If you enjoyed this video, please "Like" and share it to help increase its reach! Thanks for watching😀TIMESTAMPS for convenience: 0:00 Introduction 0:41 How Bad Pruning Technique Was Normalized 3:44 The True Cause Of Most Plant Problems 6:27 How I Created Native Conditions For My Plants 7:05 Most Pruning Advice Is Nonsense 8:02 Vertical Gardening Advice 8:40 Why Pruning Is Killing Your Plants 10:17 Why I Stopped Removing Diseased Leaves 13:01 How Pruning Attracts Insect Pests 14:48 When Pruning Is Actually Beneficial 15:41 Proof Of Concept: Growing Plants In Shade 17:56 Why Pruning Fruit Trees Is More Beneficial 19:07 The Failures Of Conventional Wisdom 22:21 Adventures With Dale
I grew up on a farm in the PNW and quickly learned that a long growing season is a blessing and a curse trying to grow veggies in coastal Georgia. I follow much of your advice because you are one of the few channels that grows in a zone near mine.
Love your videos and I started using shade cloth in Ohio this year, my plants have never looked better but I was puling off dead or dying leaves down low and also any that had early blight. Glad to know I don't have to do that anymore and that I was actually harming the plans. Hope they can outlast the diseases. I was pulling suckers but not on determinates of course, now I'll let the others go too. Using the fish fertilizer as will as bone meal and a granulated type. Hopeful its going to be a banner year as I'm already harvesting tomatoes and that neve happens up here!
👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 oh my goodness, I Needed this info. You know when you spoke about pruning and giving off scent, common sense said " you smell that, well you just sent an open air invitation" 🥺 . This video made me feel bad about my gardening practices. Whew I needed this wisdom. I appreciate you so much! 🥰
One part of contention: "Nature doesn't prune," I disagree that is exactly what animals like deer do when they eat bits of a blueberry bush or apple tree, they are pruning them back just not in a way that is necessarily desirable for us.
@@mpsorrentino what you’re describing is pest damage and can, and often will, kill trees and bushes. Deer are destructive forces and rarely help a plant. That being said, I clearly delineate between annual vegetables and fruit trees and perennials. This is timestamped in the video chapters. There is a massive difference between annuals that must spread all their seed in a single year to reproduce and a fruit tree that spreads seed over 30-100 years or longer. One has a sense of urgency, one does not.
Sometimes, the lazy way is the right way. But first, before you can be lazy, you have to set up a trellis that can handle all the vines, install drip irrigation prior to planting, hang shade cloth end of May and keep yourself on a 7-10 day fertilizing schedule. If you put in that work, then you can be lazy and not prune 😄
@@TheMillennialGardener I literally do all of that except I fert every oher Sunday. It's part of being lazy :) I don't want to water or weed, etc. Sometimes I only go in the garden once a week. My garden is similar to yours.
I love it when ANYONE has the courage to challenge ANYTHING... Because of recent events some of us have learned to basically question everything, and in some cases do the opposite.
I completely agree with NOT pruning veggies. I have gardened all my life and have never pruned my veggies. On the videos I watch where they prune tomatoes and cut off the suckers I cringe. I also notice they have to plant 15 or twenty plants to get the same amount of fruit that I get on five plants that I do not prune. They are also replanting to try to get a fall crop because they didn't get enough fruit because they pruned and the plants died too soon where mine are still fruiting into late fall. You are also right about the amount of sun veggie plants need. I built 12 raised beds and placed them between my back fence and sheds where they receive some sun and some shade and they all produce well. Next we need to test the watering theory. I was told I should not water from above...but use a drip system on the ground as to not get the plants wet. My response to those people is....tell that to God...because He did not produce rain to come from below to water plants...he produced it from the sky so the plants can drink and refresh from their leaves as well as from their roots. I have always watered from above and rarely do I have to deal with diseases on my plants. I also think watering from above washes some of the bugs off...like aphids. Nature is smart. So good to see a video that looks at the real truth of the way things actually work best.
You needn’t worry about anyone else pruning their plants it should not affect you at all. Denying there are benefits to pruning is just showing your bias as pruning has benefits you either can’t acknowledge or are to stubborn to acknowledge. You garden your way and let others garden the way they see fit.
When it comes to watering from above, when you water is the more important part, early morning before the sun comes up is best it gives the plants and soil time to soak up what they need before the sun comes up and dries the leaves off. I used to be the plant waterer at a local Lowe's the tomatoes never had any issues.
@MichaelRei99 lol don't think that is what he is saying at all. But he's not wrong. I very rarely prun my tomatoes and less with cucumbers. I produce tons of both for most of the season. I only have back up cucs cause of the blasted cucumber beetle. There is nothing wrong with a different view. Why can't you be more polite and see there are indeed more ways to garden and all he was saying is what a lot of us know, but isn't the current popular thing to say? Honestly I hate seeing severely pruned tomatoes, they look so awful and sickly.
I will be 77 years of age in a few days and after watching this video, you have changed my way of gardening after 57 years. Your logic is beyond belief, but it sure makes a lot of sense to me. I have never been a sucker puller, but I have done the rest, but NO LONGER. Thanks for an excellent and very informative video, and I will continue watching.......I have always thought you were the absolute best gardener on UA-cam.
It's usually not his knowledge. He's does a really good job of reading the scientific data. He didn't quote any in this video but he quotes a lot of studies and you can look them up yourself 😊 it's nice he's done the work for us
I’m not a bit worried about my plants receiving partial shade anymore, what a relief, no? I will still provide trellis & fence for all my vines because I just don’t want to step on them! HA! Plus they’re so much easier to see & pick when up off the ground. And Happy Birthday to you, I am also born in early July 👍
I work in a walled garden that has a massive greenhouse and I absolutely get sick of people asking me why Im not pruning my tomato plants, you hit the nail on the head, nature does not prune. When you go around pruning everything you are just making your plant susceptible to diseases. The only two plants in my massive greenhouse that caught a disease where two cucumber plants that had been pruned and yes I did use rubbing alcohol on the secateurs. Conventional pruning methods will obviously look aesthetically pleasing but that does not mean the plants will be better because of pruning year in year out. Thank you for going against the common trend, people just need to realize nature does most of the work.
Thank you so much for your tips. I started a garden this year at thirteen and I have harvested 28 non-bitter, Ashley variety, cucumbers from three plants and there are more coming. I also just harvested my first watermelon (19 Pounds), with many more coming. Also, my strawberries and rosemary are doing amazing. I am so glad I found you, Thank you!
Out of all the gardening video's i've watched over the years the content you put out seems to be head and shoulders above the others. Your presentations are great and always noteworthy. Thank you so much.
You hit the nail on the head! Just today I realized that the less time I spend hovering and being a helicopter parent to my plants, the better they grow! They want to be left alone to do what they do! But since we’re in charge of where they are growing, we end up hurting them. Humans are severely interfering, which explains why most vegetation we purchase at the store “look” perfect! They have been raised on everything unnatural from before they were even seeds. Humans are creating their own form of perfect fruit or vegetable because most people want to see perfect and will not buy anything that’s looks anything but. The most natural way to grow HEALTHY food, is to let it grow the way it knows how to defend itself from the harsh environments and pests. If we go in and snip them all up and manipulate their growth, one little moth or worm could/does devastate them! Like children, who need to play outside with friends who are living in all different environments to increase and strengthen their immune system! We keep wearing our vegetation and then wonder why they are dying. Let’s allow them to grow in as close to their natural environment as possible, and let’s keep our busy hands off and trust them to do their thing. We do need to provide the water and shade if we are choosing their environment, and throw our kitchen scraps into their soil to feed them. And then let them be and watch what’s happens! THANK YOU FOR THE BEST GARDENING TIPS!! I learn so much from you!!
The phrase "killing with kindness" comes to mind. Our job as gardeners is to be stewards of nature, not to direct it. We should be checking our plants daily to ensure they are not being attacked by pests, wilting due to drought and not starving due to lack of fertilizer. We shouldn't be directing their every move. I try to treat them like kids. I provide a roof over their heads, food, water, and I keep them safe from the dangerous insects. Aside from that, they need to do their own thing and learn to navigate through the world
@@TheMillennialGardener I am always trying to figure out the best fertilizer. Do we need to use different kinds for different plants, or is there something I can feel good about using on everything? I recently used Miracle Gro water soluble in a pressure container and gave everyone a couple squirts at the base of the plants. Will that do for the bi-weekly feedings?
@@evemurton1133 “we shouldn’t be directing their every move.” That is a fact. I noticed that the plants I allow to grow vertically without tying up have been growing faster than those that I do tie up. The more hands off I am, the more robust the growth “They need to do their oen thinf and navigate the world” bwahaha so funny, yet true. Plants really are just like people
Haha. I had a huge patch of volunteer tomatoes that I just let run wild last year. I had a few Roma cross plants that produced like nuts like a Roma, but were indeterminate!!! I still have 5 gallon ziplock bags of Roma and Roma X tomato quarters. Not to mention the smaller bags of tomato sauces, diced tomatoes, and crushed tomatoes. I had some crazy crosses that were striped and tie dyed. The volunteers did just as well as the trellised ones, but I did lose more tomatoes to ground pests.
I can vouch for everything you said. I am originally from the east coast. Out there, I had no idea what I was doing. I filled a raised garden with topsoil and transplanted my seedlings that I started indoors in March, watered about every other day, and that was it! I had more tomatoes than I could eat. Everything else grew great also. I successfully grew string beans, watermelon, corn and more, knowing nothing. The down side is the very short growing season. I moved to Arizona and have been watching UA-cam videos about growing tomatoes for 7 YEARS, all of which said that tomatoes need a minimum of 6 hours of direct sun, and you MUST prune to grow bigger or more fruit, depending on how you prune. I've been following their advice for 7 years, and it's like burning money! Not a single successful garden in all that time! I had 3 tomato plants this year that were big, green, and bushy, and one tomato! The Arizona heat caused the leaves to curl and stay that way, and almost all the buds dropped off before they bore fruit. They were planted in good, fertile soil, had at least 10 hours of sun, and I watered and fertilized regularly and pruned as they advised. In 7 years, I've not had a single successful garden, other than kale. For some reason kale seems to grow like weeds in the winter here. I was very depressed until I saw this video. I FINALLY know what I've been doing wrong! THANK YOU!
I hear you, having moved to the Phoenix area from Southern California. You must use shade cloth for almost everything here. The only exceptions are Armenian cucumbers. Malabar spinach, watermelons, and sweet potatoes can also survive without shade cloth. I use 50% shade cloth on most plants. But I also use wind resistant beach umbrellas over other plants. I follow Angela with the Growing in the Garden Facebook page, UA-cam channel, and website, and am learning volumes from her. She is a master gardener in Mesa.
I've never heard a single person say that pruning gives you more fruit. We all do it to get more uniform fruit ,less pests amd better airflow meaning less disease or rot. NOBODY EVER SAYS YOU GET MORE FRUIT, IN FACT MOST ARE HONEST AMD TELL YOU YIELDS MAY BE D3CREASED...
I totally agree with your theory! Last year, I did not do any purring. I had a huge crop of tomatoes. This year, I took off the suckers from listening to a garden channel, and my tomato crop has been terrible. I am now hoping my plants will recover. Thanks for bringing awareness that gardening is different in every climate!
I absolutely agree with you. I’ve grown peppers, tomatoes , squash and melons in different states and different areas and climates, I’m just now getting the hang of growing in the climate in Rancho Cucamonga, California, extreme heat and sun. I’ve tried direct sun like most gardening channels tell you to do, but that doesn’t work when temperatures reach close to 100 and over. My tomatoes, peppers ,cucumbers do better under shade cloth or in shaded areas, my garden when I lived in Redondo Beach was beautiful no matter where I planted and in Missouri where it gets hot and humid in summer my plants were beautiful, so I agree completely with you , where you live changes how and where you plant. Years ago I never knew about pruning and my plants were beautiful and the last few years I’ve pruned and my plants have not done well. Thanks for sharing, all of what you’ve taught us in this video makes a lot of sense. Thanks again for all your tips and tricks and also thanks for sharing your mistakes. 👏great job ❤
I do see your logic, however, there are a couple of things to consider. 1) Most of the tomato plants we have today are not naturally evolve to be what they are due to selective bleeding. So, the argument of letting them grow in the wild without human care and they will still thrive may be just speculation because these 'man-made' tomato plants have not been put under any real pressure for a long evolutionary challenge. 2) Most of the time, pruning off tomato suckers is mostly for the purpose of real estate management due to our limited space as we all want to plant more variety of plants (for fun and joy) in a small area. If real estate is not an issue and production is the main goal, then you are probably correct as more suckers will definitely yield more tomatoes in a shorter time but the plant will be definitely growing out of control in a small area.
Exactly, wild species are completely different from what we have bred. They have usually small and maybe bitter fruits and are more resistant to diseases. They are evelvod to reproduce, not to grow lot of food to humans or other animals. And also, I live in colder climate and can't get bigger tomatoes ripen without pruning, there's just not enough energy in the plant to do that before winter comes. So pruning suckers give me less yield but at least I get some ripened. But good video anyway.
THIS. I didn't used to prune my tomato plants and they grew absolutely out of control. Sure I got tomatoes, but it was such a a hassle to figure out how to manage them because I don't have the setup that all these UA-cam gardeners do. So now I selectively prune so I still get production, but the plant isn't going absolutely bananas.
@@BlackBelgianDogi also live in a colder climate as well and pruning tomatoes (along with most fruiting plants) is a must for me! i share land with my mothers garden, and i’ve been sorta running a very unscientific secret experiment: we’re both growing sweet million tomatoes and while i’m pruning back all of my suckers to create a single lead plant, she isn’t! can you guess who has larger, more robust fruit? 😊 her plant definitely has a higher yield, but her cherry tomatoes are the size of small marbles, whereas mine are golf ball sized! as with most advice, it’s dependent upon your location and your situation. it makes the most sense to prune back suckers if you live in an area with shorter growing seasons, or your setup doesn’t allow for a gargantuan sprawling plant! or maybe you’re like me and you just prefer the satisfaction a larger cherry tomato brings when you pop it into your mouth during a garden walk. 😂
I have a 15x15 garden plot and have 5 tomato plants growing in close proximity to one another (about 1.5-2ft apart) and I have pinched off some suckers because I don’t have the space for all of them, but I also haven’t done only 1 stem like a lot of online gardeners recommend. Kind of an in between
@@BlackBelgianDog I do love the video as well. It opens up for us not to blindly accept anything at face value. However, it does depend on many factors regarding the benefit of pruning. The plant itself, the climate, the length of the growing season, and the amount of real estate are all important factors. I had a couple of tomato plants unpruned last year at the corner of my deck. They actually have a good yield, but the tomatoes are not able to ripen to the 30% stage with my limited growing season. So, I am forcing them to ripen using Banana. lol. Obviously, they have grown pretty out of control and did annoy me at the time. Having said that, the suggestion of pruning plants like cucumber that will attract more harmful insects makes a lot of sense, but not sure how else we can manage limited real estate without pruning them.
