To Prune, Or Not To Prune Tomato Suckers?

I know this is an age old question, but I did a search here and didn't turn up a post with this in the title. I have tried it some years and others not. Some seasons I do it for awhile and others the whole season. I don't keep records like I should either. I must do it wrong because I've never had the skinny single stalk tomato plants that I've seen pictures of. I know it's supposed to produce bigger tomatoes, but does it help in the long run? Most years I prefer volume over size for canning and giving away, but someday I would like to tinker with growing giant tomatoes too. My father inlaw has told me about a neighbor that grew skinny one stalk tomato plants that were just loaded with tomatoes.

It seems to me that the only way for me to get lots of tomatoes is to plant lots of plants. I rarely get more than 10-12 maters per plant.
What's the way to get the most bang for my buck with tomato plants.

Is it really worth while to take the suckers off?

John

 

im not too sure on the sucker thing as well but i read to take them off of indeterminate but to keep them on determinate since they only get so big?

maybe grow 2 identical plants and keep suckers on one and off the other?

from what i read the extra suckers waste production energy.

 

I always pull off suckers, and I've read that pruning the bottoms leaves off will produce more fruit. Sjoerd may be able to educate you on that.

 

Low tomato count..

I hope I am not intruding! I don't write much as I am more of a watcher. If you have low tomato count it sounds a lot like they are not getting enough water. I do mine in selfwatering containers and I know that they will take about a gallon of water a day. (Cukes are even worse!!) You might try watering a bit more often during the day if you can. I hope this helps a little bit...

Happy Gardening!
Dave

 

Hello Nema,

It looks like not many folks have responded to your post, so I will give youmy two cents´ worth.

On the question of suckering-- I remove the suckers on my plants depending upon which sort of habitus the plant has...a ´bushy´ habitus or a cordon-type.

If the plant has a bushy habitus, it will not grow tall and is to remain, thus, short and bushy.
If the plant is the ´cordon-type´, then this type may (and should be) suckered so that it can grow tall.

I can tell you what I do with my own toms.
The plants with a bushy habitus I remove no suckers at all, and I do not prune them, unless they are really growing well.
The cordon-types, I remove all suckers throughout the life of the plant. All suckers except the so-called `king sucker`. I leave this one because it´s like having two plants on one...and I handle it as if it were an individual plant--that is to say, I sucker it, etc.
The king suckes is located at the bottom of the plant usually at the first leaf-stalk junction. If there are two, then I keep the thicker of the two and remove the other one.
(It has to be said that not everyone agrees with doing this--it is a personal choice).

In terms of ´pruning´--I almost never prune the plants with a bushy habitus. I only do this if the plants grow to the top of my little greenhouse. Some years they do that!
Pruning a cordon-type is something that I do on a regular basis, depending upon how hard it grows.
My theory is that if the cordon gets too verdant, it only takes food away from the fruit.
Pruning heavily allows for more air flow.
It is important to reach a reasonable balance here. YOu do not want to remove too much, and you need to decide which ones to leave and which ones to remove.
I leave the leaf that is above the tom fruit clump.

Also, once the cordon reaches the top of my greenhouse, I lop the top off because I do not want condensation to build-up on the glass and come into contact with the plant. It is a place where disease can develop.

Of course, if you are growing your cordon outside, you can do as my uncle did and tie it onto a very long pole. Depending upon the plant species--they can grow surprizingly tall.
I once saw some that were being grown commercially on hydroponics in a greenhouse that were ±16 meters long! They just keep going and going under those conditions.

I must disagree with the notion that one must plant many plants to harvest many toms. I believe that your net harvest depends upon what sort of plant you are growing...and how you handle the development and care of the plant.
To illustrate--from the six plants that I grow each year, I have enough to eat fresh, can, give to friends and colleuues and the Food Bank. Just six plants.
If it is a year that I am growing primarily for canning-- then I use twelve plants, and the amount that I get is overwhelming. I literally cannot get rid of them all without giving to the Food Bank.

Well Nema, I hope that this posting has helped. Remember it is only MY thoughts, there are many ways to reach the same goal...but this method works well for me.
I have made a number of posts on this and related tom subjects on here, but I can´t recall how I titled them all. Sorry

Try here for a few--

http://www.gardenstew.com/viewtopic.php ... ms+haircut

http://www.gardenstew.com/viewtopic.php ... ms+haircut

http://www.gardenstew.com/viewtopic.php ... ms+haircut

 

Thank you everyone.

Sjoerd, I know what the suckers between the branches are, but how do you decide which branches to cut off to avoid cutting tomato bearing branches off? Do you let the plants get tall, then cut off the ones that don't have tomatoes on them?

John

 

Hi,

Well if your plant has more than one branch then is sounds like it has a buhy habitus. If this is correct, then you should not remove any branches from this sort plant.
A cordon-type tomato plant had only one main stem and any other growths are suckers, not stems or branches, and those can be removed.

