons
What? You’ve never heard of cucamelons? Well, it’s high time you grow these adorable little bite-sized treats. And just like peas and beans, you can flip the tomato cages upside down and train tender cucamelon tendrils to climb the outsides of the cage.
6. Zucchini/Summer Squash
Say goodbye to crazy mangled zucchini plants.
We’ve all been there; you check your zucchini every day and pick them before they get too large. But one day, there it is – the one that’s been hiding under the leaves. Is that a zucchini or a green baseball bat?
Grow your zucchini in a tomato cage and keep the leaves up off the ground. You’ll be able to see the squash as they develop and pick them when they reach the right size.
Flip the tomato cage upside down and place it over zucchini plants when they’re young. Train the leaves to grow up by tucking them up inside the cage as they grow. Once they begin to fill out, the leaves will naturally poke out of the upper rack of the tomato cage.
Growing zucchini this way keeps the leaves up off the ground, leading to healthier plants and manageable zucchini.
7. Peonies
No more peonies knocked over by heavy rains.
These gorgeous flowers easily become top-heavy with so many large blooms. One good rain, and suddenly they all fall down.
Add a tomato cage over the top of each peony in the spring and let them grow into it. Once they begin to bloom, the plants will have grown around the cage hiding it, while giving your blossoms added support.
8. Morning Glories
Give your morning glories a fun shape to climb and cling to.
Using the upside-down tomato cage method, plant morning glories at the base and train them to grow up and around the cage. Not only will the cage give your morning glories a trellis to climb, but as they cover the cage, you’ll have beautiful cones of green dotted with flowers.
Growing morning glories in this way provides visual interest and can be placed along a walkway or on either side of your front steps.
You could even fold down the top stakes of the tomato cage inside itself and place a terracotta pot with more flowers in it for a truly stunning landscape feature.
9. Protect from Frost in a Pinch
Keep tender plants safe from harm with tomato cages.
If the weatherman says you’ve got a frost on the way, but you haven’t had time to prepare, don’t worry. Place inverted tomato cages over tender plants and cover the cage with a pillowcase or plastic garbage bag.
Your plants will be safe through the night. In the morning, you can put everything away or set it aside for the next frost.
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