I moved from Baltimore to western NC and I must say, Thank you for this video! I am ordering my shade cloth today and the pruning will stop. The sun is WAY stronger here than up north. My plants that only get a few hours of direct sun every day always did much better than the ones in full sun. We are often blinded by the "normal" ways of doing things even in the face of common sense. I am going with common sense on this one. Thanks again for the video!
Alleluia!! Thanks so much! I’m in sw Colorado at 6700ft on a south facing slope with no shade and I struggle to keep things growing as it’s so hot and dry! I’ve gradually added more and more shade cloth ( it’s just the regular stuff from Home Depot) and this year, with more shade, planting closer together and much less pruning I’ve got a lush jungle of a garden with much better quality and amount of fruit!! Yey!! Thanks for your videos!! I love em!!
Powerful video, So true we have to start looking at our plants and say to ourselves how plants in nature grow so well without being cut on. Thanks for this information, I won't be pruning my plants anymore!
This makes so much sense to me. When I first started growing and had no idea what I was doing, my cucumber plants gave me sooo many cucumbers, but since I watched more gardening videos and started doing the pruning and removing the sucker vines that many recommended, I got so much less fruit. I’m going back to leaving them alone. It seems like more and more things that we have been taught in life don’t make any common sense if you really stop to think about it. We have been so programmed to just believe what we have been told by the so called experts that we never stop to think with our own intuitions. The Great Awakening is finally starting to happen in so many areas of life. Thank you for not being afraid to speak out and be “controversial.” Sharing your intuitive common sense will help us all to grow more food, which is so important at this time. ❤
Almost like intuition and common sense are what kept us in the Dark Ages for centuries, literally. Science works because it doesn't rely upon such nonsense.
And all these years I've been gardening I thought I was lazy, I've been gardening for 20+ years and have never pruned my tomatoes. For the last two or three years I have been watching you and several others and have learned so much. I still don't prune and my garden is beautiful and producing more than ever. What you say may go against conventional thinking but I agree with most of what you say. Keep up the good work. 👍
I have lived in Texas my whole life and have learned a lot of these things from experience and coming to logical conclusions like you have. Awesome video! Thank you for making this!
I wish I had this information 2 months ago. I’ve been pruning my tomato plants and they’re not doing great. I had my doubts but so many of the big gardeners tell you to do this and I started having doubts so I stopped. 😢Oh well, live and learn. But now I know, thank you.
One of the best lectures I have seen recently. I live in Israel and have been growing tomatoes for 8 years. I always thought that good soil, watering and full sun are the things that make tomatoes thrive mainly here. This is true until mid-July. Suddenly, after beautiful crops, the growth ends and the tomato bushes wither. I just recently learned from several sources that when the sun is too strong, the tomato bushes must be shaded with a shade net of about 30 percent, meaning that the notion that tomatoes like strong sun is incorrect. Unfortunately, this season I won't be able to fix it, I'll try again next year, thanks for the excellent explanation
I learned A LOT! I have always questioned pruning. This makes so much sense. And the shade…last year, just by chance and me being a novice (and not knowing any better), I planted 20 tomatoes under a Redbud tree. Those tomatoes outperformed every one of my tomatoes that were in full sun. 💯 agree with you on the shade!
I planted my tomatoes in the pot. I moved them all over around the house and they like morning sun and shaded afternoon. Some of the old ones I put in the sun for several days before are not growing as well as the ones I always kept in my back porch.
Yep! Tomatoes grow in the forest, not in fields! Emulate their native habitat. Give them warm temps, dappled light, rich organic matter and heavy mulch. They'll grow themselves!
God doesn’t need us to mess up what he perfected. I’ve pruned but wonder, if my father didn’t prune and he made a great crop of everything he grew, why do I need to prune. Thank you for confirming what I always thought. Great videos. Keep them coming.
I am a newbie vegie gardener in southern CO. Not only do we have intense sun but fierce winds. I bought a 8×8' walk in chicken run which is just a big cage with a roof. Then my husband and I cut polycarbonate panels to fit and zip tied them to the cage except for the roof and door. When I noticed the tomatoes were getting stressed by the heat, I threw a large 40% shade cloth over the roof and 2 sides of the cage. The tomatoes are VERY happy now. They are protected from the storms and wind. You are right about the shade.
ZONE 9b, ORLANDO, FLORIDA here. We've been suffering under extremely high temps (setting new records) and no rain since May. For the last 3 days, we've been under a heat advisory (heat index 111 degrees, 9-10 UV with high humidity). I grow all my veggies, organically, in several elevated 12' x 3' beds & I don't prune. Everything has been suffering. This year, I followed your suggestion to install hoops & cover the plants with shade cloths. WHAT A DIFFERENCE SHADE CLOTHS MADE!!! The plants responded so quickly. I watch you on YT almost daily. You always provide such great information! Thank you!!
Two years ago, I threw several tomatoes in my compost pile because birds had pecked holes in them. Within a month I had a huge crop of tomatoes growing my compost pile. It was the best tomatoe crop I’ve ever had. At the time I thought to myself if I’d had more sun I bet I could’ve even had a bigger crop tomatoes Now I realize the reason my tomatoes did so well that year was probably because they only got three or four hours of sun. Great video…very thought provoking.
Sounds like the most logical sense I've ever heard on the internet in a long time. Well done. Appreciate the tips. I just started gardening this year because of you and James P. I was very successful from the combination of both of your knowledge. My tomatoes struggled from this exact reason, too much sun, too much pruning. They ended up all leaf curling, while they still fruited and did well, it was such a struggle for them. Next year, I will provide more shade and less pruning. I was definitely spreading unnecessary disease. I've watched pretty much every video you've ever made, and you always make the most sense when explaining things. Truly appreciate you spending all the time to create these videos. I know how much time and effort it takes. I tried the youtube thing with fishing, and just could never get it to take off. Keep up the great work!
You are absolutely right. Some tomato plants got pruned, others did not. Pruned plants haven't grown, no flowers, etc... I never guessed it was that I was over pruning. Meanwhile, volunteer tomato plants, unpruned and wild, growing big beautiful leaves and fruiting copiously. 🤷♀️ No more pruning! Thanks!!! And those volunteer tomatoes are out in the full sun in 100+ degree temps!
It's true. Every time we cut them, it's like having a surgery on our arms and legs. How can we expect to run and play catch if our arms and legs are constantly healing from deep wounds? Pruning hurts them, just like it hurts us. Only do it when it's absolutely necessary.
@@TheMillennialGardenerI’m really glad you posted this. Something always seemed weird to me about skeletonizing tomato plants. I’m going back to letting them do their thing.
Every gardener - newcomers and veterans - need to watch this video. Your no pruning hypothesis makes perfect sense. Especially when you correctly equate it to ‘wounding’ a plant with every cut. My sincere compliments on this eye-opening video.
@@TheMillennialGardenerplants are completely made up of "stem" cells. Any plant cell can become any other plant cells, they are noth8ng like humans amd "woinds" haven't nearly the same effect on them at all.
I live in Costa Rica at 1500 ft elevation. During our dry season (November through April) our tomato plants get sun scald with 8 hours of high UV sunlight, EVEN UNDER SHADE cloth! During our wet season out plants are thriving so much better, under the shade cloth with about 4 hours of sun each day. Great video!
I am gardening in the piedmont area of NC, and I appreciate that you are sharing your experiences with us. I hesitate to follow gardeners from other areas of the US who don’t know the challenges of summer heat, humidity, flash flooding and drought. The weather here sure does take a toll on plants and people alike!
Big agree. I've lived in North Carolina all my life and have never pruned my tomato suckers. The only thing you're doing by cutting off suckers is cutting off future tomatoes. Do you want more fruit or not? It should be common sense to any gardener from day one. I never understood why people would repeat such nonsense.
Don’t take this the wrong way- but I think you’re the first Yankee I’ve ever heard giving good gardening advice to Southerns. 😂😂😂 Thank you for the videos. They are always packed with info!
Thank you. Thank you. Thank youuuuu!!! I'm a new gardner living in 6b and have been looking at so much info, but noticed my tomatoe plants were suffering in the sun. I decided not to follow pruining advice and cover them with shade cloth. All of a sudden they started flowering. I was shocked! Thank you for the video!
I tried pruning tomatoes once, some 20 years ago, after not pruning them for 30 years and I definitely had a smaller harvest, so didn’t do it again. It’s very hot her in Portugal, so we had a carport built for our solar panels, in the vege garden. Have planted tomatoes under it, in the shade. So, far, so good. I will try not cutting of blight, to see how that works. Toms produce quickly here, so this year I am trying starting this second crop (went in ground 2. Weeks ago, in my shade garden) to see how that works. The first 40 years of my life, we didn’t have tomato blight! ( born in the 50’s). But it is everywhere now. Many thanks.
Insomnia made me stumble onto your page...1st time visitor and I have been going back and forth with pruning. I'm gonna be brutally honest here because I respect you for telling somethings you knew you'd get critiqued by some that probably doesn't even have a garden, they just wanna fuss. I had back trouble for 20 years, during that time I still had a garden, which was very hard to keep up, but with the help of my Son that was 8-9 years old, he pulled weeds for chore money because he despized being indoors and he honestly loved being in the dirt , that was literally all that was done, other than watering, and in 25 years the ONLY THING I used for fertilizer was cow manure due to low income, but that was all my ancestors used and had acres of garden for the entire family. All that being said, back is great now for 3 years, was wanting to try a raised bed due to moving into town, and being nervous by using the raised bed, I studied up on pruning and fertilizer. Well, I've had the worst luck, everything has died, may get 50 cucumbers from 8-10 plantd, same with tomatoes, and squash and I have pruned just as I was told and it truly didn't hit me and make me stop to think about it until your video. So, basically, if it's not broke, don't fix it. Thank you, you've truly helped this girl out!! Saving alot of time and money! Sorry for novel 😂
I used cow manure last year and it killed every plant it was applied to. This year, switched to chicken manure which definitely carries no risk of having herbicide.
I'm glad you had success with cow manure I wasn't that lucky it killed my plants a couple years ago I've never used it since. I have a few composting 5 gallon buckets our veggies and fruits love it. ❤️ Happy Gardening.
Anytime I ask for garden advice I first ask, "what advice would you give if someone has blossom end rot on their tomatoes?", and if their answer is, "add crushed up tums or egg shells to the soil", I find someone else to get advice from. Great video, as always!
Add a thick layer of mulch, install drip irrigation, water deeply 1-2 times a week depending on your weather. *That* is how you prevent blossom end rot 😀
@@TheMillennialGardenerYou should also ask what the plant is growing in. I had an amazing Roma that I started hydroponically and transferred to 5 gallon bucket with soil. Every fruit had BER. Instinct told me it needed to go into the ground. It was about 2 ft tall and bushy. When I transplanted into the ground, saw that it was root bound. After a couple of weeks, first Roma with no BER appeared!
I add some leftover Oyster shell that I give to my chickens so when I transplanted my tomatoes to my garden, I threw it in there. So far, it seems to be working. Also, I have rabbits & use their poop for my plants. OMG, rabbit pellets are the bomb!! Every plant has grown twice as fast & produced more fruit. I've tried all kinds of fertilizers (you name it), but rabbit poop is the way to go. Hubby googled it & said it is one of the top fertilizers for a veggie garden.
Thanks so much for this encouraging video! I am growing tomatoes in partial shade and they look beautiful although maybe a little slow growing but that may be a nutrition deficiency so I’m playing around with that. I have doubted myself along the way thinking maybe I am wasting my time even as tomatoes continue to appear here and there on my plants! Not once have I ever heard anyone say I could do this in partial shade until you! 🙏🏻 Now I am encouraged to continue adding the necessary nutrients and believe in what is happening right in front of me! Thank you because I thought I’d die or have to move if it did not work out for me to grow tomatoes!!! 🍅 ❤
I was out in my garden this evening pruning all of my squash plants and literally thinking " Is this really necessary?" I am also starting to feel a little burnout from hovering over all of my garden beds every single day for the past few months trying to be "the perfect gardener." In fact, I have thought to myself a few times that it just felt wrong, and that nature shouldn't need this kind of human interference and then I saw your video and it completely affirmed everything I was thinking plus more that I didn't even consider. So, thank you very much for this video and your honesty. What a relief! I am definitely adopting this new gardening style and taking a more relaxed approach.
You and I have been living parallel garden lives. You described my last few months exactly. I'm so burnt out! I'm done with all this crazy pruning, and next year's plan will afford my plants lots more space to do their thing! 😉
We never pruned tomatoes in our North Carolina homestead garden 60 years ago. I moved to the Mid-Atlantic and eventually opened a farm-to-table restaurant where I was the farmer. I grew tomatoes both in the field and in the high tunnel. I aggressively pruned in the high tunnel to assure product quality and continuous supply. In the field, I was less aggressive, but still pruned. Pruning was the most effective way for me to provide a steady supply to quality tomatoes throughout the growing season.
i think like you. I'm near Paris, France, and i think the percentage of pruning and sun exposure is depending of where you are... There is no absolute truth i think in this category (gardening). Kisses from France
You are my favorite person in gardening. I have been doing everything wrong with cutting off dead leaves and other problems. Another video producer has a great garden and seems very knowledgeable. My problem listening to him is he is growing in NJ and I’m in SC. I’m done with other gardeners. Thanks for setting me straight!❤
I garden in Texas in Zone 3. I started out growing my tomatoes in the sunniest part of the garden and pruned then. Spider mites were a terrible problem and the fruits suffered sun scald. The plants often wilted and began turning brown by June. The next year, I planted the tomatoes in part shade and left two main stems instead of the recommended one. The plants stayed greener a bit longer, there were fewer pests and sun scald decreased. My neighbor's tomatoes were already brown and done as mine remained green. This year, I decided, as an experiment, not to prune at all. I have seen very few pests and the plants are still going strong in July, with temperatures in the 90s. The real challenge comes with the approach of temperatures in the 100s, but I am hopeful that the plants will survive it. Also, as another commenter noted, I have found it helpful to pick tomatoes before fully ripe. The scent of a ripe fruit also attracts pests. (I don't spray anything. I'm okay with having a few pests because that is part of the natural cycle. If nothing else wanted to eat my tomatoes, I'm not sure I'd want to, either.) I further increase the odds in my favor by growing plants that have good resistance to disease and good heat tolerance. My favorites are Italian Heirloom and Eva Purple Ball (another heirloom) both indeterminate, flavorful and suitable for canning as well as serving fresh. This year, I tried a new variety, Thunderbird (a hybrid determinate). It is currently producing loads of tomatoes in the 12 to 16 oz range. But, for flavor, the Italian Heirloom is still my favorite. I have a LOT of pollinator friendly plants in my garden that also attract predatory insects and I make the garden a haven for birds. I regularly see birds and toads looking for insects among my vegetables. I think that, too, reduces the vulnerability of my vegetable garden to dangerous pest infestations. I saw some newly hatched squash bugs on a squash plant recently and made a mental note to come back and pick them off. I forgot but when I returned two days later, I couldn't find a single one.M y pest control crew had beat me to it.
