3 things to do with your tomato plants this September – make the most of remaining fruits and encourage new growth

Tomato plants are gifts that keep on giving, and if you’re lucky, yours will still be pumping out fresh tomatoes at this time of the year. To give your crop a boost, it’s worth knowing what to do with tomato plants in September.

Learning how to grow tomatoes gives you plenty of bang for your buck, because a pack of seeds alone can grow dozens and dozens of plants – and each plant has the potential to produce countless tomatoes. By September, many plants have been fruiting for a while – but that doesn’t mean their season is over.

As it turns out, there are a few ways to keep them fruiting or, at the very least, ripen the tomatoes that have already formed. If you’ve already revived your tomato plants after the heatwaves and are wondering what to do with your tomato plants in September, here are a few tips to keep them going.

What you'll need

1. Remove new flowers and tiny fruit

There are lots of reasons tomatoes don't turn red, but sometimes, it’s all down to an energy problem. More specifically, energy that's being misdirected.

The fix? Start removing new flowers that appear on your plant, as well as tiny fruits that just don’t seem to be growing.

‘Make sure to pinch out new flower trusses because they’re unlikely to produce worthwhile ripe tomatoes before the weather turns,’ says Helen Hutchings-Cox (@helenlikesplants), allotmenteer and GARDENA Top of the Plots Judge.

‘This gives the plant the opportunity to put its energy into ripening the already formed fruit.'

You can either pinch the fruit and flowers off by hand or use a pair of snips like these Darlac Deadheading Snips from B&Q.

2. Get rid of redundant leaves

New flowers and petite fruit aren’t the only things you should remove from your tomato plants in September. Helen says we should be snipping away yellowing tomato leaves, too, as well as any other foliage that looks unhealthy.

‘Keep plenty of healthy foliage around the developing fruit, but start to remove any yellowing, damaged or diseased leaves,’ she advises. ‘It is important not to strip the plant bare, because the leaves are still powering ripening.’

The GARDENA PremiumCut Pro Secateurs (which you can order from Amazon) are perfect for the task – just make sure you’re cleaning your garden tools properly between plants, especially if you’re dealing with diseased leaves.

3. Give your plants less water

Water your plants less might sound like counterproductive advice given that we’re on the climb-down from a drought, but it becomes key for tomato plants as September progresses.

‘As temperatures fall and growth slows, tomatoes need less water,’ Helen explains. ‘Avoid keeping the soil constantly wet, particularly in the greenhouse, as this encourages disease.’

Helen does note, however, that it’s important to give your plants water when they need it. If the hot weather creeps into this month, you’ll still need to keep your plants hydrated – so it’s worth feeling the top inch of the soil and watering when it feels dry. Or, grab a soil moisture meter like this one from Amazon.

These simple tasks can go a long way towards ensuring a bumper crop – or making the most of whatever your tomatoes have left to give.