Do I need to trim the leaves of the Tomatoes below the brush and how does this affect the yield? I started doing it right and collected 2 times more Tomatoes
Good day! There is still a lot of time before the planting season, but conversations about who and what will plant this year have already begun and are not going to subside.
I don’t know about you, but I very often heard from my neighbors at the dacha disputes about removing the lower leaves from tomatoes: their necessity, usefulness, and so on. One side says that this is a mandatory and useful procedure, while the other says that this procedure is useless.
I thought about it for a long time, and decided to try it. Thanks to the right recommendations, I harvested twice as many tomatoes. I decided to share these recommendations with you.
Cutting the lower leaves is no harm
To begin with, if you remove the lower leaves from the tomatoes, you will not damage them in any way. Moreover, it will allow the bushes to ventilate much better than with them.
Therefore, it is an excellent prevention of fungal diseases, such as late blight. This procedure will improve the penetration of sunlight on the fruits, and this will significantly accelerate their ripening and increase your yield. There is only one "but" - it must be done correctly, which will be discussed above.
What do you need to do to make things go right?
First rule
It is necessary to remove the leaves only after the final formation of the fruit bones takes place. Fruits take nutrients from these leaves, and after their formation, the need for leaves disappears and you can safely cut them off, but you must remember about the second rule.
Second rule
It is not necessary to cut off absolutely all the leaves. This should be dealt with gradually. In addition, the removal of leaves should be as careful as possible. This should be done not one day, but several days.
To remove unwanted leaves, you need to use something very sharp so as not to damage the plant. Ideally, it should be scissors or a knife.
Final processing of bushes
If all the rules are followed, you can treat the bushes with boric acid, which is freely sold in every garden store.
And it is strongly recommended to constantly remove the yellowed leaves that are unnecessary for the plant, as they, in turn, can become good distributors of various infections.
Now is the time to describe what my result was after this procedure. As a result, instead of the expected number of tomatoes, I collected 2 times more! Therefore, you can freely use this procedure and have a good result at the end of the season.