This year, I did much less pruning on my grape, cherry, purple and San Marzano tomato plants. Production increased significantly. Gardening became less labor intensive. My lesson was accidental. I am glad to see it confirmed by your expertise.
Fantastic video! We stopped pruning our gardens overall and even stopped cutting growth on our property except absolutely when needed. Pests are more controlled and plants are doing well and we are saving our energy! Have not sprayed once this year. Lost some things but not enough to complain about. We are south central Texas. We do interplanting and let vines cover the grounds, use oak leaves and homemade compost to grow our soil. Gardening should be a joy. Not exhausting and expensive. When people come over they take pictures of our land. It looks like a fairytale garden. This is year 5 of our successful gardening. Hard for the garden companies to sell things if we learn how to do it on our own.
Are you in/near Killeen? I lived there for 9 years. I only had one tiny 4x4 garden bed back then for my preschoolers (now high schoolers) and now that I think about it, I grew more fruits/veggies there with lots of shade trees than I do in my full sun garden up in DFW! And I knew nothing about pruning whatsoever.
@@Katie-dp3jl Hi We are prolly 1.5 hours south, south east of Killeen now. We definitely utilize all our trees for shade and actually are beginning to plant mimosa (I know, invasive, but just means I don’t have to work so hard, they grow wild here, and these we feed the leaves to some livestock) for some nice filtered lighting. Have used some Moringa too here and there. We already strategically plant some things to help shade out certain plants. It’s been a struggle to figure it out but last year we sat and watched lots of things and just observed what the struggles were and why some things were thriving and some not. We began noticing how much good actually came from just assisting things instead of forcing them. Every year gets better by just continually applying things learned from prior year. # 1 thing… the sun is great but in moderation. The chaos garden theory has worked well for us over all. Planting a little here, a little there of the same thing to see where the items want to be planted.
Thank you. This all makes so much sense. A few weeks ago, deer heavily pruned 7 of my tomato plants. They're recovering and setting fruit, but prior to that, they were growing so fast that I had to add clips every several days. They have hardly grown any taller since the incident. All those wounds definitely set them back. This is my first year on a new property. I've been getting the Infostructure established. The soil is impossibly rocky, so everything will be in raised beds. I'm also older with back issues, and they're easier for me than ground level. It'll take a while to get shade structures and deer fencing in place, but knowing what to work toward is important. I learn so much from your videos.
This is so helpful. I've had a few annual veggie patches and each year I've gotten stressed about all the tiny details (many of which, I cannot control, like what angle my house was built on for light exposure). I've challenged myself this season to just TRY. I've got a bunch of seeds and we are fortunate that there's a grocery store down the street, so I can learn without the pressure of lacking fresh veggies. Once I get it down pat, it's a wrap for the produce section!
Love your video. My parents grew tomatoes in tropical/subtropical climates and taught me ways to adapt my planting now that we live in zone 6. It’s really cool to hear you passing along the logic and wisdom of tomato planting! Thanks so much!
We live in Zone 7b where it's HOT and humid! We don't prune our tomatoes and we let them sprawl everywhere and they give us hundreds of tomatoes per plant. The only thing we do to avoid too many pests or disease is that we remove them once they are about 50% ripened and allow them to ripen inside. The taste is the same and we don't lose many tomatoes this way. I'm so glad you covered this!
Timely video. I came to the conclusion this summer that I will no longer prune my tomato plants after 9 of 13 healthy plants died within days of pruning. I have not had the same issue with squash plants. I prune leaves to prevent them from shading out nearby plants. Well said! Thank you!
I experimented this year with my grow bag tomatoes. I pruned 2 tomatoes below the fruit like I saw someone suggest. They dead now. The others are still thriving here in northern Florida. The extra leaves shade the main stem and I think that’s why the leafy ones still survive in this awe full heat we are having. My opinion, north Florida tomatoes need some shade through leaves and shade cloth.
Yes same in NC. I hope I live another year to try and do it again and better. The heat is unbearable and I Messed up watching videos to say prune plants.! I wish I had seen this video earlier and I would have learned alot and also gotten that shade covering.
I pruned a couple of lower “stalks” on a couple of sun gold cherry tomatoes but I rooted them in an aero garden. What I do is thin the fruit and the plants are doing really well. I have watched many videos and I think not pruning is the way to go and I am using shade cloth because it has worked really well on peas and lettuce that I have grown. I do have a volunteer squash that’s growing in a combination of broken down wood chips, compost, and soil and it’s looking amazing and just went about 3-days without watering in summer heat and still looks strong. Great video and thanks
As soon as I finished watching this video, I rushed out to my back yard and moved all of my veggie plants to a shady area that gets morning sun only. They are in 10 - 15 gallon pots, not in ground thankfully. Im in San Francisco Bay Area and we are having a 90+ degree heat wave. You just saved all my veggie plants.
All the ones I moved in the full sun got hurt and the one I only keep in the morning sun grows really well. I will never do as the instructions. 8 to 10 hours full sun in this hot summer will make all of them die from hot sunburnt.
Oh gosh especially in containers, that's a recipe for disaster! Containers heat up and dry out faster than the ground. We way overcrowded our garden this year so that the tomatoes shade each other and still a few of the top flowers burn off. But thanks to hundreds of volunteer cherry tomatoes and volunteer marigolds we have a bunch of shade and hundreds of tomatoes growing.
I live in Central Georgia and the summers are scorching hot. The Millennial Gardener is correct about the heat stress on tomato plants. We are taught that peppers and tomatoes loves heat but the direct sunlight in the summers will stunt your plants. I have the shade from my house plus large fruit trees that provide partial shade. Great video!
For me it’s there is no one size fits all or a correct or incorrect way to garden. Lots of people prune their veggies and have full sun gardens and have great and successful gardens. Listen to all the perspectives and go with what works for you. If you are struggling try a different method. Gardening can be fickle and there are so many variables in play from year to year. Always good to see what other people do and to challenge the norms and to experiment. I kinda enjoy pruning my tomatoes and have had success with this style but also don’t lose any sleep when one bushes out. I do appreciate the information you shared as a way to keep an open mind and to be open to changing as you have.
I agree 100% with you ❤. Last year I pruned and got 120lbs in 18 tomato plants, this year I didn't prune and in 35 plants I can count tomatoes. Very disapointed this year.....next year I'm pruning for sure. p.s. Im in Portugal same climate as San Joaquim valley in California.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience. I've been ruminating on whether to bring down some large trees that border my garden area to increase sunshine. My garden is doing fine under the trees and your advice has convinced me to leave the trees alone!
Nature definitely prunes - insects eating any of the lower leaves touching the ground. Or the young grasshoppers having a munchy session on certain plants.
I definitely get it; you make a great point. I live in central Texas and have slowly realized over the past few years that “summer crops” and “grow in full sun” don’t apply to our climate when our summers can reach 100+ degrees. Thanks for the video; it encourages me to keep trying to grow my veggies in less conventional ways! And I totally agree with the shade cloth-it is an absolute game changer!
I bought a shade cloth for my tomatoes and cucumbers as per your advice in another video. This pruning video does make so much sense. I am learning more. Thank you for sharing your information. Maggie UK
This video is very helpful, especially for an inexperienced and fairly new gardener like me. I saw other UA-cam videos that said to prune your tomatoe plants to get larger tomatoes and also saw info to plant them in full sun. It gets really hot in the mid summer where I live and really too hot for the tomatoes to be in full sun all day at that time. I'm having good success with a grow bag in that with extreme temperatures of cold and hot during the growing season, I've been able to move the tomatoe plant accordingly.
Totally agree. My first year gardening so I trusted everyone saying prune prune prune if you want more tomatoes prune if you want to avoid diseases prune. Well now my cherokee purple tomatoes haven't grown since & the tomatoes I never pruned once FULL OF TOMATOES. Next year I won't touch my plants at all I guess ya live and learn
Growth mindset right there! Thats why Im still gardening after 30 + yrs… because you just keep learning. Im with you, not in the difficult South, but at 8,200 ft in the desert, unnatural place to grow anything but Junipers and piñon. Every year I learn, I get surprised, I mess up. But we keep gardening. Solid video.
Anthony, thanks so much for making this video! I think so many growers in hotter climates are used to following the common pruning and sun exposure recommendations. As a result, they are seeing poor results but not questioning their methods. After years of having poor tomato yields I started questioning how I've been going about things and these videos confirm some of the thoughts I've been having
Absolutely, 100%. "Full sun" for most of what we grow in annual vegetable gardens is a bad idea unless you live in Maine or somewhere at a high latitude. The sun is just too strong in most places. These species are native understory species. None of them grow out in fields, they grow under forest cover. How we ever got to planting them in full sun, I'll never know. They want to be under dappled light.
Having grown up in East TN, I have never pruned my plants. When I see a tomato plant with a stem and 10 leaves I aways think, WTH? Your right nature doesn't prune, but I do remove dead stems and leaves. I will stop that. I have two channels of gardening I watch, you are my favorite. Wonderful information.
I’m in Seattle and my garden gets maybe 3 hours sun at max. After years and years of being told I can’t grow tomatoes - this gives me hope. This makes sense logically and I’m not pruning anymore.
Keep in mind that in your short climate with not a lot of sun, you may actually need to top plants to keep them from putting too much energy into vigor. I'm not an expert in your climate, because I have the opposite problem - too much heat and sun. However, I strongly recommend you look at the tomato varieties Siletz and Legend. They were specifically developed by Oregon State University for your climate. They produce like crazy in 55-70 degree temperatures, and they ripen insanely fast. They are determinate tomato plants that only get about 36 inches tall, and the flavor is as good as an heirloom. I highly recommend you try those two. Those WILL grow and produce for you. These two varieties should not be pruned at all. Never remove suckers.
Hi, fellow PNW gardener.. PDX, but I'm right at the confluence of Willamette and Colombia river, so my micro climate is different between neighborhoods just 2 miles east... We get warmer weather than y'all up there, but the Puget sound is going to have profound effects, so garden "zone" is essentially useless. Tualip, as another commenter mentioned, is a relatively protected inlet with more natual surroundings as buffer. It's just not comparable to Seattle! Same as Salem (about the same distance) has vastly different growing conditions than Portland. I'm lazy AF, so I prune twice: once in spring BEFORE I set out my BIG tomato starts (this year temps were too low at night, so I had to wait until June) and again when the heavy rains start back up between August and September. Also, don't bother with big varieties of tomatoes unless you want to babysit all season. Here, I can get away with brandywines and Cherokees okay, but it's the small tomatoes that do best with our drier, short summers and wet spring/autumn. Everyone I know in Seattle has better luck when they go for golf-ball sized or less. Also, biggest issue I see here is ppl planting right at last frost rather than wait for soil to warm. It's just plain better to keep up-potting starts until nighttime soil temps reach a consistent 50° (soil thermometers are super cheap) than put a little seedling out according to frost projections. Hope this helps, don't give up, but Millennial Gardener is right: we're working with basically the opposite of East Coast conditions.
@@lexxivexx Pacific climate is affected more by ocean temperatures, whereas New England's temps are affected by climate from the west and Canada temps are much colder. Same basic latitudes, 45-47N degrees. Having said that, I follow a channel that is located in the northeast of the UK at a latitude of about 55N degrees. On the west coast zone 8a-9. Grow zones can be misleading. Soil temps are critical but then again ambient air temps are more detrimental than soil temps. It's entirely possible to go below freezing overnight even when the soil temps have reached 50/55+/-. Soil temp mostly refers to end of dormancy/germination. Air temps concern is plants/vegetation, anything that has exposed leaves, not able to withstand 32 or lower. Unless its cold hardy. And there's a real big difference between a frost and a hard freeze, the later is lights out. Problem with all of this is, especially newbies, if interpreted incorrectly, lets say, "I wanna know your zone, so I can have the same results as you!" or, "you can't cut suckers"? No disrespect, that's misleading. You are correct Lexx. IMHO, know your climate, know what your growing and adjust from there what works best for you. Good Luck in your Garden
I have been saying the same thing for years! I am glad I was not wrong. Thank you SO much for all of your time and effort making these videos. I can’t believe people actually say awful things to you creators that are just trying to help, and you are helping for FREE. I think you are amazing. Kim from New Brunswick Canada
OMG over the moon happy that I found you. Your videos are truly full packed with game changing information. Seriously can’t thank you enough for sharing. This is one thing my dad was doing bright. He NEVER pruned or removed suckers and he and mom shared their abundance with all our neighbors in North Revere, MA. He had the largest beefsteak tomatoes than anyone in our area. Again thank you tons! ❤️
Also, all the other gardeners who insist on pruning, their plants are nowhere as full and healthy looking as yours. I would always be wondering why. Your information is pure genius 🎉
From my 40 years of growing not only vegetables but specimen palm trees, crepe myrtles, japanese maples and high grade cannabis in my nursery every year is different. You mentioned conventional wisdom several times which is mostly taught on youtube channels because of no in the field knowledge. My garden health dwarfs from what you have, not judging, I am glad you called yourself out and admitted teaching wrongisms in the past. I used to get so angry watching these gardening channels teaching the wrong way to grow a garden. Example, trim all the suckers off cucumbers. The trick is to trim the first 6 or so suckers off then let them be cucumbers. The main stem may grow a few more cucumbers but the suckers will provide you more cucumbers than you can imagine. Never trim suckers off determinate tomatoes. Fertilize regularly which most home gardeners do not do, they fertilize once at planting. I could go on and on. Thanks for a good video. I got your back!!!!!
Gardening is a constant learning experience. That is why I love it. You can have 40 years of experience and you still learn new things every year. It never ends. One of my challenges has been constantly moving. I've moved 9 times and lived in 3 different states over the last 15 years. Now that I'm finally settled somewhere for the long haul, I've been able to really observe. I can't say enough about the power of observation. If you just sit down and really pay attention, it's amazing what you'll see.
@@TheMillennialGardener Amen my friend. I cant wait to see your journey when you get to Florida where you planted a tree. Every environment is different and you tell it how it is. So much respect.
I appreciate this video! I did well with tomatoes until I started pruning like all the people and videos said we needed to. I'm going back to the way I used to think about gardening. Where I make sure the plants have what they need and stay out of their way so they can do their thing.
