Any pruning methods you guys use that I didn't talk about? DROP EM BELOWWWW!

Back when I was in my 30s, I had several very large Beefsteak tomatoe plants in my garden. It came to the end of the season and temps were dropping, but my plants were FULL of green tomatoes. So I dug them out and tied a rope to the roots and hung my plants upside-down from the rafters in my garage! They continued to grow, ripen and produce fruit for months! I was able to pick tomatoes anytime I wanted to. 😋 Best year ever!!😂

You're a really good teacher, nice speaking style, good voice modulation, very clear explanations. Well done!

It's crazy to me how in depth gardening really can be. I have lots to learn

This is the best pruning video I've ever seen, after searching all season. Thank you so so much! I'm confident my next tomato plants are going to be 10 times better than this year.

I once had a tomato plant in a container that the dog knocked it over and broke off a large sucker. The main plant was about 3 feet tall and the sucker was about 2 feet. I planted the sucker in another container as deep as I could. I got more tomatoes from the 2nd plant than I did from the original one.

I decided to grow some romas from seed this season. I planted around 30 seeds, expecting only a few of them to make it but PLOT TWIST 22 OF THEM MADE IT! Everyone in the family got like 5 tomato plants XD

In dutch we call the suckers, "Thieves" :') thank you for this vid, I've been looking for a good vid because I couldn't understand all the vague explanation from other creators. You're the first one that explains so well how to recognize a sucker and which one to cut. Thank you!!!

While watching your video and pausing at each new instruction, I'm chopping off the unneeded parts of the tomato plants! Thank you for making this such as enjoyable learning experience :)

Your videos are my FAVORITE! It's such a relief to see someone who can speak well, choose his words well, provide necessary details in an organized way, AND get a lot of info without having to watch for 30 minutes! Thank you for sharing your passion and GIFT with us!

I just watched your video and went out and pruned my tomato plants for the very first time. I'm a first year gardener and was just letting them run completely wild, but several were not doing so well and when I read up that not pruning could cause bad things, I looked up our video to find out how to do it. Thanks for the helpful info!

Love your voice and well-thought-out videos. Here's the saying I live by, "if it's furry, you can bury (the stem)" and that holds for any stem that is furry. Furry stems grow roots. Edited to add that after adding a bit of bone meal and worm castings to the hole, I will also plant tomatoes horizontally up to the first set of leaves for a much stronger root system. Once it's grown, I prune the bottom foot of leaves/stems and underplant. I also always plant basil, onions, petunias, and borage with my tomatoes to ward off hornworms and other pests.

"It's kind of like 'Medusa'... You cut off one two grow in." Do you mean it's like a hydra? Lol

I just love the morning rutine, few silent minutts before kids get up. Look over our plants, water if needed and take away some weeds. Its therapy tbh. Im testing iout different stuff, from raised beds, buckets, trying to make new trees, and now also hydroponics. All for learning. As a family we love to watch it grow and looking forward to start planning next season. Because next year we will have a plan behind it all and start much earlier. PS forgot to mention, i just love the channel, its what got me started in the first place

It would be great to do a follow-up video where you have two plants each, of both determinate and indeterminate varieties, that had been treated the same way, to show the difference between the benefits of pruning vs non-pruning. This video was done in March, perhaps next season you could do a season follow-through video to show pruning throughout the season.

I watch at least one of your videos a day. I finally started my first little renter friendly garden and I feel confident with the tools you have given us!

THANK YOU!!! I am in east central Wisconsin, my growing season is generally Memorial Day through mid-September. This year I jumped the gun and planted my garden in mid-May, had a close call with cold temperatures one night, but otherwise all is good! Anyway, after years and years of gardening with mediocre results, this year I changed out the whole garden. New raised boxes, fresh growing medium. I started my tomato seeds indoors in early April, planted very cute plantlets. I have never pruned my tomatoes, thinking more plant, more fruit. Every year I had leaf wilt, not too many tomatoes. So after watching your videos, I am being relentless with pruning. Suckers and lower leaves are being removed weekly, and I have the most beautiful tomato crop I have ever grown! The plants are all healthy, fruit is being set and I should be enjoying my first tomatoes in two weeks! No sign of blight or any other disease! I am very thankful.

