Removing foliage

[andy]

Does anyone remove a proportion of the leaves from greenhouse crops in order to get some light in to the lower fruits.

My Toms and Cues have gone mad and i've had to cut back some of the lower leaves so the fruits can get a bit of light. Obviously i've not stripped them bare.....some of the tomato leaves have been reduced by half rather than removing the entire leaf stalk, and i'm feeding twice a week.

Anyone else do this ?

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[Ladygardener]

I do it every year with my tomatoes Andy, as you say it lets in light but it also allows the plant to concentrate on fruit rather than foliage.

[Rosefriend]

Yes I always remove leaves Andy - the bottom leaves anyway so that I can water properly and the more trusses I get the higher I go up. My toms at the moment have no leaves for the first good meter and half leaves further up.
My GH is too small to leave them on and the chance of disease is by far greater with them on.

RF

[Dutchy]

Even from non GH crops.
When the fruit needs light and the removal of two or three leaves does the plant no harm I snip away happy.
Grapes even need a severe cut if they are to get any good fruit.

[Barbara]

Yes we all are good trimmers Andy, I sometimes cut the leaf stalk away as well to make sure the toms. get enough sun- light.

[Jasmine]

I read at the weekend that you can take tomato leaves off up to just under the first truss. I did that after reading it and it has made a huge difference to the tomato jungle in the greenhouse.

[Barbara]

A man wrote to Ken Bruce this morning saying he was removing all the lower leave off the toms regularly, and mentioned to his wife he thought the trusses were late in showing, and she informed him they were the potatoes.

[Tig]

Love it Barbara ;D

I take most of the lower leaves off my cordon toms, to allow better air circulation as much as anything. The bush varieties are treated differently though because they fruit all over, so I just do some judicious thinning of them, they don't seem to mind the 'jungle'.

x Tig

[andy]

Thanks everyone. had to do a bit of that "judicious" leaf pruning on my Cues too.....couldn't see the floor because too many leaves and now i've done that, i've found 10" long cucumbers on the lower joints ;D

[Ladygardener]

;D Barbara.

[carolann]

I always remove the lower leaves off the Toms and a few off the Cuc's but towards the end of the season I take all of them off so that the fruit that is left can get the max light to ripen.

[Spruance]

I generally remove the lower leaves on my indoor toms to allow better air circulation and thus diminish the disease risk. Later in the year this tends to become more of a necessity as the delightful grey mould takes hold but that's not an issue in July. i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd161/GWDAdmin1/Smilies/Default/wink.gif