Thank you so much for this! I've only been gardening for two years but I had noticed a few things and this confirmed what I had been wondering. Last year (my first year gardening) I grew four cherry tomato plants, all the same plant. Two were in 5 gallon buckets and two were in the ground. Same watering, same fertilizer, same light, they were next to each other out in the garden. The ones in buckets were wiped out by disease in half the time as the ones in the ground. The only real difference was pruning. I never touched the ones in the ground and was constantly pruning off lower leaves on the container plants. This year I have 26 tomato plants and have only been pruning when necessary to keep them from becoming a jungle. They all look fantastic and have tons of fruit!
I watch a channel from Azerbaijan located in the Shahdag Mountains (Country Life Vlog). Their climate allows them to grow tomatoes out in the open and they let them vine along the ground. It blew my mind when I saw that and their results were phenomenal. I've never seen such beautiful, symmetrical tomatoes. Couldn't do that here, in Georgia, for sure. Because of you, I've experimented more with my annual veg. This year I moved almost everything to a space that gets morning sun until about 2pm, but it appears even that is still too much. I've got my asparagus in a kiddie pool under the almond tree and it's doing fabulous (plenty of sun in early spring, shady after harvest time). I separated my Roma tomatoes from the others and it appears they're getting way too much sun - so much so that I can't seem to find a good watering regimen. About 90% of my fruit has blossom end rot from me trying to water them enuf to keep the plants from shriveling up. Ugh... I've ordered my shade cloth and we'll see if I can save it all. I'm going to rethink my whole veg garden for next year. I've got plenty of shady spots and I'm gonna try it out for the tomatoes, cukes, etc. Thank you for your engineering mind, lol, and for the information you give.
watch that channel all the time. they have magic soil or magic seeds or something, everything they grow is HUGE, and no mosquitoes. very realxing channel
This makes absolute sense to me. I am so glad I came across your video...and just in time. I actually pruned on my tomatoes and cucumbers today because that is what I have been told all my life gardening in southern Ohio and wondered, "am I stressing these guys out by doing this?" Man, you confirmed my suspicions, and I will no longer unnecessarily hamstring my veggie plants. Thank you so much!
Probably the best gardening video I have watched thus far! I am a novice gardener myself and I have been reaching similar conclusions after following bad conventional advice online. Thank you for confirming my intuition and logic!
My grandfather and grandmother had a big successful farm in South GA for generations. I never heard about pruning any vegetables. There was not time for that, and I doubt it they would even if there were.
When I worked on a farm in New Jersey, we only grew determinate tomatoes. Hundreds and hundreds of Celebrity determinates. They were never pruned, but of course, you should never prune a determinate tomato. We ran a drip line for fertilizer injection, and that was it. They were never touched until harvest. That's how you get real production on a farm.
This video was mind blowing! You make sense. I was just going to prune my tomatoes before I watched your video. Now I won't prune at all and see how they do this year. Also, some You-Tubers say to prune onion leaves in order to get larger onions - do you recommend pruning onion leaves? Based on your video, I would think you would not recommend this. Let us know. Thank you for your excellent videos. We watch everyone of them because they are all fantastic.
Is it stressing the plant or is it redirecting energy? For melons for example, i prune to have one to two melons per lead. I get bigger better melons thar ripen for harvest. When i don't, i get more melons per sey but they grow so slowly and many won't mature in time. It's actually easier for me to check for and remove pests like cucumber beetles, squash bugs and vine borers which i would get whether i prune or not. It does not take alcohol two minutes to kill bacteria, it takes 15-20 seconds. For squash, if i prune one huge leaf that is shading out new growth, i see a big growth spurt in the days after in tbe fruits and the rest of the plant especially in the leader shoots which form new female flowers. If i don't prune and my plants get unnecessarily huge, i am using up precious space where I am trying to grow other veggies. I respect your advice and will take it into consideration but i think there is a place for pruning and it has never killed my plants. Has it stunted them? Maybe... But i harvest a lot of fully matured and wonder food so that might be something I'd have to experiment with.
So this year I just accidentally did what you explained , had no idea what I was doing, just got frustrated with weather being so cold and rainy (Iowa). Instead of hovering over tomatoes, pruning and all that stuff , I decided to water it , occasionally fertilize it and leave it to tomatoes to do their thing. I did prune very random only if the leaves were touching the ground and all those suckers were going wild. My plants are not huge but they have bunches of flowers and now they are turning into fruits. I am a happy little grandma gardener! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and support!
I live in Michigan.. and I normally prune my tomatoes, this year I want to just let them go wild and just keep the leaves off the ground for the first foot off the ground. I want to see how much they grow without pruning them ❤
I'm just learning this through trial and error watching all the top videos.... I'm in the Northeast and following these ideas has changed my home garden production tremendously! This yr my volunteer tomatoes i let go as a test as well as my melon cukes and squash vines this yr and I'm in mid July with hands down the best plants I've ever had! Also using my own compost and homemade fertilizer this yr. I experiment every yr with a couple of each type of plant trying to always learn and improve. At the end of the day your micro climate in your individual yard will determine what practices work best for you. Have fun you'll always do better if it's a labor of love 💕
I've stopped trimming trees over my garden so they can provide shade to my plants. With the extra shade from the trees and shade clothe, my tomatoes and peppers are doing better this year than ever before. I've never been much for pruning everything.
One thing I think you could have mentioned is that just like climate, alot of what you do to your plants is dependent on the space you have to grow them in. But this video helps in that we should always be challenging what we assume to know, so as to become better gardeners!
Nobody says that pinching off suckers creates more fruit. It creates larger ripe fruit more often but less overall. That was always the case. It only increases yield when grown at volume in hothouse commercial settings. Check out Cornell's studies on this for some fact based information.
I live in Maryland!! I don't pinch suckers, loved hearing all of this... love learning and expanding my knowledge. Our weather this summer as with most, is off the charts! Shade cloth is a huge help... definitely don't want to stress my plants.. already under enough with the heat, sun and no rain... thanks for the great message... may need to now start to planting on the west side of my home!
Absolutely true. Where I live, we have incredible migration from New York and New Jersey (I'm from NJ), and people are so perplexed, because they have been growing tomatoes their entire lives and they can't keep one single tomato plant alive here or get any fruit. I've given several neighbors *the tour* of how to do it down in the South 😅
Im so glad to hear this. Im 77 and grew up NOT pruning-and it s always felt wrong. what a relief-since ive been pruning I dont get good harvests-so i thought i was pruning wrong. 🤦🏽♀️TYTYTY!!!
Keep in mind you'll need to grow them under heavy shade there. The sun will be nuclear. Never plant them out in the open. Forest shade is your friend. Bring some shade tarps with you.
@@TheMillennialGardener We have extreme rainy seasons (~5ft+) in Costa Rica & the shade tarps help the plants not get too soaked or damaged, too. Would also help protect against some percentage of birds.
Thank you so much for your video! This explains so much! I lived in the desert part of Eastern Oregon and planted some tomatoes behind my house on the Eastern side where they still get plenty of sun, but it wasn't the constant harsh full sun. I didn't have anything to stake or secure them, so they just grew on the ground and rooted everywhere. They did awesome and I had a great crop! The next year I had seen a video from a California gardener that grew them vertically and pinched off the armpits. I tried that and planted them on the South side so they could get full sun, expecting an even bigger harvest because all the conditions were supposed to be exactly what they needed. Nope, worst harvest ever! Only 1-3 tomatoes per plant, except for my determinate ones which I did not prune. They had a better supply, but still did not grow as tall as they should have. I moved to Missouri after that and planted some tomatoes on the East side again and didn't get them staked in time. Even though there were weeds everywhere, the plants thrived. There were tomatoes growing everywhere, though ground bugs were eating them. This year I moved them to the other side of the garden bed (still on the east, but no protection from the southern/western sun). I staked them and pruned/pinched off the growth. Though, I left a few test plants to grow without pruning to see if that method actually worked. I was wondering what was going wrong. My tomatoes had been growing well, but recent heat waves hit and I found some hornworms on two plants, and they are withering and struggling. I cleared off the diseased parts and couldn't figure out what was going wrong. The unpruned ones are fairing better, though still getting some yellowing on the bottom leaves. Now I know the biggest problem growing them this year is me. The pruning of both healthy and dying leaves, and the full constant sun with no shade is why my tomatoes are doing so poorly!!!! Thank you so much for helping me understand the truth behind why two groups of tomatoes thrived while the other two are struggling to survive!!! Hopefully by giving them some fertilizer boosts and seeing if I can get some shade will help support them enough through the rest of the season. If not, I at least am way more prepared for next year!!!
I don't think it's a product of the times. It's just how we are as humans. We are set in our ways, and we don't like being told we're wrong. Watch my old videos - I was doing many things wrong, at least for my climate, and I probably still am. I know I have room for improvement. I'm proud to be wrong, because if I'm wrong, that means I can get even more food per square fot. Being wrong means you can do even better, but some don't see it like that. Sometimes, the kindness you deliver the message with is the most important thing. I want to be clear that I'm not calling anyone out. I'm just trying to help.
It's true, but presentation means a lot, because you can't change hearts and minds if your approach doesn't come with feeling. I did it "the wrong way" for most of my life, and I'm proud to have proven my old self wrong.
@TheMillennialGardener That's how we learn. It's so refreshing when people explain the process to prove their mistakes with visual proof and with valid research in hindsight. You hit it on the head with the tomatoes by research and execution of that method. The proof is evident in how happy those tomatoes look.
@@brianrhubbard I love being proved wrong in gardening. If I'm wrong and there is a better way, that means I can grow even more food in the same space.
@@MichaelRei99 The stark difference between the two men is one thinks facts can be opinions if enough people tell him it's false regardless of what is easily observable, and the other will gladly change their mind once presented the observable data. As a man in a tiny hat once said: "Facts don't care about your feelings."
This is brilliant! I never used to prune tomatoes and had much larger harvests. But watching all the pruning videos, I started pruning, but it seemed wrong and my yields declined. So this year I tried pruning one and not pruning one of the same species. The one I pruned produced produced 3 small tomatoes, the one I didn't prune produced more tomatoes than we can eat and some are 1 pound in size. All other plants I didn't prune out produced those that I did by 5 or 6 times. I'm going to try the shade method, it makes perfect sense.
Use this as an opportunity to run your own experiment. Keep pruning half your plants. Don't touch the other half for the rest of the year. See which plants perform better. Then, you'll know for sure next year.
Great video!!!!!! I live in Florida, and at least in our climate, this is all spot on. I started ignoring my plants, a little bit more this year instead of over, loving them, and they are doing better! For me, it was just a function of being busy, but now you’re backing it up with science. Keep on keeping on.
How disappointing! I started my first garden ever this year and was told that pruning is absolutely necessary or they will not produce in abundance. Now I am hearing not to do it. I have been pruning for weeks. Now what?
Everything I've learned in my garden came from decades of growing and experimentation. I used to heavily prune my plants, but through years of trial and error and experimentation, my views have changed, because I've honestly compared things side by side. Use this as a teachable moment. Stop pruning half your plants entirely, and keep pruning the other half. Compare the two groups and see how they react. Next year, prune half your garden and never prune the other half at all. See how they react. Keep doing the thing that works best. For me, it's *never* pruning my annual vegetables, hands down.
This is my 3rd year gardening, this year I learned tips from UA-cam, this was my worse gardening year. My garden was nice and green and flourishing, then I start pruning, now everything is dying.
I appreciate your video I believe you are spot on!! This year I did a test Half my garden I pruned The other half I did not. I found that the plants I did not prune looked healthier And actually produced more fruit. I appreciate your channel keep up the good work😊
Hmmmm, I should have watched this 2 hours ago. I just spent this evening cutting back diseased leaves/stems on 4 of my tomato plants. The good news is that now having watched, I won’t mess with the rest! It makes so much sense and definitely saves a lot of work and mess. At almost 82 I am finally learning how to successfully grow tomatoes in Texas thanks to your sharing your knowledge in videos.
Actually, this video is OUTSTANDING! I grew up in a home where my grandfather grew tons of different vegetables and fruit trees - he never pruned, and we never lacked. God created plants with a "desire" (if you will) to live and produce, just like He created us with that same desire/propensity, all we need (and all they need) is nutritious food. All the unnecessary stuff people publish is because they need content to keep going, but it makes gardeners want to quit because of the time required to do all the other people say to do. You are such a blessing, and I can feel the honesty and truth in the things you say.
If you enjoyed this video, please "Like" and share it to help increase its reach! Thanks for watching😀TIMESTAMPS for convenience:
0:00 Introduction
0:41 How Bad Pruning Technique Was Normalized
3:44 The True Cause Of Most Plant Problems
6:27 How I Created Native Conditions For My Plants
7:05 Most Pruning Advice Is Nonsense
8:02 Vertical Gardening Advice
8:40 Why Pruning Is Killing Your Plants
10:17 Why I Stopped Removing Diseased Leaves
13:01 How Pruning Attracts Insect Pests
14:48 When Pruning Is Actually Beneficial
15:41 Proof Of Concept: Growing Plants In Shade
17:56 Why Pruning Fruit Trees Is More Beneficial
19:07 The Failures Of Conventional Wisdom
22:21 Adventures With Dale
I grew up on a farm in the PNW and quickly learned that a long growing season is a blessing and a curse trying to grow veggies in coastal Georgia. I follow much of your advice because you are one of the few channels that grows in a zone near mine.
Love your videos and I started using shade cloth in Ohio this year, my plants have never looked better but I was puling off dead or dying leaves down low and also any that had early blight. Glad to know I don't have to do that anymore and that I was actually harming the plans. Hope they can outlast the diseases. I was pulling suckers but not on determinates of course, now I'll let the others go too. Using the fish fertilizer as will as bone meal and a granulated type. Hopeful its going to be a banner year as I'm already harvesting tomatoes and that neve happens up here!
👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 oh my goodness, I Needed this info. You know when you spoke about pruning and giving off scent, common sense said " you smell that, well you just sent an open air invitation" 🥺 . This video made me feel bad about my gardening practices. Whew I needed this wisdom. I appreciate you so much! 🥰
One part of contention: "Nature doesn't prune," I disagree that is exactly what animals like deer do when they eat bits of a blueberry bush or apple tree, they are pruning them back just not in a way that is necessarily desirable for us.
@@mpsorrentino what you’re describing is pest damage and can, and often will, kill trees and bushes. Deer are destructive forces and rarely help a plant.
That being said, I clearly delineate between annual vegetables and fruit trees and perennials. This is timestamped in the video chapters. There is a massive difference between annuals that must spread all their seed in a single year to reproduce and a fruit tree that spreads seed over 30-100 years or longer. One has a sense of urgency, one does not.
