The growing season is upon us and the occasional dose of early summer humidity is certainly doing wonders for most gardens. With flowerbeds trimmed and cared for and the grass mowed, it is time to concentrate on that vegetable garden. A popular summer pastime for many families, growing your own produce is not only cost effective, it is incredibly enjoyable to most and yields some of the best produce you will ever sample. Sure, overproduction is a common problem, but it seems these backyard bounties are never tough to get rid of.

Never is this more apparent than with tomatoes. Relatively hardy, and easy to grow, tomatoes will quickly double in size within the first weeks of their planting and will soon begin to produce their fruit. As these plants grow so rapidly, it is imperative that the successful gardener watch them closely and perform regular maintenance like staking and pruning. Without these key steps they will have a tendency to lay along the ground with the weight of their leaves and fruit and grow uncontrollably. Pruning is one of the best ways to increase your plants health, increase the fruit production, and help make them easier to maintain.

Step One: Understanding how to prune is just as important as understanding why you should prune your tomato plants. Of course, it is important to control the growth of the plant, but why? For beginners, tomato plants need to carry out photosynthesis just as any other plant does to survive. In most cases, as a tomato plant grows it will develop suckers or side shoots at the crotch between the leaves and the main stem. You can certainly leave these suckers alone and they will grow and produce fruit just as those off the main stem. However, the formation of the suckers is a drain on the plant as a whole, and may produce foliage that actually makes the plant too dense and leaves some portions in complete shade. This obviously has a negative effect on the plant and your fruit. It is a good idea to try to grow plants that are strong in the stem by not staking them until the flowers appear and removing all side stems below the first fruit cluster and removing all suckers from the plant.

Step Two: This basic principle of pruning varies slightly between determinate and indeterminate tomato plants. Determinate plants don't need any pruning beyond the removal of all suckers from below the first flower cluster. With these plants, pruning will not affect their fruit yield or size. In fact, if you prune above the first flower cluster you are likely wasting fruit that would have matured. Indeterminate tomato plants will have several stems in most instances. Remember, the fewer the stems, the larger the fruit, and the less room the plant needs in the garden. For those plants with many stems you should let a second stem grow from the first node above the first fruit and let a third stem grow from the second node above the first fruit and so on.

Step Three: The actual pruning of your plant can be done ion a couple different ways called simple and Missouri pruning. The first method, called simple is really just that. If a sucker is found and you need to remove it from the plant it is simply pinched off by hand. Obviously, this is best accomplished when the sucker is small and soft. The wound will be small and will heal quickly minimizing the risk of infection. The second method called Missouri pruning means you only pinch off the tip of the sucker and leave two or three leaves behind. This technique will leave these leaves to help with photosynthesis, but they often grow along the main stem and just add to your pruning work later on. It is often difficult for gardeners to prune their plants while they are actively growing, but taking the time to plan each cut carefully will yield results the likes of which you have likely never seen in your tomato plants before. Once you start pruning you will certainly keep it up from season to season.

While much of this pruning activity will occur through the rapid growth stages of the plants life, there is still pruning to be done once fruit appears and begins to develop. Late in the season, as your tomatoes develop it is a good idea to top your plants. That is, you should remove all growing tips from the plant to help the plant better support the maturing fruit. This final pruning can be all that is needed to turn those green tomatoes a bright shade of red, which of course signals they are ready for the table.