We remove the top of the plant. We do this so that the last tomatoes grow bigger and can still be harvested ripe. Because the plant is no longer investing in growth, it can put all its energy into the last tomatoes.

In a greenhouse, you should top the plants before they grow up to the roof and become too tall for you to reach the fruit. Outside it is wise to top large tomato varieties after 5 clusters and the smaller varieties after 7 clusters. 

At the beginning of August I top every plant, even if it hasn’t reached the right number of clusters. The growth time for the last cluster is about 8 weeks, so they can be harvested just before the bad weather starts. 

Experiment for yourself to discover the best time to top. The timing depends on where you live, what the weather is like in autumn and the tomato variety.

Using a knife, cut off 2 leaves above the highest cluster on the plant. Leave one little side shoot so that the sap can still flow, but remove all the other side shoots. After a while, if the side shoot left behind becomes too big, cut all of it away except for one leaf. A sucker can grow in the axil of the remaining leaf to keep thesap flowing in the plant.

If you leave 6 adult leaves, that is sufficient for adequate growth. You can read more about tomato leaves in the article: “How remove old tomato leaves”.

If due to bad planning or bad autumn weather not all the tomatoes are ripe, you can still harvest the fully grown, green tomatoes. You can’t do anything with immature tomatoes so throw them away. The mature green tomatoes can be stored at 15–20 degrees and they will still ripen.

You can speed up the process by putting a ripe banana in with the green tomatoes in a plastic bag. The banana releases ethylene, a hormone that makesit mature. Tomatoes also ripen with ethylene so when they absorb this hormone from the banana, they will starting changing color.

Tomatoes that are harvested green and ripen later will always be less tasty, but for the soup or sauce they are still fine.

When the harvest is done, you can cut the plants off at the root. If they do not contain Phytophthora, chop them in pieces for the compost bin. If the plantsdo have Phytophthora (this applies more to outdoor plants than for those grown in a greenhouse) they should go into the green residual waste (veg, fruit and garden) container.

If you throw plants infected by Phytophthora in with compost, you risk infecting the compost and spreading the infection to the new seedlings in the spring. Phytophthora infestation will then be faster and more severe than in the previous year. 

So hygiene is important to reduce the risk of spreading Phytophthora. You can read more about what Phytophthora is in the article: “Phytophthora, a disaster for tomato plants.”