So you're saying my laziness is actually correct. My wife needs to watch this.
@@steveanimatrix3887 lol 😆 I said the same. Its working.
Sometimes, the lazy way is the right way. But first, before you can be lazy, you have to set up a trellis that can handle all the vines, install drip irrigation prior to planting, hang shade cloth end of May and keep yourself on a 7-10 day fertilizing schedule. If you put in that work, then you can be lazy and not prune 😄
Why do people say not to fertilize during hot weather?@@TheMillennialGardener
@@jamillefrancisco564 I think some dont water properly and it can burn the roots.
@@TheMillennialGardener I literally do all of that except I fert every oher Sunday. It's part of being lazy :) I don't want to water or weed, etc. Sometimes I only go in the garden once a week. My garden is similar to yours.
I love it when a gardener has the courage to challenge the old standards. This will help a lot of us to have much better gardens. ❤
I love it when ANYONE has the courage to challenge ANYTHING... Because of recent events some of us have learned to basically question everything, and in some cases do the opposite.
Dont you think these „old standards“ are standards for a reason?! He generalizes on an extreme level.
Actually, he is promoting the outdated standard that was common before people learned proper trimming techniques.
I completely agree with NOT pruning veggies. I have gardened all my life and have never pruned my veggies. On the videos I watch where they prune tomatoes and cut off the suckers I cringe. I also notice they have to plant 15 or twenty plants to get the same amount of fruit that I get on five plants that I do not prune. They are also replanting to try to get a fall crop because they didn't get enough fruit because they pruned and the plants died too soon where mine are still fruiting into late fall. You are also right about the amount of sun veggie plants need. I built 12 raised beds and placed them between my back fence and sheds where they receive some sun and some shade and they all produce well. Next we need to test the watering theory. I was told I should not water from above...but use a drip system on the ground as to not get the plants wet. My response to those people is....tell that to God...because He did not produce rain to come from below to water plants...he produced it from the sky so the plants can drink and refresh from their leaves as well as from their roots. I have always watered from above and rarely do I have to deal with diseases on my plants. I also think watering from above washes some of the bugs off...like aphids. Nature is smart. So good to see a video that looks at the real truth of the way things actually work best.
😂😂😂good read😊
You needn’t worry about anyone else pruning their plants it should not affect you at all. Denying there are benefits to pruning is just showing your bias as pruning has benefits you either can’t acknowledge or are to stubborn to acknowledge. You garden your way and let others garden the way they see fit.
When it comes to watering from above, when you water is the more important part, early morning before the sun comes up is best it gives the plants and soil time to soak up what they need before the sun comes up and dries the leaves off. I used to be the plant waterer at a local Lowe's the tomatoes never had any issues.
@@MichaelRei99 he never said it affected him. It sure seemed to effect you though lmao
@MichaelRei99 lol don't think that is what he is saying at all. But he's not wrong. I very rarely prun my tomatoes and less with cucumbers. I produce tons of both for most of the season. I only have back up cucs cause of the blasted cucumber beetle. There is nothing wrong with a different view. Why can't you be more polite and see there are indeed more ways to garden and all he was saying is what a lot of us know, but isn't the current popular thing to say? Honestly I hate seeing severely pruned tomatoes, they look so awful and sickly.
I will be 77 years of age in a few days and after watching this video, you have changed my way of gardening after 57 years. Your logic is beyond belief, but it sure makes a lot of sense to me. I have never been a sucker puller, but I have done the rest, but NO LONGER. Thanks for an excellent and very informative video, and I will continue watching.......I have always thought you were the absolute best gardener on UA-cam.
It's usually not his knowledge. He's does a really good job of reading the scientific data. He didn't quote any in this video but he quotes a lot of studies and you can look them up yourself 😊 it's nice he's done the work for us
I’m not a bit worried about my plants receiving partial shade anymore, what a relief, no? I will still provide trellis & fence for all my vines because I just don’t want to step on them! HA! Plus they’re so much easier to see & pick when up off the ground. And Happy Birthday to you, I am also born in early July 👍
That is what I thought. When you prune a tomato. You are opening up the plant to be infested with the diseases.
Any help for leaf miners?
You are one of the most instinctual, natural gardeners Ive listened to and your communication skills are excellent.
Thank you! I appreciate it!
I work in a walled garden that has a massive greenhouse and I absolutely get sick of people asking me why Im not pruning my tomato plants, you hit the nail on the head, nature does not prune. When you go around pruning everything you are just making your plant susceptible to diseases. The only two plants in my massive greenhouse that caught a disease where two cucumber plants that had been pruned and yes I did use rubbing alcohol on the secateurs.
Conventional pruning methods will obviously look aesthetically pleasing but that does not mean the plants will be better because of pruning year in year out.
Thank you for going against the common trend, people just need to realize nature does most of the work.
Thank you so much for your tips. I started a garden this year at thirteen and I have harvested 28 non-bitter, Ashley variety, cucumbers from three plants and there are more coming. I also just harvested my first watermelon (19 Pounds), with many more coming. Also, my strawberries and rosemary are doing amazing. I am so glad I found you, Thank you!
We are very proud of you son!
Knowing how to grow your food is an important skills to master.
I hope you will talk about your passion to you friends.
Out of all the gardening video's i've watched over the years the content you put out seems to be head and shoulders above the others. Your presentations are great and always noteworthy. Thank you so much.
You hit the nail on the head! Just today I realized that the less time I spend hovering and being a helicopter parent to my plants, the better they grow! They want to be left alone to do what they do! But since we’re in charge of where they are growing, we end up hurting them. Humans are severely interfering, which explains why most vegetation we purchase at the store “look” perfect! They have been raised on everything unnatural from before they were even seeds. Humans are creating their own form of perfect fruit or vegetable because most people want to see perfect and will not buy anything that’s looks anything but. The most natural way to grow HEALTHY food, is to let it grow the way it knows how to defend itself from the harsh environments and pests. If we go in and snip them all up and manipulate their growth, one little moth or worm could/does devastate them!
Like children, who need to play outside with friends who are living in all different environments to increase and strengthen their immune system! We keep wearing our vegetation and then wonder why they are dying. Let’s allow them to grow in as close to their natural environment as possible, and let’s keep our busy hands off and trust them to do their thing. We do need to provide the water and shade if we are choosing their environment, and throw our kitchen scraps into their soil to feed them. And then let them be and watch what’s happens! THANK YOU FOR THE BEST GARDENING TIPS!! I learn so much from you!!
The phrase "killing with kindness" comes to mind. Our job as gardeners is to be stewards of nature, not to direct it. We should be checking our plants daily to ensure they are not being attacked by pests, wilting due to drought and not starving due to lack of fertilizer. We shouldn't be directing their every move. I try to treat them like kids. I provide a roof over their heads, food, water, and I keep them safe from the dangerous insects. Aside from that, they need to do their own thing and learn to navigate through the world
@@TheMillennialGardener I couldn’t have worded it better than that!
@@TheMillennialGardener I am always trying to figure out the best fertilizer. Do we need to use different kinds for different plants, or is there something I can feel good about using on everything? I recently used Miracle Gro water soluble in a pressure container and gave everyone a couple squirts at the base of the plants. Will that do for the bi-weekly feedings?
@@evemurton1133 “we shouldn’t be directing their every move.” That is a fact. I noticed that the plants I allow to grow vertically without tying up have been growing faster than those that I do tie up.
The more hands off I am, the more robust the growth
“They need to do their oen thinf and navigate the world” bwahaha so funny, yet true. Plants really are just like people
Haha. I had a huge patch of volunteer tomatoes that I just let run wild last year. I had a few Roma cross plants that produced like nuts like a Roma, but were indeterminate!!! I still have 5 gallon ziplock bags of Roma and Roma X tomato quarters. Not to mention the smaller bags of tomato sauces, diced tomatoes, and crushed tomatoes. I had some crazy crosses that were striped and tie dyed. The volunteers did just as well as the trellised ones, but I did lose more tomatoes to ground pests.
I can vouch for everything you said. I am originally from the east coast. Out there, I had no idea what I was doing. I filled a raised garden with topsoil and transplanted my seedlings that I started indoors in March, watered about every other day, and that was it! I had more tomatoes than I could eat. Everything else grew great also. I successfully grew string beans, watermelon, corn and more, knowing nothing. The down side is the very short growing season.
I moved to Arizona and have been watching UA-cam videos about growing tomatoes for 7 YEARS, all of which said that tomatoes need a minimum of 6 hours of direct sun, and you MUST prune to grow bigger or more fruit, depending on how you prune. I've been following their advice for 7 years, and it's like burning money! Not a single successful garden in all that time!
I had 3 tomato plants this year that were big, green, and bushy, and one tomato! The Arizona heat caused the leaves to curl and stay that way, and almost all the buds dropped off before they bore fruit. They were planted in good, fertile soil, had at least 10 hours of sun, and I watered and fertilized regularly and pruned as they advised.
In 7 years, I've not had a single successful garden, other than kale. For some reason kale seems to grow like weeds in the winter here. I was very depressed until I saw this video. I FINALLY know what I've been doing wrong! THANK YOU!
I hear you, having moved to the Phoenix area from Southern California.
You must use shade cloth for almost everything here. The only exceptions are Armenian cucumbers. Malabar spinach, watermelons, and sweet potatoes can also survive without shade cloth. I use 50% shade cloth on most plants. But I also use wind resistant beach umbrellas over other plants.
I follow Angela with the Growing in the Garden Facebook page, UA-cam channel, and website, and am learning volumes from her. She is a master gardener in Mesa.
I've never heard a single person say that pruning gives you more fruit. We all do it to get more uniform fruit ,less pests amd better airflow meaning less disease or rot. NOBODY EVER SAYS YOU GET MORE FRUIT, IN FACT MOST ARE HONEST AMD TELL YOU YIELDS MAY BE D3CREASED...
@@bradical2723 But you can fit more plants in a given space.
I totally agree with your theory! Last year, I did not do any purring. I had a huge crop of tomatoes. This year, I took off the suckers from listening to a garden channel, and my tomato crop has been terrible. I am now hoping my plants will recover. Thanks for bringing awareness that gardening is different in every climate!
I absolutely agree with you. I’ve grown peppers, tomatoes , squash and melons in different states and different areas and climates, I’m just now getting the hang of growing in the climate in Rancho Cucamonga, California, extreme heat and sun. I’ve tried direct sun like most gardening channels tell you to do, but that doesn’t work when temperatures reach close to 100 and over. My tomatoes, peppers ,cucumbers do better under shade cloth or in shaded areas, my garden when I lived in Redondo Beach was beautiful no matter where I planted and in Missouri where it gets hot and humid in summer my plants were beautiful, so I agree completely with you , where you live changes how and where you plant. Years ago I never knew about pruning and my plants were beautiful and the last few years I’ve pruned and my plants have not done well. Thanks for sharing, all of what you’ve taught us in this video makes a lot of sense. Thanks again for all your tips and tricks and also thanks for sharing your mistakes. 👏great job ❤
I do see your logic, however, there are a couple of things to consider. 1) Most of the tomato plants we have today are not naturally evolve to be what they are due to selective bleeding. So, the argument of letting them grow in the wild without human care and they will still thrive may be just speculation because these 'man-made' tomato plants have not been put under any real pressure for a long evolutionary challenge. 2) Most of the time, pruning off tomato suckers is mostly for the purpose of real estate management due to our limited space as we all want to plant more variety of plants (for fun and joy) in a small area. If real estate is not an issue and production is the main goal, then you are probably correct as more suckers will definitely yield more tomatoes in a shorter time but the plant will be definitely growing out of control in a small area.
Exactly, wild species are completely different from what we have bred. They have usually small and maybe bitter fruits and are more resistant to diseases. They are evelvod to reproduce, not to grow lot of food to humans or other animals.
And also, I live in colder climate and can't get bigger tomatoes ripen without pruning, there's just not enough energy in the plant to do that before winter comes. So pruning suckers give me less yield but at least I get some ripened.
But good video anyway.
THIS. I didn't used to prune my tomato plants and they grew absolutely out of control. Sure I got tomatoes, but it was such a a hassle to figure out how to manage them because I don't have the setup that all these UA-cam gardeners do. So now I selectively prune so I still get production, but the plant isn't going absolutely bananas.
@@BlackBelgianDogi also live in a colder climate as well and pruning tomatoes (along with most fruiting plants) is a must for me! i share land with my mothers garden, and i’ve been sorta running a very unscientific secret experiment: we’re both growing sweet million tomatoes and while i’m pruning back all of my suckers to create a single lead plant, she isn’t! can you guess who has larger, more robust fruit? 😊 her plant definitely has a higher yield, but her cherry tomatoes are the size of small marbles, whereas mine are golf ball sized! as with most advice, it’s dependent upon your location and your situation. it makes the most sense to prune back suckers if you live in an area with shorter growing seasons, or your setup doesn’t allow for a gargantuan sprawling plant!
or maybe you’re like me and you just prefer the satisfaction a larger cherry tomato brings when you pop it into your mouth during a garden walk. 😂
I have a 15x15 garden plot and have 5 tomato plants growing in close proximity to one another (about 1.5-2ft apart) and I have pinched off some suckers because I don’t have the space for all of them, but I also haven’t done only 1 stem like a lot of online gardeners recommend. Kind of an in between
@@BlackBelgianDog I do love the video as well. It opens up for us not to blindly accept anything at face value. However, it does depend on many factors regarding the benefit of pruning. The plant itself, the climate, the length of the growing season, and the amount of real estate are all important factors. I had a couple of tomato plants unpruned last year at the corner of my deck. They actually have a good yield, but the tomatoes are not able to ripen to the 30% stage with my limited growing season. So, I am forcing them to ripen using Banana. lol. Obviously, they have grown pretty out of control and did annoy me at the time. Having said that, the suggestion of pruning plants like cucumber that will attract more harmful insects makes a lot of sense, but not sure how else we can manage limited real estate without pruning them.
I moved from Baltimore to western NC and I must say, Thank you for this video! I am ordering my shade cloth today and the pruning will stop. The sun is WAY stronger here than up north. My plants that only get a few hours of direct sun every day always did much better than the ones in full sun. We are often blinded by the "normal" ways of doing things even in the face of common sense. I am going with common sense on this one. Thanks again for the video!
Alleluia!! Thanks so much! I’m in sw Colorado at 6700ft on a south facing slope with no shade and I struggle to keep things growing as it’s so hot and dry! I’ve gradually added more and more shade cloth ( it’s just the regular stuff from Home Depot) and this year, with more shade, planting closer together and much less pruning I’ve got a lush jungle of a garden with much better quality and amount of fruit!! Yey!! Thanks for your videos!! I love em!!
Powerful video, So true we have to start looking at our plants and say to ourselves how plants in nature grow so well without being cut on. Thanks for this information, I won't be pruning my plants anymore!
