Taking leaves off tomato plants

[caroline7758]

I have squeezed too many tom plants into my already shady greenhouse and am thinking I should take some of the leaves off to get more light and air to the fruits. How far can I go with this without distressing the plants?None of the fruit has started reddening yet.

[manicscousers]

we've taken the bottom leaves off, just up to the first truss of fruit, we'll take the next ones off when we've eaten the first truss of fruit 

[davyw1]

There is nothing wrong with taking a a few leaves of as long as you do not take to many of at the same time. You can remove the whole leaf from the stem or just cut off half way along the leaf stem.

[caroline7758]

Thanks, I'll take a few more off, then!

[Barnowl]

I tend to do quite a bit of partial leaf removal to stop them rubbing against one another, but mine are outdoor.

[Suzanne]

I have taken the bottom leaves off my tomatoes, I haven't done this before but in the Organic Gardening Magazine they were advocating it. Apparently the plant doesn't lose too much by taking these leaves away as their ability to photosynthesize and produce food for the plant is vastly reduced (<30% of the leaves higher up on the stem) and it does benefit ripening of the fruit. Well I'll just have to see now. 
By the way my toms are in a small homemade tom house - made from tree stakes a corrugated PVC roof and a sheet of plastic to keep the wind and rain off - so not truely under glass.

[GrannieAnnie]

Will lend you some tomato worms to thin those leaves for ya'.
Address?

 

[ceres]

Now the dreaded blight has arrived, I've taken off leaves up to the lowest trusses and taken off any above that are covering/touching the fruit.  It probably doesn't do anything but it makes me feel better for trying!

Keep those tomato worms to yourself GrannieAnnie!

[daileg]

 i have the same problem ceres im shedding leaves twice a week at the moment trying to salvage every tom i can never helps though!
 i think next year going to have to think outside the box a little

[davee52uk]

At about this stage, I take off the botton leaves as they are not doing much and generally falling off. I also remove some leaves which are shading fruit so that they can ripen better. I also have cut off the top of the stem as I just want to grow and ripen existing tomatoes and not start any new fruit.

This is for greenhouse crops. The outdoor ones have been a disaster and are all busg varieties anyway so I jsut leave them alone.

[Sally A]

I'm a stripper  up to a third of the leaves go to assist ventilation, this also helps to find any moth eggs that might have been laid too, as they tend to lay their eggs on the bottom half of the plant, then the little caterpillar blighters will climb up and munch the toms as well as the leaves.