How to Prune Hydroponic Tomatoes

Hydroponic tomatoes produce lush fruits in your hydroponic garden all year round. The tomatoes need to be pruned just as a regular tomato plant would be. Hydroponics have an extended growing season so it is important to establish a pruning schedule.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Pruning shears
• Gloves

1. Locate the lateral shoot on the hydroponic tomato plant. The lateral shoots are small shoots that grow off the main stem or between two existing stems. If not removed, they will turn into full stems.

2. Prune the lateral shoots or "suckers" once a week. Grasping the main stem and bending the shoot back and forth until the sucker breaks off.

3. Remove old leaves on the bottom of the plant once a week. This will allow the plant to concentrate on growing strong tomatoes rather then growing the leaves.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 weekly.

5. Top the plant six weeks prior to removing it from your greenhouse. Do this by cutting the top portion of the main stem down to just above where your first bunch of tomatoes are currently growing. Use sterilized pruning shears for this.

6. Repeat steps two and three weekly.

Tips & Warnings

• Use clean hands whenever possible to remove suckers and leaves. This will avoid introducing outside contamination to the plants.
• Do not use unsterilized pruning shears.

Resources

• Crop king - Hydroponics