How to keep plants fruitful

Ruth keeps her tomatoes and strawberries healthy

- Ruth Hayes

AFTER a slow start, our previously leggy ‘Gardener’s Delight’ tomatoes have grown well and are now robust plants with healthy foliage and lots of trusses of little tomatoes.

We have plants in the greenhouse and on the patio and have been feeding and watering them all at the recommended rate.

This week I have been pruning and ‘stopping’ the greenhouse plants as they now reach the roof and are starting to bend over.

Stopping takes place in August or September, depending on where you live in the UK and at what stage your tomatoes are at. It is when you cut off the top few inches of the plant, which will encourage bushier growth and larger fruits lower down.

I also cut away some of the leaves that had started to yellow off and pinched out several shoots developing between the main stems and fruiting branches so plants concentrate their energy on existing fruits.