clipping larger leaves from cucumber plants or others.

[reinhard1]

i have learned from reading some of the posts that it's a good idea to trim some of the extra "branches" {dont know the exact term} from tomato plants to promote growth of the fruit. do you do the same with cucumber plants and squash for example? i'm getting some growth in as far as young cukes comming on along with squash. i have many large leaves covering all the new growths comming along. if i clip some of these large leaves will i get better fruit growth? thanks. good luck.

[Walleye Guy]

Clipping the "suckers" from tomatoes helps keep the plant from getting real gangly. Suckers are the shoots that grow in the crook of two main braches so to speak. For pumpkins we cut off some of the shoots so the plant focuses on getting water and nutrients to the pumpkins on the other shoots. Never tried it on cucumbers. I generally plant the compcat bush type cukes.

[reinhard1]

thanks. haven't done it on the cukes yet but have done it on the zuccini. those had huge leaves and lots of them. i have the pickle size cukes growing. i have been cutting off some of the tomato suckers. the only thing in the garden so far thats been a slow grower has been the celery. even have some cantalope and watermellon that are growing like mad. first year for me so it's a learning proccess. good luck.

[corncob]

I would try to rearrange the vining tentacles of your cukes ,and, just cut off the ends that are continuing to be intrusive into other plants....Cucumbers dont like pruning, so limit it to the wandering ends only.

[reinhard1]

thanks. good luck.

[311Hemi]

What about trimming of leaves of mature tomato plants that are close to the dirt or resting on the dirt?

Any reason to do this? We had blight last year...but have moved the tomatos to a new bed this year.

[Rip_Some_Lip]

What about trimming of leaves of mature tomato plants that are close to the dirt or resting on the dirt?

Any reason to do this? We had blight last year...but have moved the tomatos to a new bed this year.

I have done this and they have not shown any stress yet. I had blight a couple of years ago and deer ate them last year but this years crop looks great. I suppose my new electric fence helps with the latter....lol. Good luck

[reinhard1]

i have clipped a few zuccinni suckers but it looks like my zuccinni is a failure this year. nice big plants but the ziccinni themselves start to grow and soon have an end get yellow and rot soon after. anyone experience this? good luck.

[KEN W]

You have blossom end rot.To much rain.I am having the same problem with my zuccinni and squash.A lack of calcium is the problem.Work in some bonemeal around the plants.

Some of my tomatoes are having the same problem.Still plenty of time to get them if the plants are healthy.

[reinhard1]

thanks, i will give it a shot. first garden, and lot's to learn. good luck.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Along these same lines kinda.......my tomatoe plants are literally as tall as I am. 6' no kiddin. Lots of rain, heat, humidity, SW MN black dirt......these things are HUGE!!! I've been told that trimming off stems that don't have tomatoes on them will help the tomatoes mature and not hurt the plant itself. Seems weird to me. Is there truth to this?