Thank you! I'm glad I got my point across well.
This makes so much sense to me. When I first started growing and had no idea what I was doing, my cucumber plants gave me sooo many cucumbers, but since I watched more gardening videos and started doing the pruning and removing the sucker vines that many recommended, I got so much less fruit. I’m going back to leaving them alone. It seems like more and more things that we have been taught in life don’t make any common sense if you really stop to think about it. We have been so programmed to just believe what we have been told by the so called experts that we never stop to think with our own intuitions. The Great Awakening is finally starting to happen in so many areas of life. Thank you for not being afraid to speak out and be “controversial.” Sharing your intuitive common sense will help us all to grow more food, which is so important at this time. ❤
Almost like intuition and common sense are what kept us in the Dark Ages for centuries, literally. Science works because it doesn't rely upon such nonsense.
And all these years I've been gardening I thought I was lazy, I've been gardening for 20+ years and have never pruned my tomatoes. For the last two or three years I have been watching you and several others and have learned so much. I still don't prune and my garden is beautiful and producing more than ever. What you say may go against conventional thinking but I agree with most of what you say. Keep up the good work. 👍
I have lived in Texas my whole life and have learned a lot of these things from experience and coming to logical conclusions like you have. Awesome video! Thank you for making this!
I wish I had this information 2 months ago. I’ve been pruning my tomato plants and they’re not doing great. I had my doubts but so many of the big gardeners tell you to do this and I started having doubts so I stopped. 😢Oh well, live and learn. But now I know, thank you.
Same 🤨
Same! One of mine looks like it is dying!
One of the best lectures I have seen recently. I live in Israel and have been growing tomatoes for 8 years. I always thought that good soil, watering and full sun are the things that make tomatoes thrive mainly here. This is true until mid-July. Suddenly, after beautiful crops, the growth ends and the tomato bushes wither. I just recently learned from several sources that when the sun is too strong, the tomato bushes must be shaded with a shade net of about 30 percent, meaning that the notion that tomatoes like strong sun is incorrect. Unfortunately, this season I won't be able to fix it, I'll try again next year, thanks for the excellent explanation
I learned A LOT! I have always questioned pruning. This makes so much sense.
And the shade…last year, just by chance and me being a novice (and not knowing any better), I planted 20 tomatoes under a Redbud tree. Those tomatoes outperformed every one of my tomatoes that were in full sun. 💯 agree with you on the shade!
I planted my tomatoes in the pot. I moved them all over around the house and they like morning sun and shaded afternoon. Some of the old ones I put in the sun for several days before are not growing as well as the ones I always kept in my back porch.
Wow
Yep! Tomatoes grow in the forest, not in fields! Emulate their native habitat. Give them warm temps, dappled light, rich organic matter and heavy mulch. They'll grow themselves!
God doesn’t need us to mess up what he perfected. I’ve pruned but wonder, if my father didn’t prune and he made a great crop of everything he grew, why do I need to prune. Thank you for confirming what I always thought. Great videos. Keep them coming.
I am a newbie vegie gardener in southern CO. Not only do we have intense sun but fierce winds. I bought a 8×8' walk in chicken run which is just a big cage with a roof. Then my husband and I cut polycarbonate panels to fit and zip tied them to the cage except for the roof and door. When I noticed the tomatoes were getting stressed by the heat, I threw a large 40% shade cloth over the roof and 2 sides of the cage. The tomatoes are VERY happy now. They are protected from the storms and wind. You are right about the shade.
I approve of this message!! It always seemed weird that people would turn their tomatoes into bonsai trees!!
ZONE 9b, ORLANDO, FLORIDA here. We've been suffering under extremely high temps (setting new records) and no rain since May. For the last 3 days, we've been under a heat advisory (heat index 111 degrees, 9-10 UV with high humidity). I grow all my veggies, organically, in several elevated 12' x 3' beds & I don't prune. Everything has been suffering. This year, I followed your suggestion to install hoops & cover the plants with shade cloths. WHAT A DIFFERENCE SHADE CLOTHS MADE!!! The plants responded so quickly.
I watch you on YT almost daily. You always provide such great information! Thank you!!
Two years ago, I threw several tomatoes in my compost pile because birds had pecked holes in them. Within a month I had a huge crop of tomatoes growing my compost pile. It was the best tomatoe crop I’ve ever had. At the time I thought to myself if I’d had more sun I bet I could’ve even had a bigger crop tomatoes Now I realize the reason my tomatoes did so well that year was probably because they only got three or four hours of sun. Great video…very thought provoking.
Sounds like the most logical sense I've ever heard on the internet in a long time. Well done. Appreciate the tips. I just started gardening this year because of you and James P. I was very successful from the combination of both of your knowledge. My tomatoes struggled from this exact reason, too much sun, too much pruning. They ended up all leaf curling, while they still fruited and did well, it was such a struggle for them. Next year, I will provide more shade and less pruning. I was definitely spreading unnecessary disease. I've watched pretty much every video you've ever made, and you always make the most sense when explaining things. Truly appreciate you spending all the time to create these videos. I know how much time and effort it takes. I tried the youtube thing with fishing, and just could never get it to take off. Keep up the great work!
You are absolutely right. Some tomato plants got pruned, others did not. Pruned plants haven't grown, no flowers, etc... I never guessed it was that I was over pruning. Meanwhile, volunteer tomato plants, unpruned and wild, growing big beautiful leaves and fruiting copiously. 🤷♀️ No more pruning! Thanks!!! And those volunteer tomatoes are out in the full sun in 100+ degree temps!
It's true. Every time we cut them, it's like having a surgery on our arms and legs. How can we expect to run and play catch if our arms and legs are constantly healing from deep wounds? Pruning hurts them, just like it hurts us. Only do it when it's absolutely necessary.
@@TheMillennialGardenerI’m really glad you posted this. Something always seemed weird to me about skeletonizing tomato plants. I’m going back to letting them do their thing.
Every gardener - newcomers and veterans - need to watch this video. Your no pruning hypothesis makes perfect sense. Especially when you correctly equate it to ‘wounding’ a plant with every cut. My sincere compliments on this eye-opening video.
@@TheMillennialGardenerplants are completely made up of "stem" cells. Any plant cell can become any other plant cells, they are noth8ng like humans amd "woinds" haven't nearly the same effect on them at all.
I live in Costa Rica at 1500 ft elevation. During our dry season (November through April) our tomato plants get sun scald with 8 hours of high UV sunlight, EVEN UNDER SHADE cloth! During our wet season out plants are thriving so much better, under the shade cloth with about 4 hours of sun each day. Great video!
I am gardening in the piedmont area of NC, and I appreciate that you are sharing your experiences with us. I hesitate to follow gardeners from other areas of the US who don’t know the challenges of summer heat, humidity, flash flooding and drought. The weather here sure does take a toll on plants and people alike!
Big agree. I've lived in North Carolina all my life and have never pruned my tomato suckers. The only thing you're doing by cutting off suckers is cutting off future tomatoes. Do you want more fruit or not? It should be common sense to any gardener from day one. I never understood why people would repeat such nonsense.
Don’t take this the wrong way- but I think you’re the first Yankee I’ve ever heard giving good gardening advice to Southerns. 😂😂😂 Thank you for the videos. They are always packed with info!
Thank you. Thank you. Thank youuuuu!!! I'm a new gardner living in 6b and have been looking at so much info, but noticed my tomatoe plants were suffering in the sun. I decided not to follow pruining advice and cover them with shade cloth. All of a sudden they started flowering. I was shocked! Thank you for the video!
I tried pruning tomatoes once, some 20 years ago, after not pruning them for 30 years and I definitely had a smaller harvest, so didn’t do it again. It’s very hot her in Portugal, so we had a carport built for our solar panels, in the vege garden. Have planted tomatoes under it, in the shade. So, far, so good. I will try not cutting of blight, to see how that works. Toms produce quickly here, so this year I am trying starting this second crop (went in ground 2. Weeks ago, in my shade garden) to see how that works. The first 40 years of my life, we didn’t have tomato blight! ( born in the 50’s). But it is everywhere now. Many thanks.
Insomnia made me stumble onto your page...1st time visitor and I have been going back and forth with pruning. I'm gonna be brutally honest here because I respect you for telling somethings you knew you'd get critiqued by some that probably doesn't even have a garden, they just wanna fuss. I had back trouble for 20 years, during that time I still had a garden, which was very hard to keep up, but with the help of my Son that was 8-9 years old, he pulled weeds for chore money because he despized being indoors and he honestly loved being in the dirt , that was literally all that was done, other than watering, and in 25 years the ONLY THING I used for fertilizer was cow manure due to low income, but that was all my ancestors used and had acres of garden for the entire family. All that being said, back is great now for 3 years, was wanting to try a raised bed due to moving into town, and being nervous by using the raised bed, I studied up on pruning and fertilizer. Well, I've had the worst luck, everything has died, may get 50 cucumbers from 8-10 plantd, same with tomatoes, and squash and I have pruned just as I was told and it truly didn't hit me and make me stop to think about it until your video. So, basically, if it's not broke, don't fix it. Thank you, you've truly helped this girl out!! Saving alot of time and money! Sorry for novel 😂
I used cow manure last year and it killed every plant it was applied to. This year, switched to chicken manure which definitely carries no risk of having herbicide.
I'm glad you had success with cow manure I wasn't that lucky it killed my plants a couple years ago I've never used it since. I have a few composting 5 gallon buckets our veggies and fruits love it. ❤️ Happy Gardening.
@@YaSunny0409yup mine too a few years ago . I would not take that chance again. I make my own compost our plants love love love it...
Anytime I ask for garden advice I first ask, "what advice would you give if someone has blossom end rot on their tomatoes?", and if their answer is, "add crushed up tums or egg shells to the soil", I find someone else to get advice from. Great video, as always!
Add a thick layer of mulch, install drip irrigation, water deeply 1-2 times a week depending on your weather. *That* is how you prevent blossom end rot 😀
@@TheMillennialGardenerYou should also ask what the plant is growing in. I had an amazing Roma that I started hydroponically and transferred to 5 gallon bucket with soil. Every fruit had BER. Instinct told me it needed to go into the ground. It was about 2 ft tall and bushy. When I transplanted into the ground, saw that it was root bound. After a couple of weeks, first Roma with no BER appeared!
I add some leftover Oyster shell that I give to my chickens so when I transplanted my tomatoes to my garden, I threw it in there. So far, it seems to be working. Also, I have rabbits & use their poop for my plants. OMG, rabbit pellets are the bomb!! Every plant has grown twice as fast & produced more fruit. I've tried all kinds of fertilizers (you name it), but rabbit poop is the way to go. Hubby googled it & said it is one of the top fertilizers for a veggie garden.
Thanks so much for this encouraging video! I am growing tomatoes in partial shade and they look beautiful although maybe a little slow growing but that may be a nutrition deficiency so I’m playing around with that. I have doubted myself along the way thinking maybe I am wasting my time even as tomatoes continue to appear here and there on my plants! Not once have I ever heard anyone say I could do this in partial shade until you! 🙏🏻 Now I am encouraged to continue adding the necessary nutrients and believe in what is happening right in front of me! Thank you because I thought I’d die or have to move if it did not work out for me to grow tomatoes!!! 🍅 ❤
I was out in my garden this evening pruning all of my squash plants and literally thinking " Is this really necessary?" I am also starting to feel a little burnout from hovering over all of my garden beds every single day for the past few months trying to be "the perfect gardener." In fact, I have thought to myself a few times that it just felt wrong, and that nature shouldn't need this kind of human interference and then I saw your video and it completely affirmed everything I was thinking plus more that I didn't even consider. So, thank you very much for this video and your honesty. What a relief! I am definitely adopting this new gardening style and taking a more relaxed approach.
You and I have been living parallel garden lives. You described my last few months exactly. I'm so burnt out! I'm done with all this crazy pruning, and next year's plan will afford my plants lots more space to do their thing! 😉
We never pruned tomatoes in our North Carolina homestead garden 60 years ago. I moved to the Mid-Atlantic and eventually opened a farm-to-table restaurant where I was the farmer. I grew tomatoes both in the field and in the high tunnel. I aggressively pruned in the high tunnel to assure product quality and continuous supply. In the field, I was less aggressive, but still pruned. Pruning was the most effective way for me to provide a steady supply to quality tomatoes throughout the growing season.
How were you able to grow that many vegetables in the middle of the Atlantic? Do you live on a cargo ship?
@@andymike6575😂😂
@@andymike6575 Boy I love the comment section!
i think like you. I'm near Paris, France, and i think the percentage of pruning and sun exposure is depending of where you are... There is no absolute truth i think in this category (gardening).
Kisses from France
You are my favorite person in gardening. I have been doing everything wrong with cutting off dead leaves and other problems. Another video producer has a great garden and seems very knowledgeable. My problem listening to him is he is growing in NJ and I’m in SC. I’m done with other gardeners. Thanks for setting me straight!❤
I garden in Texas in Zone 3. I started out growing my tomatoes in the sunniest part of the garden and pruned then. Spider mites were a terrible problem and the fruits suffered sun scald. The plants often wilted and began turning brown by June. The next year, I planted the tomatoes in part shade and left two main stems instead of the recommended one. The plants stayed greener a bit longer, there were fewer pests and sun scald decreased. My neighbor's tomatoes were already brown and done as mine remained green. This year, I decided, as an experiment, not to prune at all. I have seen very few pests and the plants are still going strong in July, with temperatures in the 90s. The real challenge comes with the approach of temperatures in the 100s, but I am hopeful that the plants will survive it. Also, as another commenter noted, I have found it helpful to pick tomatoes before fully ripe. The scent of a ripe fruit also attracts pests. (I don't spray anything. I'm okay with having a few pests because that is part of the natural cycle. If nothing else wanted to eat my tomatoes, I'm not sure I'd want to, either.) I further increase the odds in my favor by growing plants that have good resistance to disease and good heat tolerance. My favorites are Italian Heirloom and Eva Purple Ball (another heirloom) both indeterminate, flavorful and suitable for canning as well as serving fresh. This year, I tried a new variety, Thunderbird (a hybrid determinate). It is currently producing loads of tomatoes in the 12 to 16 oz range. But, for flavor, the Italian Heirloom is still my favorite. I have a LOT of pollinator friendly plants in my garden that also attract predatory insects and I make the garden a haven for birds. I regularly see birds and toads looking for insects among my vegetables. I think that, too, reduces the vulnerability of my vegetable garden to dangerous pest infestations. I saw some newly hatched squash bugs on a squash plant recently and made a mental note to come back and pick them off. I forgot but when I returned two days later, I couldn't find a single one.M y pest control crew had beat me to it.