In light of all the stress of 2020 this video made me very happy. I am in San Diego. Out to the garden I go!!! Peace to anyone who sees my comment.

Hey there, could you please do another tomato video focusing on what the leafs/leaves are trying to tell us for example: turning yellow, curling down or up, getting spots......you know like deficiencies or diseases. I recently just found your channel and really appreciate the content and information and also want to say your videos are extremely therapeutic! Thanks again

I loved the analogy between unproductive workers and lower leaves 😁

My tomatoes grow and produce year-round in Sacramento, CA as long as I protect them from the early frosts killing them off. Been doing it for decades - had two tomato plants last 6 years before a surprise frost got them.

Not pruning above the first flowers on a determinate tomato is the wisdom I was searching for for so long! Thank you!

I've just begun to take growing our own vegetables seriously so I didn't know you need to prune tomatoes at all! This was so informative and made it very clear which suckers to remove from the plants and why. Thanks!

My 93 year old Italian neighbor overwinters her tomato plants here in New England. She brings me tomatoes in February.

I’ve definitely got a rogue tomato plant - first time growing and have left the pruning late

I feel like I’m in a gardening class. This is so helpful for newbies like me! Thank you!💕

4:15 Starts giving pruning strategy

Please do a part 2 where you go more in depth on various pruning strategies. Single leader, double leader, etc. I’d like to hear the pros and cons and reasoning behind each strategy. I did single in all my plants last year and my harvest was meh. So I’m going bushier this time around but I dont know WHY. Just trying something different. Thanks.

Thank you Kevin for your videos. I recently started a balcony garden and your videos have been sooooo helpful. I'm looking forward to my first harvest soon. Thanks again!!!

Hey Kevin, You know, I wasn't even into gardening before I watched one of your videos a couple weeks ago, and after seeing your passion and enthusiasm together with your fantastic clear teaching style - all delivered in your beautiful calm, confident, reassuring energy - you got me hooked and I'm now starting to grow veggies from seed for the first time in my life! Thank you so much for sharing your passion with the world ^_^

I initially started watching your videos because one of them got randomly recommended and then I kinda went down a rabbit hole of your videos. Before, I never really was interested or into gardening but now I'm thinking about getting into it.

What a Cool 😎 Tomato Cage! You're bringing gardening to the next level of fabulous. I'm so glad you bought Botanical Interests. Your vibe is bringing B.I. luck because I've had better germination rate this last year. So thank you for all that you do in this space. Growing our own food is the upmost important skill we can refine, especially in 2023 and beyond. SHTF a long time ago, we're just realizing it now. I have heard mother earth calling me back to her and the basics, as well as forming a relationship with plants (they are conscious energies and matter just like us). Plants are life!

I'm a first time gardener this year and I also live in San Diego!! I knew that tomato plants needed to be pruned and I've watched a few other videos on that but was still confused about what exactly I'm supposed to prune so I've just kind of left my tom plants alone. But I know they need a little bit of pruning now so thanks to you I think I understand so much better than before. I love all of my plants so much and want to take the best care I can for them to really thrive. Thanks for being to the point in your vid and very clear! I appreciate that so much!!

This was a REVELATION! You have changed my tomato gardening life 😭❤️

This was so incredibly helpful! I've never actually pruned a tomato in my life out of just fear of killing the plant--but this makes it less daunting.

This was the most clear and concise description of pruning tomatoes. Great job!

I leave and encourage what you call suckers, prune a lot of feeder leaves initially. This produces a lot of blooms. When my plants reach about 5', I start topping. I tie them up along the way. I end up with so many tomatoes that I can give my neighbors plastic grocery bags full and still have more than we can put up for winter. All from 12 plants, 3 varieties. Also, I only prune later in the evening and water just before dark. I use 1tbls of Miracle grow to 1gal of water in a watering can applying 10 seconds to the base of the plant once a week til 1/2 to 3/4 of the season. During times of no rain I water early morning and late evening.

Whenever I need some relaxing content, I tune in to Epic Gardening! Thank you so much Kevin!

