6 Simple Pruning Tips For Beginners
Here are 6 simple pruning tips for beginners to help improve the health of your plants and boost your garden’s output.
Pruning seems to be one of those gardening tasks that, for one reason or another, often gets neglected. Perhaps laziness is the culprit, but more often I suspect it’s the fear of messing up your plants, so you just don’t touch anything. I’ve certainly been guilty of this myself. When I started gardening, I didn’t prune a thing because I really didn’t know how and I didn’t want to hurt my plants. (And there were also some moments of laziness sprinkled in there along the way as well.)
But now that I have a little more knowledge and experience, I can honestly say that having just a few simple pruning skills in your gardening arsenal will drastically improve the overall health of your garden. So follow along for a few beginner pruning tips that I regularly use in my garden, and you should too.
Check out our pruning video on YouTube!
The Hidden Benefit of Pruning
Aside from the physical benefits of pruning, which we will talk about in a bit, there is also a philosophical benefit. That is to say, pruning requires your presence. It requires you to be in your garden, analyzing and inspecting your plants. This presence alone will make you a better gardener. I’ve probably learned more about gardening from simply hanging out in my garden than any book, blog, or YouTube channel has taught me. By regularly inspecting your garden, you too will learn really quickly what works and what doesn’t. Even if you don’t actually prune a thing, the intention will benefit you greatly.
6 Pruning Tips For Beginners
Tip #1- Clean Your Pruning Shears
This first tip is probably one of the most overlooked, especially by newer gardeners. Always make sure to clean your pruning shears before and after each use. Failing to properly clean your pruning shears can lead to contamination and the spread of disease throughout your garden.
There are several ways to clean your shears, so pick whatever works best for you. You can hand wash them with dish soap, throw them in the dish washer, or spray them down with hydrogen peroxide and let them dry completely. I usually had wash mine, but the choice is yours. Just make sure they’re thoroughly cleaned and disinfected!
Tip #2- Prune Off Ground Leaves
When pruning your eggplants and tomatoes, make sure to remove any leaves that are lying on the ground. Leaves that are in continuous contact with the ground increase the risk of picking up diseases and infecting your plants. It’s best to remove these leaves to not only reduce the risk of disease, but also to let your plant push water and nutrients to healthier leaves and fruit.
Tip #3- Prune Off Yellow Leaves & Suckers From Tomatoes
Similarly to pruning off ground leaves, it’s just as important to remove yellow, sickly looking leaves from your tomato plants. These unhealthy leaf sets are often found buried in the middle of the plant where there is little direct sunlight and poor ventilation. As such, they provide no benefit to your tomato plants, but instead leech valuable water and nutrients that could be going to healthier parts of the plant.
Removing them will not only divert nutrients to healthy leaves and fruit, but it will also improve air circulation through your plants and decrease the risk of disease.
It’s also good practice to prune off suckers from your tomato plants. Suckers are the little stems that grow out of the junction between the main stem and other branches. Simply pinch them off with your fingers. This will also signal to the plant to divert its energy into the blossoms instead of immature new growth.
Bonus Tip: Propagate Suckers!
As a bonus, you can actually propagate suckers into new plants! If you stick the pruned end of a sucker into water, it will develop new root growth within just a few days. You can then transplant it into your garden and you’ll have a brand new tomato plant!
Tip #4- Snip Basil Buds
When pruning your basil, one of the main goals is to prevent them from flowering. To do this, simply snip off the buds every time you see one. This will signal to the plant to stop pushing nutrients and energy to the buds, and instead refocus its energy on leaf growth, which is the goal when growing basil.
Tip #5- Leave a Set of Basil Leaves Behind
When harvesting Basil, you can take as much as you want as long as you leave behind at least one set of true leaves. Prune just above the first leaf junction and your basil plant will continue to grow and develop new leaf sets.
If you cut below the bottom set of true leaves, your plant will stop growing and die.
Tip #6- Deadhead Your Flowers
One final flower pruning tip for you. Make sure to deadhead your flowers regularly. This means every time you see a dead flower blossom, go ahead and pinch it off. This will stop seed production and signal to the plant to push energy to new blossoms instead. Just use your fingers to gently pinch off dead blossoms.
Conclusion
These pruning tips for beginners are a great way to ease into pruning and build some confidence along the way. By using these tips, you will see noticeably healthier plants in no time. So give them a try and you’ll be amazed at the difference in your garden!
Please feel free to email us with any questions, or you can DM us on Instagram @thistledownsfarm.
Happy Gardening!
Cody
Thistle Downs Farm
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