AeroGarden tomatoes must be pruned early and often in order for them to grow full and bushy, as well as to flower prolifically. If tomatoes are not pruned early enough in their growth, they will grow tall with lots of leaves and flowers at the top, but no growth on the lower stems.
Week 1: (Germination Phase)
- All seeds are unique in their own way! By the time our non-GMO seeds get to you they may have battled some extreme temperatures. To ensure your tomatoes have the best chance to sprout you’ll want to add room temperature water, roughly 75º and the recommended plant food for best success.
- To produce maximum yields you’ll want to clip out the smallest sprouts! This early pruning method is called thinning, it helps your tomato plant collect maximum energy without stress from competition. When your tomatoes sprout to nearly 1” tall, check each seed pod for multiple tomato plants. Using scissors gently snip out the smallest plants at the base of their stem, leaving one healthy tomato plant in each seed pod. If your tomato seeds don’t sprout after 21 days, give us a call and we’ll be happy to send you replacement pods.
- No maintenance required. Fun Fact: When tomatoes are grown outdoors there is usually no need to prune them, however AeroGarden tomatoes must be pruned to keep them small and compact to produce maximum harvests.
- No maintenance required. (Your seedlings are too young to prune).
- Time to top your plant! We recommend clipping the main stem above the fifth branch. (Skip the first two “baby leafs” during this count to avoid shocking your tomato plants). This method helps strengthen the main stem and encourages the plant to branch out to produce more blooms to pollinate. A strong main stem will bear the weight to support large tomato yields without breaking or tipping over. For example, follow the base of the plant up the main stem past all the branches until you come to the Colas. Here, the main stem splits into a Y-shape where flower buds form. Cut the Colas just below the Y-shape for doubled production! The image below is pointing where the plant should be pruned.
- To optimize the growth of your tomato plant and ensure a bountiful harvests, you’ll need to occasionally prune branches that are growing outside of the light hood. Follow the branch to where it meets another branch and make the cut just before this junction.
- You should see yellow flowers on your tomato plants at 5-7 weeks. Unpollinated flowers simply fall off the plants without setting fruit, and failure to pollinate is one of the greatest causes of disappointment in growing tomato and pepper plants. Many plants, including tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and melons require pollination in order to produce fruit. When growing outdoors, this critical step is performed by wind, animals, bees and other insects. When growing indoors, we need to “be the bee” and perform this task ourselves if we want to enjoy those vine-ripened tomatoes in the middle of winter. You will need to pollinate regularly once they begin to flower, at least every other day, and only when the lights are on.
- If you are not seeing any signs of flowers or fruiting by week 8 be sure to check the following:
- For maximum plant care you’ll need to test your pump/aerator/airstone to flush out any plant build-up. Learn how to clean & sanitize your AeroGarden for best results! You can also try a quick rinse & refill to restore a good nutrient balance.
- Tomatoes are a summertime crop; the fruit needs warmth to ripen. The ideal range for fruit to set is 70º-76ºF. If your AeroGarden is facing a sunny window, try changing locations to avoid complications.
- Are there lots of flowers? That limits fruit-set. Try removing some.
- As your tomato plants age you may see some brown or yellow leaves. This is perfectly normal. Remove these leaves with scissors. Also remove older branches that are dead and brown.
Week 9-12: (Mature Plant Phase)- Time to start harvesting your tomatoes! Pick your tomatoes gently with your fingers. A ripe tomato feels firm but has a little “give” when pressed. Ripe yellow tomatoes will still be a little bit green. Harvest tomatoes just before eating for a sweet flavor. Continue to pollinate tomato flowers for your next harvest.
Here are before-and-after pictures of an overgrown Cherry Tomato Seed Kit. In the first photo you see the overgrown plant before being cleaned up and pruned. In the second photo, the right rear plant has been removed (it was dead), and the other two plants:
- tied upright (using Soft Ties) to the light post to take better advantage of the light
- pruned about a third of their uppermost leaves
- removed all dead and browning branches
As your tomatoes begin to send new shoots out at the top, prune them off again. When pruning the tops, look for the newest, smallest leaves, and make sure you remove these. The growing tip is not the actual highest part of the plant, but just a little below that, in the V where one stem branches off from another. The next photo shows the growing tip (in the V), with the pencil pointing to where the plant should be pruned.
Keep pruning the new growth off the top about every two weeks, making sure to remove the growing tip. After the plant determines that growing upward is not an option, it will send out new branches lower down on the stem. Keeping the tops pruned down also allows more light to reach the new leaves that will form at the base.
Keep training it this way until the plant has developed a more compact shape, and it will then begin to flower throughout its height. Here are two photos of the middle plant that was pruned above. The first was taken one week after pruning the top, and the second photo was taken three weeks after the pruning. Note how much new growth there is at the base of the plant.
Below is a photo of the same tomato plants shown in all the photos above, five weeks after being pruned and moved into an AeroGarden Extra Elite (Pro 200):
Below is the same AeroGarden, 14 weeks after the meristems were pruned (at approximately 30 weeks of age). It yielded 163 tomatoes off the two plants. These are our regular Golden Harvest Cherry Tomatoes (not the Mega Cherry):
To understand more about pruning and the botany of how it works, please read the article "Pruning for the Technically-Inclined." If you need further assistance, or if you have any other questions about your AeroGarden or Seed Kits, there are more articles available on this web site. You may also call AeroGrow Customer Service at 1-800-476-9669, and one of our agents will be happy to assist you. Happy AeroGardening!
Week 2: (Germination Phase)
Week 3: (Germination Phase)
Week 4: (Mid-Growth Phase)
Week 5: (Mid-Growth Phase)
Week 6: (Mid-Growth Phase)
Week 7: (Mature Plant Phase)
Week 8: (Mature Plant Phase)