I actually learned this from growing weed, but the same principles apply to tomatoes here. When you're topping a plant (I consider topping a specific type of pruning), what you're doing is forcibly redistributing the plant hormone Auxin. Auxin naturally works against gravity and accumulates in the top of the plant. Auxin has two main roles in this case: promoting growth and maintaining apical dominance, and inhibiting lateral growth of down stem branches. When you top a plant, you remove this accumulation of this hormone. Obviously the now missing stem no longer has apical dominance, but is also no longer inhibiting down stem growth. As a result the Auxins begin accumulating in the two top most side branches, giving you two main stems that aren't inhibiting each others growth. In the world of indoor gardening, this is useful to help you develop a bushy even canopy to get even light absorption, since our lights are stationary directly above the plant. Instead of topping, an alternate technique used for this, is low stress training. This is where you bend the plant over in an arch shape, creating a new topmost spot for auxins to accumulate and forming a secondary main stem without the damage from topping. Interestingly, in your plant here you can see this happening just from nature. As that plant started leaning over towards the sun, auxins accumulate more on on side, and that at least contributed to those extra main stems. Certainly not an expert either so if anyone has corrections I'm all ears!

At last a clear concise explanation! I just got done pruning and I knew what I was looking for and then doing! Thank you so much!

THANK YOU SO MUCH, for explaining the pruning so thoroughly. I have read different articles, but watching and listening to you brought everything together.

I was looking at my tomato plant today and wondering if I needed to prune it! Good timing! Thank you!

I just realized I have been doing it wrong - I've been cutting the "sun leaves" and leaving the suckers -- hopefully I can correct it now and not have damaged my plants. Thank you for the advice!

Grew them for the first time last year. Saw some videos that weren't as clear, so I came back to search as I've planted last week. Thanks, very helpful.

A sucker can create another sucker…a sucker-ception 🤣 Had me laughing 😅

Ironically, I just pruned my tomato plants yesterday, and here I am starting this vid now hoping to find out that I did it right... Fingers crossed 🤞🏻

I have never herd of pruning tomatoes, thank you this makes sense.

Great information for those like me who are just learning the basics of growing healthy food. Thank you.

Just found this (in 2022) and want to thank you for a nice, clear explanation of the two types of tomatoes and how to prune. I agree with other posters, you have a very clear way of explaining. Thanks so much!

This was so incredibly helpful! I didn't prune my indeterminate last year as I was so lost. This has been wildly helpful

Incredible. I just mentioned to a friend I have to prune a tomato plant and here you are posting a video. Very helpful video. Will put these tips to work.

Fantastic video dude. Never thought I’d catch myself watching an entire video about pruning tomatoes but here we are 2022

Thank you for this video, I found this so informative! I have only grown indeterminate tomato varieties without really knowing it and would always wonder why the plants would get so dang out-of-control. Now I know :)

6:06 - 6:16 is the best advice you could ever give anyone and meee!!! I was looking for the video I saved that someone said about the flower and pruning but I couldn’t remember the rule of thumb thank you thank you thank you!!!! I would love to send you pics of my potted tomato plants 🌱 they are flourishing! 😍😍😍😍

Perfect timing! I'm pruning my tomatoes now.

THANK YOU! This was the best pruning video I've seen. My indeterminate plants get away from me every year, and every year I pledge to stay on top of it (epic fail). You explaining that the suckers produce flowers/fruit, but prune them anyway, has cut through so much of my confusion.

Had a dream I was gonna growing tomatoes from a pot cause it’s not a great idea to grow it in the dirt where I currently live. Opened YT and here was your dragon fruit short, clicked on ur page and saw this vid I’m now subscribed. Every year I say I’m gonna start my garden, and every year I find a reason not too. But it will happen this year.

Dude. I’ve been growing tomatoes for forty years. I never knew this. Holy cow!

No idea how I missed this video! Thanks Kevin, these tips will be really helpful in my tomato growing this year!!

Dude! This video was THE BEST! I’ve been looking at everything I could to figure out tomatoes! And none of them spell it out like you do! Nice! Thanks a ton!

wow, two minutes in and i feel so much more educated on this plant... thank you!

