How to Prune Hydroponics Tomatoes

Hi this is Yolanda Vanveen, and in this segment we're going to talk about, how to prune hydroponics tomatoes, or tomatoes that are grown hydroponically. And what that means is you're actually growing your tomato right into the water, it doesn't use any soil. You can use a sponge or any other type of material or right into a container with just water, and they will grow really well. Tomatoes are so versatile and they'll grow pretty much anywhere you plant them, as long as they get light or artificial light. So a lot of times hydroponics are used indoors with artificial light. And you'll find that your tomatoes will kind of get lanky or they'll grow and be very full, but you want to encourage stronger growth. So by pruning them they'll do much better. And the rule of thumb is to only prune 1/3 of the shoots away from the main stalk of the tomato and that way more energy will go to the other branches, and you'll have much fuller, more lush tomatoes to cut in the future. So every third branch on one side, you can cut that off and then just go and maybe sidestep and cut just certain little branches or side shoots or anything that looks really lanky, out of the tomato. And that way more energy will go to the main trunk of the tomato and it'll produce flowers, but you actually will be cutting out some of the flowers, and in that way the plant will support more tomatoes and they'll grow much more lush and much bigger than they would have if you would of just left them loose. And you can trim them out all the summer long or if you're growing year round indoors, as long as you go in every couple months and just trim out some of the lankier stems or just cut 1/3 of the branches out from the main stem, you'll find you'll have really nice tomatoes.