Topic: Removal of all leaves on Tomato plants

[Chris Graham]

A neighbour of mine has removed all leaves on his tomato plants and its the best crop I have seen.

This seems a strange thing to do, but seems to work.

What do you think?

[labrat]

As far as I know all the research shows that completely de-leafing does absolutely nothing for the yield or quality of tomatoes.

The leaves are the engines for the tomatoes. They are producing the sugars.

As far as I'm concerned this is an old wives tale.

It's useful to de-leaf up to the first truss to avoid soil born diseases being splashed on to the leaves.

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

we have this post every year I think, but I can;'t remember what the concensus is - probably because the thread turns Ugly  :D

Where is The Great Gardener when we need him?

[davyw1]

Reading a book

[Eristic]

Where is The Great Gardener when we need him?

The location where he lives has been devastated by tomato blight and that has probably shut him up.

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

Hope he's not like Beetlejuice - 3 posts about him and then he turns up

[asbean]

Careful - he was on line a month ago  :o :o :o :o

[cornykev]

You all will him back, then shoot him down, ;)  I was going to ask this question as my tommies in my garden have completely taken over the front patio of the kids summer house, nice to see you back Chris its been a while.  ;D ;D ;D

[davyw1]

I don,t think there is anything to be gained by deleafing after you have removed the leaves below the first truss. If you remove to many leaves at once you will stress the plant.
Some say if you remove the leaves you are putting the feed where its needed, i believe the only thing it does is allow a bit more ventilation.
If i have put some of the plant to close together then i will remove some leaves where they overlap but my prefered method is to just cut half the leaf off.
But on the other hand i have removed them in the past when i think the plant has reached its full potental and i am looking for tomatoe,s for the show bench hoping it will assist in ripening them and also at the end of the season.

[Tee Gee]

has removed all leaves on his tomato plants and its the best crop I have seen.

I think you might find this to be an optical illusion i.e. the fruits are emphasised more making them appear as an exceptional crop because they are all in focus and not hidden by the leaves!

I agree with the others leave the leaves on.

[Chris Graham]

Thanks for the replies, I think your all right about this one. ;)  Teegee makes a lot of sense.

[midnightvelvet]

I read in a weekly newsletter that we should remove the bottom leaves about now, presumably to prevent any diseases as the bottom leaves die off a bit.  As a new-ish gardener with no real experience, I tend to follow my instincts about this.  If the leaves look a bit rough, I remove them or if they're very leafy and stopping the light once the fruits have set and started to fill out, I remove a few leaves but I thought that the leaves were part of the plant which helped to feed it?  They are also an indicator of any problems with deficiency so i just nip out the extra growth between stems and take off any excess or dying foliage....nothing amiss so far by doing that.  ;) ;)

[PurpleHeather]

I found that those in the greenhouse were looking wilted each time I went to water so I cut half off the big leaves (my idea of a compromise).

It has stopped them drooping, will have to wait and see about the effect on the flavour.

Don't they seem to take forever to turn red?

[daileg]

I found that those in the greenhouse were looking wilted each time I went to water so I cut half off the big leaves (my idea of a compromise).

It has stopped them drooping, will have to wait and see about the effect on the flavour.

Don't they seem to take forever to turn red?

I Want and  need to add  if you dont water the plant regulary it will wilt this should not result in cutting leaves to add less reason to water as often
i do reliase getting to the plot everyday can be a problem to water but cutting the leaves of in order to make this a easier process seems severe to me
possible should try to shade the plants from direct sunlight to prevent them wilting would be a better solution

[cornykev]

Well I was out the back garden until 9 o clock last night tidying them up, the wind had mullered them last week and they was all held together with a piece of string. I have 7 plants in black buckets, 3 of them are 6 foot tall and they were all entwined, so I had to cut some leaves off, the bottom ones come off and some of the branches had no fruit on them and they were ones I should have pinched out but missed, it looks tidier now and at least there is some air circulation but nothing too major to stress the plant.     ???      ;D ;D ;D

[shirlton]

Ower Tone takes off the bedraggled bottom leaves but no more

[davyw1]

One of my mates take of the leaves, thats his choice but they are well adfvanced of mine and they don,t seem to be taking any harm.

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[GrannieAnnie]

I've taken off the bottom leaves plus some that shade specific tomatoes so sunlight hits the toms- it seems to ripen them faster (I think). 
 BUT this is only done to a few plants to hurry them along. The rest I leave to go at their own pace.

[KittyKatt]

I take off the bottom leaves. Also as we have had very bad blight problems in the past, I regularly inspect for signs of blight and take off any suspect leaves straight away.
Kitty Katt

[davyw1]

I've taken off the bottom leaves plus some that shade specific tomatoes so sunlight hits the toms- it seems to ripen them faster (I think). 
 BUT this is only done to a few plants to hurry them along. The rest I leave to go at their own pace.

GA the sun does not turn a tomato red,it turns in darkness with the aid of a bit of humidity.
Hope you did not take of to many leaves in one go.