Tomatoes will ripen faster and grow bigger fruit if gardeners do 10-second task in July
It turns out there is an easy way to grow plumper and larger tomato fruits this summer as all you have to do is a 10-second task that is best done in the fortnight before July ends.
Nothing is better in summer than picking a massive, sun-kissed tomato you have grown from seed, and there is a simple gardening method to ensure you get the biggest possible fruit. Late July is right in the middle of the tomato growing season, and the plant should have plenty of small green fruit ready to pick by the end of the month.
However, fruit is not the only thing growing on tomato plants at the moment, as they will also develop suckers, which are vines that grow in more stems that can flower. Suckers are a natural way to get more plants in your garden, but they do pull a lot of energy away from the fruit, so you will end up with smaller fruit that will take longer to ripen. Linda Ly, a gardener and founder of Garden Betty, said gardeners need to make an important decision now, as pruning suckers will help them grow much heavier, plumper tomatoes.
She said: "Cutting off the suckers does contribute to bigger tomatoes. You’ll get fewer fruits overall since you’ll have fewer branches, but the fruits your plant produces will grow larger.
"That’s because removing the side shoots reduces the competition for nutrients and focuses the plant’s energy on producing larger fruits."
If you leave suckers alone, then your tomato plant will become bushier, start to flower again and potentially produce more tomatoes, so you have more fruit to harvest until the end of summer.
However, the disadvantage of letting suckers grow is that they will take energy, nutrients and other resources away from the fruit that is already growing, meaning they will turn out a lot smaller.
In the UK, it is generally recommended to remove suckers because the growing season for tomatoes is short, and it helps the existing fruit ripen properly to concentrate the flavour. You get a much richer harvest.
How to remove tomato suckers
To begin, you have to identify a sucker, which will look like a small leafy shoot that is coming from the leaf joint.
Be very careful, as many gardeners mistake suckers for a flower tuss, which grows on the main stem and should have flowers or tomato clusters growing on it at the moment.
Once you know how to identify a sucker, they are really easy to remove. You just have to pinch them gently between your thumb and finger until they snap off.
It should take just a few seconds, but if suckers have been left to grow, then you might need a pair of scissors or secateurs to get rid of them. Make sure to cut as close to the stem as possible to avoid harming the main plant.
Removing tomato suckers should just take a few seconds but right now in July it will help redirect more energy to the fruit so your tomatoes are sweet, big and as flavourful as possible.
