greenhouse tomatoes

[informashun]

i recently read an american book re growing toms in a greenhouse.
it was a surprise to read he advocated the removal of nearly all the leaves with the heading grow tomatoes not leaves.
as anyone practised this culture and/or has any advice or comments.
many thanks

[shaneystar2]

I have got tomatoes in tubs in the garden as I have no greenhouse ..but I always pull the bottom leaves off as soon as four trusses are set and nip off the side shoots ,then nip out the top shoots Someone told me to do this because all the greenery is taking goodness from the fruit . Plus the toms have more access then to the sun to ripen them .

[Clanad]

Well... yes and no. I cut lots of leaves off during the growing season, but they are distinctive and are called "sucker" leaves here in the U.S. They are different looking from the leaves that will produce blooms. The leaves that will produce blooms have very fine white hair like growths as the leave appears from the main stem. Additionally, it's fairly slow to grow, whereas the sucker leaf grows rapidly and never produces the fine hair structures. I find it best to trim the plant to form only a single main stem. Most of the leaves will be near the top of the pruned main stem and have had exceptional luck producing lots of tomatos. I never grow hybrid tomatos, only old, original heriloom varities... I find they are much healthier, but that's probably just a personal choice... Best of luck!

[thundercrack]

hi, I used to work in a large tomato producing nursery. the plants were put into grow bags ( one per bag) and small feeder hoses were put into the bags to supply pure fertilizer. once a week the staff would converge and take off all the non flower producing stems. the plants were trained up wires and left to grow as many hands of tomatos as they could. eventually the roots of the plants would be out of the bags and feeding from the water gulleys.a couple of times a day overhead water lines would be activated for a few minutes and create a torrential downpour, to help pollenate the plants. although most plants were stopped at about 7ft high, they would let some grow on and reach the apex (20ft ). this nursery was on the south coast of england and had almost tropical heat 24/7.
and they reaped a handsome crop, EXCEPT you could taste the fertilizer in the tomatoes, but yes, remove all non flowering stems and you will get a larger crop.
alf.

[WendyS]

I pick out all the sideshoots but leave all the leaves on until very late in growing season when I might remove a few big leaves to allow the sun to get to some of the hidden tomatoes to help ripen them. I do think that a tomato plant stripped of its leaves looks a very sorry sight and I've never read anything yet which leads me to believe removing them provides any benefit to the plant., whether grown in a greenhouse or outdoors.