Could Tomato Plants Get Too large?
Unlike other vegetable plants, healthy home garden tomato plants require two-thirds of the stem buried in the soil. Retaining the stem’s bulk under the soil surface contributes to a strong, tall plant that has the ability to produce several fruits. But there are several situations in which a tomato plant gets too large, causing negative effects to your own fruit yield.
Excess Nitrogen
Nitrogen is a vital component necessary for chlorophyll production; photosynthesis and leaf growth depend on healthy levels of nitrogen in the soil. If you include too much nitrogen-rich fertilizer to your tomato plant, the leaf starts to grow quickly. Even though you’ve got a large and bushy ornamental tomato plant, the excess nitrogen impedes normal flower and fruiting development. As a result, your big tomato plant provides a little fruit yield from deficiency of flowering and pollination.
No Support
A large percentage of every tomato juice is water. With numerous fruits on a single plant, the limbs and stem begin to droop down toward the soil from the overwhelming burden. A tomato plant that gets too large, without any external support, eventually lays its leaf and fruits on the ground. Pests and infection rapidly penetrates the tomato plant and cause severe dieback. Staking or caging your tomato is the only way to keep a large plant with powerful fruiting. In addition to preventing disease and pests attacking the plant, supporting the tomato improves air movement between the leaves for transpiration.
Light Problems
A shaded tomato plant tends to grow tall and big but does not own a lot of leaf for photosynthesis. In reality, the shortage of light encourages the tomato to grow tall in search of sunlight, but it does not have the energy reserves to generate fresh leaf for photosynthesis. As a consequence of the light issues, your tomato plant might not flower or fruit in any way. Moving the plant to a sunlit area is the proper strategy to cultivate new growth with better fruit yields.
Using Containers
A tactical way to protect against an oversized tomato plant is controlling it using a container. For instance, select a little tomato cultivar, such as a “Roma,” that thrives in a container of your choosing; verify that the container is large enough for the particular cultivar so that the roots do not suffocate. Because tomatoes like heat, a container plant works well in a south-facing window or on a sunny porch. But you have to observe your tomato plant frequently to ensure that it has enough water because containers have a tendency to dry out quickly.