Pruning Tomato Plants Suckers
Tomatoes are a fruit and not a veggie to popular belief, this fruit is used in many recipes including salads. There are many varieties of tomatoes to choose from to ensure you are getting those flavors and much-need nutrients.
But if your goal is to grow large juicy tomatoes then the tomato sucker must be pruned or removed to give you a harvest of fresh, healthy, juicy plump tomatoes.
So then we will be focusing on where to find the tomato sucker and how to remove them.
How does a tomato sucker look
Before removing the tomato sucker we must first identify or know how it looks on our tomato plant.
The tomato sucker is a small shoot that grows in the area of the branch or where the branch’s joints meet the stem. The tomato sucker is more or less a liability, this growth of the tomato plant will not produce flowers or fruits but will draw energy from the tomato plant causing tomatoes not to be as full.
However, there are other arguments as to why the sucker should not be removed and that belief is that the sucker will produce more leaves that will lead to a greater yield of tomato and while in part this may be true what you don’t want is to sacrifice quality for quantity.
If the suckers are allowed to remain may lead to disease because of poor air circulation. The more open a plant is the better airflow which will discourage disease because of moisture buildup from a plant that’s crowded with leaves.
When and how to remove tomato suckers
Look for the V shape space between the branch and the main stem, there you will find the sucker. Tomato suckers that are 1 inch can be removed by pinching with your fingers.
Another benefit of removing the suckers is that it will help your tomato plant to grow in such a way that it will not outgrow its space and will also reduce the chance or discourage disease and pests.
Keeping the plant bed clean
Keeping the bed clean of debris and weeds will help to keep your tomato plant growing healthy.
Watering your tomato
When watering your tomato plant water from the soil level because overhead irrigation will encourage disease by water settling on the leaves. Water your tomato plant during the morning hours because watering too late in the evening will lead to disease because of tomato plant not drying out in time before night falls.
Tomato variety
Some tomato variety are as followed
- Cherry tomatoes
- Heirloom tomatoes
- Cocktail tomatoes
- Red beefsteak tomatoes
- Roma tomatoes
- Baby boomer
- Better boy
- Big pink
- Brandymaster pink
- Burpee’s early pick
The final word on pruning tomato suckers
As stated earlier there are mixed feelings when it comes to pruning tomato suckers. In my opinion to each his own, some tomato growers prefer to leave the sucker because they believe this will benefit giving a greater yield as far as quantity is concerned as stated earlier.
Base on what has been said the choice is up to you whether you are growing for quality (a fuller fruit) or quantity ( smaller tomatoes but and increase in yield). You decide, from what we have discussed.
About the author
Norman loves being in the garden, both at home and for his job....
he is 'Natures Little helper' being outdoors, growing his vegetables and flowers from an early age.
Now having spent over 22 years in the profession he want to give some of his knowledge to others...
his vast array of hints and tips you will find scattered over this site will help you no end growing plants in your garden.
This is my first ever time that I will be giving a chance to planting tomatoes on my garden and seeing this here, I figured that I have seen this on my tomatoes some few days ago but due to my ignorance, I didn’t think of pucking them off. Wow! I guess that I have to swing to work and get my tomatoes pruned.
thank you or sharing this post with us all here
When it comes to the tomato suckers there are mixed feelings as I pointed out, but for juicy fuller tomatoes, I would remove the sucker. Again I am happy to help and all the best to you.
This is great information, as we are looking into starting a garden of our own being that the current situation of the world is starting to require more cleanliness and awareness of health. It’s good to have sites such as this well put together one for training so we don’t spend so much time on trial and error. We are looking into having green tomatoes and cucumbers first!
I am so happy to help and thanks so much for your kind words. All the best with starting your garden. Have a good day.