After seeing this video, i went back out to my compost and retrieved the cut down tomato plants and put them back in their pots. Thanks sir!

I love the fact that you actually do a video with the actual end results. I can't tell you how many videos I've watched when someone starts an experiment or comparison and they never finish it. So the viewer never knows what happened! Thanks for being so thorough and thoughtful Love your t shirts. I'm ordering a couple soon Thanks Al

When my tomato plant died I had 3 completely green tomatoes left. I broke the branch and planted it into the ground and they all turned red. Plants are amazing.

Yes! I have broken a few tomato branches with and without fruit! The one without fruit but with flowers I stuck in the dirt outside, it rooted itself and continued to make fruit. The one with tomatoes, I stuck in a milk jug with water and a tiny few pebbles of fertilizer. The tomatoes continued growing and it rooted in the water. So anything is possible with tomatoes!

I did this on purpose this year and not for the reasons you mentioned. Here is southern California we have a very long growing season and my cherry tomato grew right off the top of the trellis. I cut right above a spot that had already re-suckered. I was worried if I cut below there the plant wouldn't put out new growth. The plant had enough time to grow to top and produce fruit again. Thanks for the video. Very informative.

This is exactly what I needed to know! I live in the tropics and tomatoes can grow pretty much indefinitely here, so it's interesting to know that I could possibly keep the plant going as long as it's healthy

I woke up to 100+ degree weather in AZ this week and the leaves to my beautiful tomato plant completely dried up. I'm new to gardening and cried like a loser since it was my first grow. I was ready to say goodbye to it, then I came across this video. THANK YOU!! Hope it's not too late for my lil guy.

Oh my goodness. I just did this without knowing if I should. I'm a novice gardener and this is a GREAT video! Thank you for taking the time to make it and share. Happy Gardening!

Wow you are the first person to actually explain the Indeterminate & determinate theory. I, after 18mths of growing now understand that the Indeterminate tomatoes have a indeterminate amount of life- sorry just couldn't get my head around it until NOW- Thank You so much- Great video Cheers Denise from Brisbane Australia

Thanks for taking the time to do this analysis, it was helpful.

Thank you for making this video. I had to strip everything off one of mine because of how the leaves were all turning. Glad to know they grow back

Thank you for this, I was given some tomato plants by a neighbor and it was 102 degree heat when they were moved...I thought I had lost them, but followed your instructions and they were saved

Great video!! 1st year container grower here and I couldn't stress more about tinkering n trying things out in your garden. Only way to learn. Keep up the good info.

I've been sticking my prunings of indeterminate tomatoes in the ground. Water real good. The seem to stress and wilt for a few days but about week later they come back and I have a new plant. It seems to work even with fruiting trimming. Thanks for video!

This is awesome and well worth a shot I recon......cheers brother

great experiment. thank you for sharing!

That's amazing. Awesome ideas with practical advice!

wow thank you so much for this video!!! sending live from.jamaica

The amazing tomato plant! That's just awesome! 🙂👍🏼

Great experiment. I helps show the tomato plant's abilities, and how much it can take.

Good to know this! I had a couple indeterminate tomato plants snap. I cut the tops off and decided to plant them anyway. They look good so far! Also learned that the snapped off parts can be planted and develop roots--two plants from one, bonus!

I took your advice! Will see what happens. Thank you!

Great information Al. Thanks for sharing. Best wishes Bob.

Love your posts! I'm starting a self watering 4 x 10 raised bed from your design. I had a cherry tomato plant that grew out of the middle of my modest compost heap. Came back 3 seasons in a row! Never did anything to it. The nutrients from the compost as well as the warmth from decomposing sustained it. I'm from Philadelphia and I remember one winter was brutal. Thanks again and stay well, Jim.

Thumbs up for your video. Straight to the point, no stupid elongated introduction.

Thanks

thanks, i love experimental kinda stuff...nature is so freaking awesome!

Thank you for making this. It was helpful.

