QUESTION : How do you keep tomatoes from growing too tall?
ANSWER Pruning your tomatoes will keep them from growing too tall. Pruning also helps the plant to produce fruits rather than additional foliage. To minimize disease transmission in your garden, always trim with clean, sterilized shears. Prune so that leaves do not throw shade onto other leaves, but do not prune away the leaves that shade flowers or clusters of fruit, as the shade will protect them from the heat.
Once a plant is the same height as its support mechanism (which is usually four or five feet), prune it regularly to remove all the new growth at the top and keep the plant a manageable size. You may also want to cut away the “suckers” that develop from the bend where a branch joins the main stem, which will increase the size of the fruits but limit the total quantity of fruits produced.
Try planting a bush or determinate tomato next time, which does not grow as tall.