This year, I did much less pruning on my grape, cherry, purple and San Marzano tomato plants. Production increased significantly. Gardening became less labor intensive. My lesson was accidental. I am glad to see it confirmed by your expertise.
Fantastic video!
We stopped pruning our gardens overall and even stopped cutting growth on our property except absolutely when needed. Pests are more controlled and plants are doing well and we are saving our energy! Have not sprayed once this year. Lost some things but not enough to complain about.
We are south central Texas. We do interplanting and let vines cover the grounds, use oak leaves and homemade compost to grow our soil.
Gardening should be a joy. Not exhausting and expensive. When people come over they take pictures of our land. It looks like a fairytale garden.
This is year 5 of our successful gardening.
Hard for the garden companies to sell things if we learn how to do it on our own.
Are you in/near Killeen? I lived there for 9 years. I only had one tiny 4x4 garden bed back then for my preschoolers (now high schoolers) and now that I think about it, I grew more fruits/veggies there with lots of shade trees than I do in my full sun garden up in DFW! And I knew nothing about pruning whatsoever.
@@Katie-dp3jl
Hi
We are prolly 1.5 hours south, south east of Killeen now.
We definitely utilize all our trees for shade and actually are beginning to plant mimosa (I know, invasive, but just means I don’t have to work so hard, they grow wild here, and these we feed the leaves to some livestock) for some nice filtered lighting. Have used some Moringa too here and there. We already strategically plant some things to help shade out certain plants. It’s been a struggle to figure it out but last year we sat and watched lots of things and just observed what the struggles were and why some things were thriving and some not. We began noticing how much good actually came from just assisting things instead of forcing them. Every year gets better by just continually applying things learned from prior year. # 1 thing… the sun is great but in moderation.
The chaos garden theory has worked well for us over all. Planting a little here, a little there of the same thing to see where the items want to be planted.
Thank you. This all makes so much sense. A few weeks ago, deer heavily pruned 7 of my tomato plants. They're recovering and setting fruit, but prior to that, they were growing so fast that I had to add clips every several days. They have hardly grown any taller since the incident. All those wounds definitely set them back.
This is my first year on a new property. I've been getting the Infostructure established. The soil is impossibly rocky, so everything will be in raised beds. I'm also older with back issues, and they're easier for me than ground level. It'll take a while to get shade structures and deer fencing in place, but knowing what to work toward is important. I learn so much from your videos.
This is so helpful. I've had a few annual veggie patches and each year I've gotten stressed about all the tiny details (many of which, I cannot control, like what angle my house was built on for light exposure). I've challenged myself this season to just TRY. I've got a bunch of seeds and we are fortunate that there's a grocery store down the street, so I can learn without the pressure of lacking fresh veggies. Once I get it down pat, it's a wrap for the produce section!
That's the idea!!! - just give it a try (again & again & ...)
Love your video. My parents grew tomatoes in tropical/subtropical climates and taught me ways to adapt my planting now that we live in zone 6. It’s really cool to hear you passing along the logic and wisdom of tomato planting! Thanks so much!
We live in Zone 7b where it's HOT and humid! We don't prune our tomatoes and we let them sprawl everywhere and they give us hundreds of tomatoes per plant. The only thing we do to avoid too many pests or disease is that we remove them once they are about 50% ripened and allow them to ripen inside. The taste is the same and we don't lose many tomatoes this way. I'm so glad you covered this!
I have started doing this, too, and the results have been great. Fewer pests and less chance of tomatoes splitting.
Mine have been getting these brown lines on them. Think it's blight?
Timely video. I came to the conclusion this summer that I will no longer prune my tomato plants after 9 of 13 healthy plants died within days of pruning. I have not had the same issue with squash plants. I prune leaves to prevent them from shading out nearby plants. Well said! Thank you!
I experimented this year with my grow bag tomatoes. I pruned 2 tomatoes below the fruit like I saw someone suggest. They dead now. The others are still thriving here in northern Florida. The extra leaves shade the main stem and I think that’s why the leafy ones still survive in this awe full heat we are having. My opinion, north Florida tomatoes need some shade through leaves and shade cloth.
Yes same in NC. I hope I live another year to try and do it again and better. The heat is unbearable and I Messed up watching videos to say prune plants.!
I wish I had seen this video earlier and I would have learned alot and also gotten that shade covering.
I hope you live another 40 years so you can perfect the art of tomatoes
@@AdamTreier ty😘 at 100 lol
I pruned a couple of lower “stalks” on a couple of sun gold cherry tomatoes but I rooted them in an aero garden. What I do is thin the fruit and the plants are doing really well. I have watched many videos and I think not pruning is the way to go and I am using shade cloth because it has worked really well on peas and lettuce that I have grown. I do have a volunteer squash that’s growing in a combination of broken down wood chips, compost, and soil and it’s looking amazing and just went about 3-days without watering in summer heat and still looks strong. Great video and thanks
As soon as I finished watching this video, I rushed out to my back yard and moved all of my veggie plants to a shady area that gets morning sun only. They are in 10 - 15 gallon pots, not in ground thankfully. Im in San Francisco Bay Area and we are having a 90+ degree heat wave. You just saved all my veggie plants.
All the ones I moved in the full sun got hurt and the one I only keep in the morning sun grows really well. I will never do as the instructions. 8 to 10 hours full sun in this hot summer will make all of them die from hot sunburnt.
Full sun is a lie😂
Oh gosh especially in containers, that's a recipe for disaster! Containers heat up and dry out faster than the ground. We way overcrowded our garden this year so that the tomatoes shade each other and still a few of the top flowers burn off. But thanks to hundreds of volunteer cherry tomatoes and volunteer marigolds we have a bunch of shade and hundreds of tomatoes growing.
@@Toggle_New_Top_2SeeCensored - Yes, what a common misconception.
I did the same thing. Moved pots into the shade
I live in Central Georgia and the summers are scorching hot. The Millennial Gardener is correct about the heat stress on tomato plants. We are taught that peppers and tomatoes loves heat but the direct sunlight in the summers will stunt your plants. I have the shade from my house plus large fruit trees that provide partial shade. Great video!
For me it’s there is no one size fits all or a correct or incorrect way to garden. Lots of people prune their veggies and have full sun gardens and have great and successful gardens. Listen to all the perspectives and go with what works for you. If you are struggling try a different method. Gardening can be fickle and there are so many variables in play from year to year. Always good to see what other people do and to challenge the norms and to experiment. I kinda enjoy pruning my tomatoes and have had success with this style but also don’t lose any sleep when one bushes out. I do appreciate the information you shared as a way to keep an open mind and to be open to changing as you have.
I agree 100% with you ❤. Last year I pruned and got 120lbs in 18 tomato plants, this year I didn't prune and in 35 plants I can count tomatoes. Very disapointed this year.....next year I'm pruning for sure. p.s. Im in Portugal same climate as San Joaquim valley in California.
@@CatCor-ki6rk Would you say the temperature and other factor were comparable between theses two years?
@@alexandrevaliquette3883 climate was the same both years
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience. I've been ruminating on whether to bring down some large trees that border my garden area to increase sunshine. My garden is doing fine under the trees and your advice has convinced me to leave the trees alone!
"Nature doesn't prune" AMEN!!!
Are you kidding me? High wind can snap off a tall plant. Pruning!
Nature does prune. Ever seen a deer?
@@donhorak9417 also what about wild life stress can be a good thing
Deer , rabbit, ? They prune your plants and trees
Nature definitely prunes - insects eating any of the lower leaves touching the ground. Or the young grasshoppers having a munchy session on certain plants.
I definitely get it; you make a great point. I live in central Texas and have slowly realized over the past few years that “summer crops” and “grow in full sun” don’t apply to our climate when our summers can reach 100+ degrees. Thanks for the video; it encourages me to keep trying to grow my veggies in less conventional ways!
And I totally agree with the shade cloth-it is an absolute game changer!
I bought a shade cloth for my tomatoes and cucumbers as per your advice in another video. This pruning video does make so much sense. I am learning more. Thank you for sharing your information. Maggie UK
This video is very helpful, especially for an inexperienced and fairly new gardener like me. I saw other UA-cam videos that said to prune your tomatoe plants to get larger tomatoes and also saw info to plant them in full sun. It gets really hot in the mid summer where I live and really too hot for the tomatoes to be in full sun all day at that time. I'm having good success with a grow bag in that with extreme temperatures of cold and hot during the growing season, I've been able to move the tomatoe plant accordingly.
Totally agree. My first year gardening so I trusted everyone saying prune prune prune if you want more tomatoes prune if you want to avoid diseases prune. Well now my cherokee purple tomatoes haven't grown since & the tomatoes I never pruned once FULL OF TOMATOES. Next year I won't touch my plants at all I guess ya live and learn
Growth mindset right there! Thats why Im still gardening after 30 + yrs… because you just keep learning. Im with you, not in the difficult South, but at 8,200 ft in the desert, unnatural place to grow anything but Junipers and piñon. Every year I learn, I get surprised, I mess up. But we keep gardening. Solid video.
Anthony, thanks so much for making this video! I think so many growers in hotter climates are used to following the common pruning and sun exposure recommendations. As a result, they are seeing poor results but not questioning their methods. After years of having poor tomato yields I started questioning how I've been going about things and these videos confirm some of the thoughts I've been having
Yeah. I think this just decreased my cherry tomato yield
@@nordicpink Nobody says prune your cherry tomatoes.😂
Absolutely, 100%. "Full sun" for most of what we grow in annual vegetable gardens is a bad idea unless you live in Maine or somewhere at a high latitude. The sun is just too strong in most places. These species are native understory species. None of them grow out in fields, they grow under forest cover. How we ever got to planting them in full sun, I'll never know. They want to be under dappled light.
Having grown up in East TN, I have never pruned my plants. When I see a tomato plant with a stem and 10 leaves I aways think, WTH? Your right nature doesn't prune, but I do remove dead stems and leaves. I will stop that.
I have two channels of gardening I watch, you are my favorite. Wonderful information.
I’m in Seattle and my garden gets maybe 3 hours sun at max. After years and years of being told I can’t grow tomatoes - this gives me hope. This makes sense logically and I’m not pruning anymore.
Keep in mind that in your short climate with not a lot of sun, you may actually need to top plants to keep them from putting too much energy into vigor. I'm not an expert in your climate, because I have the opposite problem - too much heat and sun. However, I strongly recommend you look at the tomato varieties Siletz and Legend. They were specifically developed by Oregon State University for your climate. They produce like crazy in 55-70 degree temperatures, and they ripen insanely fast. They are determinate tomato plants that only get about 36 inches tall, and the flavor is as good as an heirloom. I highly recommend you try those two. Those WILL grow and produce for you. These two varieties should not be pruned at all. Never remove suckers.
I'm north of you in tulalip, and I get 3 hours on my tomatoes, and I produce so many tomatos that I just can't keep up with them
Late in the season, I prune my tomatoes to get sun on the green fruits, and snip or flowers that have zero chance of becoming viable fruit.
Hi, fellow PNW gardener.. PDX, but I'm right at the confluence of Willamette and Colombia river, so my micro climate is different between neighborhoods just 2 miles east...
We get warmer weather than y'all up there, but the Puget sound is going to have profound effects, so garden "zone" is essentially useless. Tualip, as another commenter mentioned, is a relatively protected inlet with more natual surroundings as buffer. It's just not comparable to Seattle! Same as Salem (about the same distance) has vastly different growing conditions than Portland.
I'm lazy AF, so I prune twice: once in spring BEFORE I set out my BIG tomato starts (this year temps were too low at night, so I had to wait until June) and again when the heavy rains start back up between August and September. Also, don't bother with big varieties of tomatoes unless you want to babysit all season. Here, I can get away with brandywines and Cherokees okay, but it's the small tomatoes that do best with our drier, short summers and wet spring/autumn. Everyone I know in Seattle has better luck when they go for golf-ball sized or less.
Also, biggest issue I see here is ppl planting right at last frost rather than wait for soil to warm. It's just plain better to keep up-potting starts until nighttime soil temps reach a consistent 50° (soil thermometers are super cheap) than put a little seedling out according to frost projections. Hope this helps, don't give up, but Millennial Gardener is right: we're working with basically the opposite of East Coast conditions.
@@lexxivexx Pacific climate is affected more by ocean temperatures,
whereas New England's temps are affected by climate from the west
and Canada temps are much colder. Same basic latitudes, 45-47N degrees. Having said that, I follow a channel that is located in the northeast of the UK
at a latitude of about 55N degrees. On the west coast zone 8a-9.
Grow zones can be misleading. Soil temps are critical but then again
ambient air temps are more detrimental than soil temps. It's entirely
possible to go below freezing overnight even when the soil temps have
reached 50/55+/-. Soil temp mostly refers to end of dormancy/germination.
Air temps concern is plants/vegetation, anything that has exposed leaves,
not able to withstand 32 or lower. Unless its cold hardy. And there's a real
big difference between a frost and a hard freeze, the later is lights out.
Problem with all of this is, especially newbies, if interpreted incorrectly,
lets say, "I wanna know your zone, so I can have the same results as you!"
or, "you can't cut suckers"? No disrespect, that's misleading.
You are correct Lexx. IMHO, know your climate, know what your growing
and adjust from there what works best for you. Good Luck in your Garden
I have been saying the same thing for years! I am glad I was not wrong.
Thank you SO much for all of your time and effort making these videos. I can’t believe people actually say awful things to you creators that are just trying to help, and you are helping for FREE.
I think you are amazing.
Kim from New Brunswick Canada
Thank you for the knowledge! Looks like I made a few mistakes this year as I've been pruning the blighted leaves on my tomatoes, but now I won't!
OMG over the moon happy that I found you. Your videos are truly full packed with game changing information. Seriously can’t thank you enough for sharing. This is one thing my dad was doing bright. He NEVER pruned or removed suckers and he and mom shared their abundance with all our neighbors in North Revere, MA. He had the largest beefsteak tomatoes than anyone in our area. Again thank you tons! ❤️
Also, all the other gardeners who insist on pruning, their plants are nowhere as full and healthy looking as yours. I would always be wondering why. Your information is pure genius 🎉
From my 40 years of growing not only vegetables but specimen palm trees, crepe myrtles, japanese maples and high grade cannabis in my nursery every year is different. You mentioned conventional wisdom several times which is mostly taught on youtube channels because of no in the field knowledge. My garden health dwarfs from what you have, not judging, I am glad you called yourself out and admitted teaching wrongisms in the past. I used to get so angry watching these gardening channels teaching the wrong way to grow a garden. Example, trim all the suckers off cucumbers. The trick is to trim the first 6 or so suckers off then let them be cucumbers. The main stem may grow a few more cucumbers but the suckers will provide you more cucumbers than you can imagine. Never trim suckers off determinate tomatoes. Fertilize regularly which most home gardeners do not do, they fertilize once at planting. I could go on and on. Thanks for a good video. I got your back!!!!!