Great tips! I’ve learned how to make baby tomatoes by fingering, vibrating, and gently flicking the flowers 2 days ago. I tried it out yesterday and got great results. Flowers closed upon inspection this morning which meant that the pollen has been distributed.

Thank you for keeping this video so simple and to the point. I've been losing my mind over all the tomato pruning videos and your videos are a constant reminder to keep my garden as simple as possible and let them do their thing!

This was a really great video. I'm growing my first tomatoes this year, so I'm excited to put this to use. Thank you!

I JUST got into gardening and I'm obsessed with the tips your giving me that I'm binging at almost 2am 🥴

Thank you! I desperately needed that info. For years I've been cutting off the sun leaves because they always look so manky. Also... just an FYI... not Medusa. Perseus cut her head off and she died. The Hydra is the monster you are thinking of... from the 12 labors of Heracles; cut one head off and two quickly grow to replace it.

Thank you! Nice tutorial. I don't understand why anyone would down vote this. You're epic!

Great advice. I've managed to get a couple of plants growing from slices of tomato covered with soil. These tips will come in very handy for my first ever crop.

Excellent video. Thank you for making it!

Gardening is so magical to me! Like who knew you could take a sucker and propagate it and plant 🌱as a new plant 🤯🤯🤯

I've used toenail clippers to prune tomatoes. Easy to clean, fits in tight spots and I don't get as carried away cleaning up. Tomatoes spa day🍅🌞🛁

Great presentation! Style, voice strength and clarity, and professional knowledge are "spot-on"!

Thanks for the info , definitely learned something today . I take a couple of the last fruits and smash them into the same soil in the container and cover a little soil over it . In a couple or so little sprouts come up and the strongest get a little pot of their own . I don't follow many basic things you should do because I just don't make the time to set up a greenhouse and all that entails . Right now I have 50 or so little sprouts and I have one leftover from this winter and it has given us 2 small tomatoes . Going to keep this up and take better care of them one of these seasons .

Glad I found this video! I have 4 plants that are indeterminate and growing like nobody’s business. This video helped me out a lot!!

I never thought about topping off my indeterminates near the end of the season! Makes so much sense. We start getting freezing night temps in October (Fargo) and then I feel like my counters are covered in TONS of green fruit to ripen. Going to top of at the end of September to get those last tomatoes ripened.

I need a tomato plant intervention, I was so proud how big and lush my plants were growing, then suddenly my back porch started to look like a jungle and I couldn't water them enough. I also had some of my medium tomatoes with rot on the bottom. I read up and realized I needed more calcium and less branches! I just went to town pruning them and added milk and tums to the water. I pray this helps!

Great info! Thanks! Last year my husband didn't want me to prune our tomatoes, and we ended up with a Tomato Jungle. They actually produced wonderfully, but it was so difficult to harvest! The plants were well over 6 feet tall and all tangled in on one another! Now I can show him this video and hopefully help change his mind about pruning.

I didn't even know this was something that needed done.

I've been growing tomatoes for several years now and I've finally decided that pruning them may be benificial. I've watched several videos now and learned the most from this one. Last year my one plant became a little unruly. It got over 6 feet tall and produced just over 3000 cherry tomatoes. My beefsteak plant was very similar. Got to around 5 feet tall and produced around 90 tomatoes. Is this a normal yield ? I literally did nothing other than build a lattice structure with some bamboo to support the plant.

I keep coming back to this video year after year. Excellent content and delivery that makes it easy to follow and understand!

This explains why my kids’ Nana struggled w her tomato plants last summer. Her fruit almost 100% of the time had this thick, brown line through it (reminded me of the Pepsi symbol) and if they weren’t like that, they were diseased. She had no problem w all the lush, green foliage and the plant was taller than me (I’m 5’6). The summer before when she first planted her tomato, she yielded large, sweet and super beautiful tomato in great abundance. She thought this year she will either move her garden or build a greenhouse but looking back as I have pics and videos, there was no pruning so not enough energy went to the fruit itself due to TONS of suckers on top of suckers! Side note…she also planted mint relatively close to her tomaters and that herb spread like a darn disease overtaking her garden. She probably should’ve planted her mint, oregano, and parsley in either a container or raised bed. While I’m on this subject, can you perhaps cover a topic in gardening about plants that root faster than others and may hinder the growth of plants such as the mint infiltrating Nana’s garden? And your solution(s)? I haven’t been able to find much info on that. Thanks!