I listened to a zoom session today about tomatoes and they suggested cutting back indeterminate tomatoes because they will grow back for fall harvest and you don’t have to water as much in the summer. Just cover for heat. We are in S AZ

So helpful! Thanks so much!

if keep repeating this process and protecting from winter perhaps could last several years thanks i think is intresting prospect of tomatoe gardening that no one considers much, smart woohoo tomatoes

Good to know thank you!

Thank you!! We have had some storms and they had broke off and I thought it was done for!!

Very useful informations. Thank you for a great video

Thank you so much.

Yessss!! They will!!

amazing…I am going to take your advice and choose my favourites to grow inside during the winter.😊

I'm doing exactly this with determinate tomatoes that flowered and stressed to early due to weather conditions and low yielded. The three plants I have produced 4 tomatoes total and started dying off as determinates do. I've done what you did and they are coming back and look beautiful again. Just really great to find your video and get the confirmation I needed to know this is going to work out in the long run and it's just a set back and that I don't have to start over from scratch. By the way I'm doing Homestead Tomatoes for their heat tolerance because I'm zone 10. Just didn't know exactly what I was getting into with determinates as I'd always done indeterminate before this year and by July they are cooked and dead so I thought I'd try something different that might hold up to the heat. Anywho. Thank you for the video and the time it took to record this whole process. You get a thumbs up from me!

thank you

that's great! I have a large sprawling indeterminate vine that was hit with blight so it lost most of it's foliage and is just an ugly clump of bare vines now. Good to know I can cut it back and restart it again.

Thanks alot for a complete video. I always cut my tomatoes almost completely down around June 15 just before summer begins. At this point I cut off flower clusters as well. It allows new even and healthy growth. It never crossed my mind to let it go a little longer get some tomatoes, then cut it back. 👍 👍.

Good info....thank you!

😊thanks

Will absolutely try this.

Thanks for the info guy! I e got some suckers that got away from me while I was out of town. They've got fruit growing on them. Wasn't sure if I could cut and propagate them. Not much info out here on how big, or what the limit is when pruning suckers. This kinda answered my question. Thanks again bro!

I had 3 tomato plants last year. Two regular, one cherry. I cut the leaves off at the end of the year, tore down the plants and pulled them up. They still had tomatoes on them. I laid all of the coupons and branches in the garden so the nutrients could leave into the soil. Early spring, I cleared the debris, added more sorry and planted flowers and gladiola bulbs. I go outside and started seeing tomato plants growing in my flower garden. I have about 10 plants. Wow!

Thanks for the information

very informative. This goes along with Proxius method.

Thanks a lot, very good video.

I will try this end of summer for the fall. See if I get a second crop for fall

I pulled this video out of the Summer archive. It was inspired by my 1st year of gardening when my pepper plant was snapped off by a strong storm. This documents how my tomatoes responded after being intentionally cut down. ;-)

i love your experiments :)

Wow, this is really good to know. I wonder if this applies to determinate as well? Would sort of make sense that it would work even better for those

How Cool.It really shouldn't surprise me cuz my tomato plants are growing at an insane rate so if I were to cut it down ,there is no reason why it shouldn't continue to grow back providing no frost or insane amount of rain.

Awsome video man! i cant believe it grew back so well! crazy

This video is nice! It is helping others to know about cutting down on tomatoes! Thank you, sir!@#

These look great so I have to wonder what kind of support (i.e. fertilization) did you give the plants to help them along? Well done on the test and thanks for the video of your results. It encourages me to top off my tomatos where needed.

The tomatoes plants seems to grow faster when been cut down. Also the weather looks warm there

whoo! so glad i found this video! i was planning on just ripping all my indeterminate cherries out 😁 i wasn't sure if they would continue producing after harvesting 😂 good to know! Thanks! 👍🍅

Wow, very interesting

it does and think u very much i thought i could before i ask the question

I love your informative experiments! part of the fun of gardening is tying new ideas. Please continue the good work!