Do you know the name of your tomato plant? If you do, it should be possible to find out if it is a bushy or cordon type plant.

I would be interested in knowing the name of your plant and see a good foto of it...one that clearly shows it's branches.

It is possible that you are trying to make a cordon type out of a bushy one.

I will try to do just that next year to see what will happen. A sort of experiment.

 

Very helpful. Great question John-Nematoad and great answers from the gang. I have really never thought much about tomatoes before, just let 'em grow however they wanted to. So this is an education. I'll send on to my aunt in West Virginia too, as she is growing tomatoes (in pots) for the first time in her 70 years. We ahve had some good conversations about toms, but we're like the blind leading the blind. Thanks.

(p.s. Sjoerd, tomatoes could be a chapter in your book, you know?)

 

I agree with Sjoerd. I always trim off the suckers they make your plant stronger and bigger. When they plant get growing and starts producing fruit I also take off all unnecessary leaves on the lower part of the plant. this allows the fruit to grow bigger. You don't need to produce leaves but you need fruit. i read somewhere that all you need is about 4 leaves on the top of a plant for it to be healthy. I stake mine and cut off leaves and some plants have gotten over 6 feet tall! WITH HUGE TOMATOES. Since the growing season here is VT isn't that long, by the end of August I stop letting the plants get tall and cut off that growth as well.

Have fun with your tomatoes. I will be planting my 40 plants next weekend. I can't wait to get them out doors and out of my porch!

 

Gardenmama -- more good info. THANKS!!
Great thread you started, Nematoad.

 

Nice to see you G'mama...I had been wondering how your planting was coming along this year.

Daisy---heh heh heh.... you're a caution.

 

PLanting is coming a long slowly this year. I hope to get the beans, sunflowers, zuccinhi and cuke seeds all planted this weekend. I may put in a few tomato plants as well. It has been very cool at night and the 3 I planted 2 weeks ago died. Even though they were covered it got very very cold at night. But the peas are in and are coming up. The tires are all ready to get planted and I am tilling up some area to get onions in as well.

We have been so busy with family stuff on the weekends...and then comes the rain. Last weekend was a long weekend and we were away. Plus my brother has started a non profit company to raise funds for charity and I am doing the marketing for it. I have been focusing on building the website, doing advertising etc that it is taking away from my garden time. He has also just started a new location for car rentals and is setting up this business from the ground up and I will be going to work for him as soon as the school year is over. I will still have my weekends for the garden.

I will update my blog as soon as I have something to write about.

I hope you are well and that your garden is thriving for you.

 

Well, it's good to hear that you are well....and quite busy.
I enjoyed reading about your activitiers. It sounds interesting. Sorry to hear about the slow veggie start there. Some years are like that.
I shall be keeping an eye open for your blog entries. I hope that the tires do it good for you this year.
Take care and stop and catch a breath whern you can. How's it going with the school buss, BTW? Will you keep doing that when you go to work for your bro?

 

This year driving bus has been very frustrating and if things go well working for my brother I most likely won't go back. But we shall see how how well the business does this summer.

 

Once again, thank you all for your help. I had a big long post typed up yesterday and when I hit "submit" I got a "try again later" message and I lost the post, so I went outside to till.

Sjoerd, you had me confused with the "cordon" type tomato plants. I've never heard of that kind here in the U.S. and I order tomatoes every year from catalogs that have several hundred varieties. So I did some internet sleuthing and I now know that it's not a kind of tomato, but the way that a tall tomato type is pruned and shaped.
I can't very well show you a picture of the tomatoes I grow because in 4 of my raised beds (see pics of my raised beds: http://www.gardenstew.com/about15076.html) every year I grow 8-12 different kinds. I plant 6 plants in each 3 ft wide by 12 foot long bed spaced 2 ft apart and fasten them to a trellis made from heavy cattle fencing. I grow Cherrys, Romas, Bush types, Beefsteaks, Grapes, Saladettes, an Early type, an Heirloom or two and sometimes one of a different color, striped or hollow for stuffing. So I guess I'll rely on the seed catalog's description to determine if they are a tall type and indeterminate.
Thank you for your pictures, they've helped me see how the tomato plant should look and will make the job easier. I can see now that fewer branches should allow better air circulation, more sunlight to the lower parts of the plants and help prevent soil splashed diseases.

What do you fertilize your tomatoes with?
I try to be as organic as I can by saving vegetable scraps, coffee grounds and eggshells and combining them with grass clippings and leaves to compost. I till some compost into
the soil and the rest I use as mulch. I'd love to find a source for aged cow manure to add to the compost, but so far have had no luck in finding a farmer who is willing to part with any.
So, I do work a little 12-12-12 fertilizer into the soil before planting and when the plants start to flower heavily, I top dress with some 6-24-24 under the mulch.

I appreciate you helping and sharing your expertise. Although I've been gardening for 30 years, I find there is always more to learn.

Thank you,

John