To defoliate or not defoliate?

For those of you that do greenhouse and are wondering if Defoliation would work for you.

Here's a great tip found from an article published on Acta Horticulturae (559) in 2001, thank me later fellas!

“Periodical destructive measurements were made to determine the number of leaves and fruits, and dry matter of shoot organs. The number of leaves per plant differed by a factor of about two and three, as a consequence of pruning leaves, affecting fruit set and, consequently, the number of fruits per plant. No constant ratio was found between the number of leaves and fruits. Total dry matter was higher on plants with three leaves per sympod, but fruit dry matter did not differ significantly among treatments, in both seasons. It was concluded the extra dry matter accumulated in non-defoliated plants was not allocated to fruits, remaining mainly in leaves. For commercial purposes, higher densities of leaf-pruned plants were suggested as a practice to simultaneously maximize light interception and fruit yield per unit soil surface."

In short, proper pruning is essential for improving the quality and quantity of yours plants.

 

Feel free to read the whole thing if you're interested in this topic, details can be found below:

Acta Horticulturae 559
Article number: 559_16
Pages: 123-126
D01:17660/ActaHortic.2001.559.16

Citation 1)

Andriolo,J.L., Falcao, L.L., Duarte, T.S. and Skrebsky, E.G. (20011. DEFOLIATION OF GREENHOUSE TOMATO PLANTS AND 115 EFFECTS ON DRY MATTER ACCUMULATION AND DISTRIBUTION TO FRUITS. Acta Harts. 559,123-126