Good Video.Good Info.

this video is an excellent public service! just had the storm situation here.. had some unique varieties where the individuals had their top 3rd snap off (before any fruit productions, around 3FT high) and I didnt know whether to rip these out and replace with tiny seedlings that i already have duplicate plants of (whereas the snapped ones are unique) its a week before summer here still

Thank you! My inderterminate get sooooooo long and it is waaaay to how in Texas for them to set new fruit. I've been wanting to cut them back and see what happens. Thanks to this video, I'm going to cut them all now!

This is what I call the DEER effect. Deer will eat a plant down to its bigger stalks... Then as if by design... The plant flourishes and starts pushing new dense growth. We have seen it in all kinds of plants.

Your plant is huge!

This is a good video, thanks for sharing.

I used your advice on a special tomato that wasnt doing well that I wanted to save, its a domingo from Italy. Anyway all the foliage had turned to crap and the plant itself still relatively small. So I stripped every single leaf off the plant. What happened - It produced the largest tom in my garden 1 lb 15.3 oz. so yes it can work .

Exactly what I needed to know - thank you! Im in Austin, TX so I think I will wait a few more weeks until I prune them back. That way, the new growth wont be scorched by the August heat.

Last year after the first freeze we ran the mower over everything to mulch it up then I tilled up the garden. And we added our fall leaves as well as our grass clippings and repeated in late Feb. And then in the spring before we planted, I tilled the garden for about the 3rd time. We planted everything and we had a surprise we had 2 Tomato plants show up and well as a Romane lettuce plant come up and we have been getting lettuce of it for 2 weeks now. It was a nice surprise for us and one of the Tomato plants has blooms on it.

I just planted when my dog dug it out and broke the plant at the base. No leaves left only the stem. I hope ot grows back.

thanks so much, I needed to see this,my plans dried up, I thought we were going to a cold freeze but we didn't and I let my plants dry up and now i regret it ,It will never happen again.

Thanks! I got some seedlings and I nearly killed them not enough water, my beefsteak is holding on to a couple of dried leaves I wasn't sure if I want to keep them or not. Gave it some miracle grow and the stem has brightened up but the leaves got drier.

I'm really enjoying your Channel, I have a question. I have recently tried donkey manure for my red wiggler worms and I think they like it better than food? They are multiplying like crazy. I am curious what are your thoughts on this?

I found my way here because "meanwhile in Australia" a kookaburra flew down and took off with three quarters of my tomato 'baby'. I.can't.even.believe.it.....SO mad!

This is amazing, it's exactly what I went online looking for. I have two planters with two tomato plants each that are 7ish-+ feet tall and very fruitful but I'm moving 100 miles away in a few days and I was planning to just cut them down (they wont fit in any pf the vehicles I'm using to move as they are) and put the fruiting stems in a bucket of water..but I was worried and nervous! I don't know why I hadn't even thought about what I would do with the root end...maybe it's just exhaustion and I likely would have realized I should keep them too when I got down to the task. I have, in the past, had tomato plants that fell off of my second floor deck, and the main stem had broken low to the base, and I was able to regrow both the root end and the broken stem portion but the plants I have right now are much, much taller than those were. Anyway--now I want to photo-document this to show that I did it too and-hopefully-that it worked. I'm leaving here in two days so I knew I had to deal with the plants tomorrow and your video gave me the courage I needed to get on with it.

Cool video. I’ve been thinking about doing that to my overgrown tomato plants. And now I know they will be just fine!! Quick question, I noticed that water bottle you use to water your plants. How does that work? I’m really interested in doing something like that

I had cut just the tops of my tomatoes, they were already over 7 feet high with nothing tall enough to trellis them to. It was early September so I knew would not have much time left for the more before the frost. Was really surprised to find small tomatoes starting at the bottom of the plan nearest the dirt. Had already harvested everything at that height. Also I just bring in the green tomatoes and leave them in a bowl to ripen in my kitchen, they do so slowly and have been eating till the end of November, pretty good for being in Canada.

