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Topping Tomato Plants – Why When and How To Do It

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Topping tomato plants is a process that involves cutting off the growing tips of tomato plants. It is often done in late summer before frost arrives.

When you top a tomato plant, you send a message to the plant to stop producing new flowers and fruit and send its energy to the existing fruit. This helps to ripen tomatoes that have not turned red yet.

Topping a tomato plant is a way to control the growth of plants that have outgrown their supports. It also helps to produce larger fruit since the plant will direct its energy to the fruit on the vines, rather than on producing more foliage.

Keep reading to learn more about topping tomato plants.

Hands with purple pruners making a cut in a tomato plant. Green text box reads Benefits of topping a tomato plant. Learn what this is, why it's beneficial and when you should do it.

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How to top tomato plants

To top a tomato plant, you will need a pair of garden pruners. Use bleach to clean the pruners to help prevent disease, which can be spread with dirty garden shears.

Examine your plant to locate the last cluster of branches with fruit on the main stem. Make a cut above this area.

Keep a few leaves about this cut to provide shade for the fruit and to help prevent sunscald.

Graphic showing a pair of garden shears cutting of the top of an indeterminate tomato plant. Caption reads topping tomato plants.

Topping a tomato plant will encourage the main stem to branch out, instead of continuing to grow upwards. This will direct the plant’s energy to ripening the fruit.

After cutting off the top, the plant will produce suckers. These suckers take the energy of the plant away from ripening the fruit, so you should remove them.

When to top tomato plants?

The best time to top tomato plants is 6 – 8 weeks before the first expected frost in your area. 

Doing it at this time allows any fruit that is still green on your tomato plant to ripen before the plants are killed by frost.

Which type of tomato plants should you top?

Topping tomatoes should only be done with indeterminate tomatoes.

There is no need to top determinate tomato plants. These tomatoes, also called “bush tomatoes,” grow to a certain height, stop growing, and produce fruit all at once.

If you top of this type of tomato plant, it will reduce the plant’s overall production.

Graphic showing an indeterminate tomato plant with fruit next to a fruit laden bush tomato. Two text boxes with arrows read Top indeterminate tomatoes, not determinate tomatoes.

Indeterminate tomatoes, on the other hand, are a vining plant. They will keep growing and producing until frost kills them. Since the top vines are cut off, you should remove any small fruits that won’t ripen. 

This allows the plant to direct its energy into ripening mature tomatoes. When you start topping off tomato plants, you should also stop fertilizing the plants.

Tip: The cuttings that you end up with can be added to your compost pile. They are also perfect to use for propagating new tomato plants to grow indoors to extend your harvest.

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Are your tomatoes green and not ripening? Try topping your tomato plant.  🍅 Head to The Gardening Cook to learn why, when, and how to top your tomato plants! 🌿✂️ #GardeningTips #Tomatoes #GardenHacks #Homesteading Share on X

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Woman's hands with brown gloves and blue pruners cutting an indeterminate tomato plant. Words on a brown text box reads Topping tomato plants - why how and when to do this.

Yield: Indeterminate tomato plants with larger, riper tomatoes

Topping Tomatoes - Indeterminate Tomato Plants Only

Woman with brown garden gloves and blue pruners cutting topping a tomato plant.

Have you ever tried topping tomato plants?

If you have green tomatoes that won't ripen before fall, topping a tomato plant will help your fruit mature faster.

This works for indeterminate tomatoes and is done in late summer about 4-6 weeks before frost.

Prep Time 5 minutes
Active Time 30 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Difficulty easy
Estimated Cost $0

Materials

  • 1 indeterminate tomato plant

Tools

  • Garden shears
  • Bleach to clean them

Instructions

  1. Clean your garden shears with bleach to help prevent disease, which can be spread with dirty pruners.
  2. This job is done 4-6 weeks before your first expected frost date.
  3. Only top off indeterminate tomato plants (the vining type, not bush type of tomatoes).
  4. Examine the plant and locate the area on the main stem where the last cluster of fruit is.
  5. Use your pruners to make a cut above this area, leaving some leaves above the cut to help provide shade and prevent sunscald.
  6. Throw the cuttings on the compost pile, or use them to propagate tomato plants to grow indoors this winter.

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© Carol
Project Type: How To / Category: Growing Tomatoes

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission from the sale, but the price is the same for you. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

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