I started my cherry tomatoes hydroponically, then moved them to dirt. They transitioned beautifully! Great tips on pruning, thanks

This was so helpful!! Love that you can make additional plants from the pruning, thanks for the tips.

Great video, exactly what I was looking for, no unnecessary complexion.

A great easy-to-understand video. Many thanks for posting. I now know 100% more about tomato growing than I did this morning!

Super useful and clear instructions. I needed a refresher on how to prune both types of tomato, and this was even more informative and helpful than what I was taught initially. Feels like I understand it so much better now, so am unlikely to forget again. Also, had NO idea the trimmed out suckers were actually viable. All these years I’ve wasted perfectly good sports…never again! Thanks so much for producing this video.

Thank you for this great video. I've watched for the last couple of growing seasons to remind me how to care for our tomatoes. Unfortunately, a bunch of our plants were prematurely topped off by deer a couple of weeks after planting. Most of them were indeterminate so we'll see what, if anything, grows.

It is May 29 ,2022. I too have been doing research all winter , here in Illinois. In March we tilled up a garden space , twice as big as last year. Chopped up unused vegetables scraps ,eggshells, and banana peeling. Saved coffee grounds. Our garden (in town) ,is 9 foot by 30 foot. Right down the center, I made a 2 foot gully. I took 3 - 5gallon buckets and divided my savings and filled up the rest of the way with collected rain water. I took my hoe and slushed it around ,and dipped my pan into the bucket and kept my solution in the center. As spring snuck up on us , I sprinkled rock phosphorus down the center. Winter held on till the end of April, and I had to cover my babies. I planted my tomatoes deep. As they grew ,I pressed more dirt around the bottom of the stem ,and snipped off the lower limbs, like you said. I'm 5'10" , and my tomatoe plants are even with my hips. I sure would like some advice on how to keep those maple tree seeds ,(whorrly bird seeds) , out of my garden. I don't have no trees in my yard !!! Sorry this is so long , but I love to talk gardening , as you do too!!! I visit my garden several times a day. I say my prayers in the mornings. But I face my gardens door now, cause my husband came out , when I was deep in prayer , and scared me like crazy the other day ! Bless you and all that you do for others with your advice. One more advice from me.... Don't tell God about your problems, Tell your problems how strong your God is!!

Totally helping for beginner ! Will definitely prune my indeterminate tomato plant , thanks

I remember my uncle telling me a tomato plant is like a mother and she can only feed so many and that’s why you take out the suckers

Thank you for another educational video. You really got me inspired to grow veggies this year!

I put my suckers in water and wait for roots to sprout. Works for me. Been dabbling in hydroponics. Thanks for the video.

Thanks for the really clear tips! I didn't prune as I should have and mine got long and gangly, with very little fruit. Will work on doing better next year. I love the cloning!!

My favourite veg they grow all year round where I live in Northern Tropical Australia but the bloody bugs love them,I find the small cherry varieties the best the bugs seem to leave them alone great channel keep it up!

Probably the best video on this topic, now I will feel less stressed when pruning since now I understand which is sun leaf sucker & main stem very clearly.

This is by far the most clear informative video on pruning tomatoes I've seen

Excellent explanation! Very clear and concise. Loved watching it till the very end. Thank you for putting out this video. I surely learned something new today!

we have a 4x4 raised bed for out tomatoes, it is about 16 inches deep, the last 4 years we have gotten amazing results by pretty much leaving them alone, we use SEVIN 7 and miracle gro raised garden bed soil as well as miracle gro feeding once week. The plants generally grow to about 6-7 feet with tremendous yeilds, san marzano, roma, and cherries

This is the video I really needed. It was a game changer for me. I learned a lot that has made a HUGE difference.

I'm here in Zone 9A and we haven't had a frost in at least 2 years. I'll be putting in my first very San Marzano Tomatoes in April. Lot's of good info in the video!