Great experience . And smart ideas video from begging until end . Could be for science fair project. Try different vegetables plant

excellent. awesome. thank you! New Orleans, here, & so was considering doing this for several reasons. our 1st frost is 15 december, so starting more for the late season at a time when we have the most bugs, scorching sun, & super heavy frequent thunderstorms & gusts is pretty harsh on younger, more tender plants. why not instead keep mature, healthy, strong, established, & delicious plants going, rather than putting a larger number of new, more fragile ones through the obstacle course of MS Delta late summers? got the idea when a storm murdered one recently & i saw new growth before i redid the container; it was struggling of course, since i had not been maintaining it, originally thinking all was lost & planning to rip it out. thanks again for this excellent experiment! ((-: {inundated?? i "inundate" myself with them whenever possible.. a few times to the point i was getting mild nightshade poisoning. but, they are my favorite food in the universe, so... please, be sure to let me know immediately if a house on either side of yours is ever for sale.}

It's November my determinate tomato plant snap in half will it regrow again (zone 9 )

I wonder if you could do this just before the frost and put a small greenhouse setup over them till spring when they would come back. Just curious

I have had a problem with lots of rain here this spring. My tomatoes that I need to put in the ground have gone crazy. I was wondering if I could get by trimming them back and then planting once the ground dries up.

In Chicago area apartment. I have/had floor to ceiling husky cherries I grabbed from the home depot dumpster. No lights just in the window. I've since gotten a nice light covers 6x6 plus the nice south east facing window light. I've cut the mass of random potted plants. I have loads of suckered in beer bottles spawning roots and the bare stalks after being bare boned are sprouting new suckered all over.

Just had a late frost here in Georgia and had some pretty significant damage to my tomatoes and peppers, I started some new seeds but now have a bit of hope my plants can make a recovery. Just cut off the dead bits and the stems are still firm so we'll see what happens!

Watching this in 2024 because I messed up my plant and wanted to know what to do! I’m going to just wait

Do you grow new plants each year or keep the same ones? I'm very knew to this. Thanks

What about propagating tomatoes via cuttings and overwintering them in small pots indoors with grow lights?

Thanks, this is just the info I was looking for! Just curious! If you experience cold winters and have a place to over-winter the root stock, could you just remove all those vines again when frost shows up, and try to keep the root stock healthy through the cold months? Then replant them outdoors in spring, maybe give yourself a head start. I think you'd also want to reduce the actual root volume by half if trying to over-winter.

I have planted my seedlings now for about 3 weeks. They look like are developing wilt. Both tomatoes and peppers. Should I transplant to another location or even a pot or 5gal bucket? I've had this prob before in this location. Thanks

If those are Principe Borghese tomatoes.....they are monsters. I had volunteers I transplanted this year and I had vines 15 feet long.

I'm curious if you noticed the cut off tops trying to send out roots while sitting in the bucket of water.

I wonder if you could do this to bring in for winter? Maybe not cut down so short?

My plant has severe tomato blight, think cutting it back would work?

If you grow indeterminates in containers outside but live in a cold winter area, could you: a) Cut the plant back at the end of the season like you showed b) Ripen the remaining fruit as you showed c) Move your cut back plant inside over the winter where it would put new growth on over the winter ready to go back outside in late spring. Could that work?

I just started this experiment myself, since my son just cut the stem of one of my tomatoplants.

i heard that since tomatoes become more and more decrepit with age, they aren't really worth overwintering as they'll easily die with disease the second year. However, I feel like there's a chance this method can be used to keep tomatoes vigorous and grow them as perennials in the same fashion as raspberries. I'll need to give a try

I'm planning on doing the same sip setup with the tote container and tomatoes, how many tomato plants do you have in one tote?

help i gotta big ass plant its kinda half fruited and can grow more should i clip dead leaves at healthy stems