Gardening is a constant learning experience. That is why I love it. You can have 40 years of experience and you still learn new things every year. It never ends. One of my challenges has been constantly moving. I've moved 9 times and lived in 3 different states over the last 15 years. Now that I'm finally settled somewhere for the long haul, I've been able to really observe. I can't say enough about the power of observation. If you just sit down and really pay attention, it's amazing what you'll see.
@@TheMillennialGardener Amen my friend. I cant wait to see your journey when you get to Florida where you planted a tree. Every environment is different and you tell it how it is. So much respect.
@@TheMillennialGardener Are you familiar with Masanobu Fukuoka's book: The One-Straw Revolution ? Watching nature to guide farming is his theme.
I appreciate this video! I did well with tomatoes until I started pruning like all the people and videos said we needed to.
I'm going back to the way I used to think about gardening. Where I make sure the plants have what they need and stay out of their way so they can do their thing.
Thank you so much for this! I've only been gardening for two years but I had noticed a few things and this confirmed what I had been wondering. Last year (my first year gardening) I grew four cherry tomato plants, all the same plant. Two were in 5 gallon buckets and two were in the ground. Same watering, same fertilizer, same light, they were next to each other out in the garden. The ones in buckets were wiped out by disease in half the time as the ones in the ground. The only real difference was pruning. I never touched the ones in the ground and was constantly pruning off lower leaves on the container plants. This year I have 26 tomato plants and have only been pruning when necessary to keep them from becoming a jungle. They all look fantastic and have tons of fruit!
I watch a channel from Azerbaijan located in the Shahdag Mountains (Country Life Vlog). Their climate allows them to grow tomatoes out in the open and they let them vine along the ground. It blew my mind when I saw that and their results were phenomenal. I've never seen such beautiful, symmetrical tomatoes. Couldn't do that here, in Georgia, for sure.
Because of you, I've experimented more with my annual veg. This year I moved almost everything to a space that gets morning sun until about 2pm, but it appears even that is still too much. I've got my asparagus in a kiddie pool under the almond tree and it's doing fabulous (plenty of sun in early spring, shady after harvest time). I separated my Roma tomatoes from the others and it appears they're getting way too much sun - so much so that I can't seem to find a good watering regimen. About 90% of my fruit has blossom end rot from me trying to water them enuf to keep the plants from shriveling up. Ugh...
I've ordered my shade cloth and we'll see if I can save it all. I'm going to rethink my whole veg garden for next year. I've got plenty of shady spots and I'm gonna try it out for the tomatoes, cukes, etc.
Thank you for your engineering mind, lol, and for the information you give.
I love that youtube channel too 😊
watch that channel all the time. they have magic soil or magic seeds or something, everything they grow is HUGE, and no mosquitoes. very realxing channel
I absolutely LOVE that channel!!!
This makes absolute sense to me. I am so glad I came across your video...and just in time. I actually pruned on my tomatoes and cucumbers today because that is what I have been told all my life gardening in southern Ohio and wondered, "am I stressing these guys out by doing this?" Man, you confirmed my suspicions, and I will no longer unnecessarily hamstring my veggie plants. Thank you so much!
very helpful, thanks for sharing your experiences with all of us
You're very welcome!
Probably the best gardening video I have watched thus far! I am a novice gardener myself and I have been reaching similar conclusions after following bad conventional advice online. Thank you for confirming my intuition and logic!
My grandfather and grandmother had a big successful farm in South GA for generations. I never heard about pruning any vegetables. There was not time for that, and I doubt it they would even if there were.
When I worked on a farm in New Jersey, we only grew determinate tomatoes. Hundreds and hundreds of Celebrity determinates. They were never pruned, but of course, you should never prune a determinate tomato. We ran a drip line for fertilizer injection, and that was it. They were never touched until harvest. That's how you get real production on a farm.
This video was mind blowing! You make sense. I was just going to prune my tomatoes before I watched your video. Now I won't prune at all and see how they do this year. Also, some You-Tubers say to prune onion leaves in order to get larger onions - do you recommend pruning onion leaves? Based on your video, I would think you would not recommend this. Let us know. Thank you for your excellent videos. We watch everyone of them because they are all fantastic.
Is it stressing the plant or is it redirecting energy? For melons for example, i prune to have one to two melons per lead. I get bigger better melons thar ripen for harvest. When i don't, i get more melons per sey but they grow so slowly and many won't mature in time. It's actually easier for me to check for and remove pests like cucumber beetles, squash bugs and vine borers which i would get whether i prune or not. It does not take alcohol two minutes to kill bacteria, it takes 15-20 seconds. For squash, if i prune one huge leaf that is shading out new growth, i see a big growth spurt in the days after in tbe fruits and the rest of the plant especially in the leader shoots which form new female flowers. If i don't prune and my plants get unnecessarily huge, i am using up precious space where I am trying to grow other veggies.
I respect your advice and will take it into consideration but i think there is a place for pruning and it has never killed my plants. Has it stunted them? Maybe... But i harvest a lot of fully matured and wonder food so that might be something I'd have to experiment with.
So this year I just accidentally did what you explained , had no idea what I was doing, just got frustrated with weather being so cold and rainy (Iowa). Instead of hovering over tomatoes, pruning and all that stuff , I decided to water it , occasionally fertilize it and leave it to tomatoes to do their thing. I did prune very random only if the leaves were touching the ground and all those suckers were going wild. My plants are not huge but they have bunches of flowers and now they are turning into fruits. I am a happy little grandma gardener! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and support!
I live in Michigan.. and I normally prune my tomatoes, this year I want to just let them go wild and just keep the leaves off the ground for the first foot off the ground. I want to see how much they grow without pruning them ❤
I'm just learning this through trial and error watching all the top videos.... I'm in the Northeast and following these ideas has changed my home garden production tremendously! This yr my volunteer tomatoes i let go as a test as well as my melon cukes and squash vines this yr and I'm in mid July with hands down the best plants I've ever had! Also using my own compost and homemade fertilizer this yr. I experiment every yr with a couple of each type of plant trying to always learn and improve. At the end of the day your micro climate in your individual yard will determine what practices work best for you. Have fun you'll always do better if it's a labor of love 💕
I've stopped trimming trees over my garden so they can provide shade to my plants. With the extra shade from the trees and shade clothe, my tomatoes and peppers are doing better this year than ever before. I've never been much for pruning everything.
One thing I think you could have mentioned is that just like climate, alot of what you do to your plants is dependent on the space you have to grow them in. But this video helps in that we should always be challenging what we assume to know, so as to become better gardeners!
Nobody says that pinching off suckers creates more fruit. It creates larger ripe fruit more often but less overall. That was always the case. It only increases yield when grown at volume in hothouse commercial settings. Check out Cornell's studies on this for some fact based information.
I live in Maryland!! I don't pinch suckers, loved hearing all of this... love learning and expanding my knowledge. Our weather this summer as with most, is off the charts! Shade cloth is a huge help... definitely don't want to stress my plants.. already under enough with the heat, sun and no rain... thanks for the great message... may need to now start to planting on the west side of my home!
Yes! Say it, tell it , let people know it doesn't grow the same in all climates in areas.
Absolutely true. Where I live, we have incredible migration from New York and New Jersey (I'm from NJ), and people are so perplexed, because they have been growing tomatoes their entire lives and they can't keep one single tomato plant alive here or get any fruit. I've given several neighbors *the tour* of how to do it down in the South 😅
Im so glad to hear this. Im 77 and grew up NOT pruning-and it s always felt wrong. what a relief-since ive been pruning I dont get good harvests-so i thought i was pruning wrong. 🤦🏽♀️TYTYTY!!!
Glad to hear the proper way to grow them in Central America- I’m moving there!
Keep in mind you'll need to grow them under heavy shade there. The sun will be nuclear. Never plant them out in the open. Forest shade is your friend. Bring some shade tarps with you.
@@TheMillennialGardener We have extreme rainy seasons (~5ft+) in Costa Rica & the shade tarps help the plants not get too soaked or damaged, too. Would also help protect against some percentage of birds.
Thank you so much for your video! This explains so much! I lived in the desert part of Eastern Oregon and planted some tomatoes behind my house on the Eastern side where they still get plenty of sun, but it wasn't the constant harsh full sun. I didn't have anything to stake or secure them, so they just grew on the ground and rooted everywhere. They did awesome and I had a great crop!
The next year I had seen a video from a California gardener that grew them vertically and pinched off the armpits. I tried that and planted them on the South side so they could get full sun, expecting an even bigger harvest because all the conditions were supposed to be exactly what they needed. Nope, worst harvest ever! Only 1-3 tomatoes per plant, except for my determinate ones which I did not prune. They had a better supply, but still did not grow as tall as they should have.
I moved to Missouri after that and planted some tomatoes on the East side again and didn't get them staked in time. Even though there were weeds everywhere, the plants thrived. There were tomatoes growing everywhere, though ground bugs were eating them.
This year I moved them to the other side of the garden bed (still on the east, but no protection from the southern/western sun). I staked them and pruned/pinched off the growth. Though, I left a few test plants to grow without pruning to see if that method actually worked.
I was wondering what was going wrong. My tomatoes had been growing well, but recent heat waves hit and I found some hornworms on two plants, and they are withering and struggling. I cleared off the diseased parts and couldn't figure out what was going wrong. The unpruned ones are fairing better, though still getting some yellowing on the bottom leaves.
Now I know the biggest problem growing them this year is me. The pruning of both healthy and dying leaves, and the full constant sun with no shade is why my tomatoes are doing so poorly!!!!
Thank you so much for helping me understand the truth behind why two groups of tomatoes thrived while the other two are struggling to survive!!!
Hopefully by giving them some fertilizer boosts and seeing if I can get some shade will help support them enough through the rest of the season. If not, I at least am way more prepared for next year!!!
Man 0:01 it's a shame that these times we live in mandate all these disclaimers and "please don't hate" lines...
I don't think it's a product of the times. It's just how we are as humans. We are set in our ways, and we don't like being told we're wrong. Watch my old videos - I was doing many things wrong, at least for my climate, and I probably still am. I know I have room for improvement. I'm proud to be wrong, because if I'm wrong, that means I can get even more food per square fot. Being wrong means you can do even better, but some don't see it like that. Sometimes, the kindness you deliver the message with is the most important thing. I want to be clear that I'm not calling anyone out. I'm just trying to help.
@@TheMillennialGardener I have learned so much from watching your videos. Thank you for what you do.
This makes a lot of sense. I'm new to gardening, so I only know what I hear from others, but it totally makes sense. Nature is the best gardener.
Don't apologize. Facts and truths do not end where feelings start.
It's true, but presentation means a lot, because you can't change hearts and minds if your approach doesn't come with feeling. I did it "the wrong way" for most of my life, and I'm proud to have proven my old self wrong.
One mans truth is another mans opinion. Being that so many other gardeners disagree I’d say this is opinion.
@TheMillennialGardener That's how we learn. It's so refreshing when people explain the process to prove their mistakes with visual proof and with valid research in hindsight. You hit it on the head with the tomatoes by research and execution of that method. The proof is evident in how happy those tomatoes look.
@@brianrhubbard I love being proved wrong in gardening. If I'm wrong and there is a better way, that means I can grow even more food in the same space.
@@MichaelRei99 The stark difference between the two men is one thinks facts can be opinions if enough people tell him it's false regardless of what is easily observable, and the other will gladly change their mind once presented the observable data. As a man in a tiny hat once said: "Facts don't care about your feelings."
This is brilliant! I never used to prune tomatoes and had much larger harvests. But watching all the pruning videos, I started pruning, but it seemed wrong and my yields declined. So this year I tried pruning one and not pruning one of the same species. The one I pruned produced produced 3 small tomatoes, the one I didn't prune produced more tomatoes than we can eat and some are 1 pound in size. All other plants I didn't prune out produced those that I did by 5 or 6 times. I'm going to try the shade method, it makes perfect sense.
I wish I would’ve had this information last weekend
@@nordicpink lol
Use this as an opportunity to run your own experiment. Keep pruning half your plants. Don't touch the other half for the rest of the year. See which plants perform better. Then, you'll know for sure next year.
Great video!!!!!! I live in Florida, and at least in our climate, this is all spot on. I started ignoring my plants, a little bit more this year instead of over, loving them, and they are doing better! For me, it was just a function of being busy, but now you’re backing it up with science. Keep on keeping on.
How disappointing! I started my first garden ever this year and was told that pruning is absolutely necessary or they will not produce in abundance. Now I am hearing not to do it. I have been pruning for weeks. Now what?
You will be fine, as long as you did not strip your plant bare it wont be a huge deal if they look healthy.
Experiment! Try withholding pruning for one of your plants and see what effect it has. If that works then you might want to adopt that practice.
Everything I've learned in my garden came from decades of growing and experimentation. I used to heavily prune my plants, but through years of trial and error and experimentation, my views have changed, because I've honestly compared things side by side. Use this as a teachable moment. Stop pruning half your plants entirely, and keep pruning the other half. Compare the two groups and see how they react. Next year, prune half your garden and never prune the other half at all. See how they react. Keep doing the thing that works best. For me, it's *never* pruning my annual vegetables, hands down.
This is my 3rd year gardening, this year I learned tips from UA-cam, this was my worse gardening year. My garden was nice and green and flourishing, then I start pruning, now everything is dying.
I'm convinced that removing the oldest leaves from my yellow squash has allowed them to thrive this year
My neighborhood rabbits and deer, not to mention the wind, laugh at the idea that pruning doesn't occur in nature!
This guy is trippin. I prune my marijuana plant and get good results
@samwall9411 same. I prune my mushrooms and they come right back. Stay trippy my friend 👽
I appreciate your video I believe you are spot on!! This year I did a test Half my garden I pruned The other half I did not. I found that the plants I did not prune looked healthier And actually produced more fruit. I appreciate your channel keep up the good work😊
Hmmmm, I should have watched this 2 hours ago. I just spent this evening cutting back diseased leaves/stems on 4 of my tomato plants. The good news is that now having watched, I won’t mess with the rest! It makes so much sense and definitely saves a lot of work and mess. At almost 82 I am finally learning how to successfully grow tomatoes in Texas thanks to your sharing your knowledge in videos.
Actually, this video is OUTSTANDING! I grew up in a home where my grandfather grew tons of different vegetables and fruit trees - he never pruned, and we never lacked. God created plants with a "desire" (if you will) to live and produce, just like He created us with that same desire/propensity, all we need (and all they need) is nutritious food. All the unnecessary stuff people publish is because they need content to keep going, but it makes gardeners want to quit because of the time required to do all the other people say to do. You are such a blessing, and I can feel the honesty and truth in the things you say.