This is my first year growing tomatos and was reading that I should prune the suckers or branches growing from the crotch of the stalk and a branch. It said it will not produce any fruit. Is this true? Underneath the section recommending this was a link for "more info" and then it said "these branches will produce more fruit". So which comment is right?
Pruning suckers on tomatos?
- Thread starter JH4FSU
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I have one called a Tommy Toe and another that is a Yellow Pear, they are in 7 gal pots with both tipping out at about 7ft in the pot,seem pretty tall already! just seems the branches growing from the crotch of the branching aren't producing like I read, I think out 1 of 20-30 of these branches has fruit/blooms, but I would hate to pruin them if they will eventually produce something.
Yes, remove them. I pinch them out as soon as I see them.
Yellow Pear is one of the easiest to grow and best tasting of mini Tomatoes.
http://www.burpee.com/Vegetables/tomatoes/cherry/tomato-yellow-pear-prod001024.html?cid=PPC
They are so vigirous in my experience that I would not want to limit them to a container.
http://www.burpee.com/Vegetables/tomatoes/cherry/tomato-yellow-pear-prod001024.html?cid=PPC
They are so vigirous in my experience that I would not want to limit them to a container.
They have the same genetics as the rest of the plant, and they will eventually start producing IF they have the resources. There's the question--you've already got 7 feet of main stem and only 7 gallons of soil, so I'd worry that you could be pushing the limit for what the pot can support. I might let one or two grow and pinch the rest.
Oh, and could it be that your reading that they won't produce was from literature on grafted plants and not tomatoes?
Oh, and could it be that your reading that they won't produce was from literature on grafted plants and not tomatoes?
Before I got into growing chile plants I use to grow lots and lots of tomato plants. I still do, just not 100s of them.
This "pruning" tomatos debate has and will go on for years. It would be interesting to do a side by side to squash this debate once and for all ha.
I personally have never pruned a single tomato plant other than the large lower leaves late in the season.. Last year my tallest plant was a infact, a yellow pear, in a 5 gal container it was 19ft tall at its peak and very very bushy and full of fruit The "suckers" produce lots of fruit every year for me. For example.. A yellow pear, sunsugar, and a sweet 100 produced over 180 lbs of tomatos that I sold at my work a few years ago. Just like Potawie said though, pruning the suckers will make the plant studier and more managable when it comes to harvest time but you will IMO and experience, see less fruit overall. All you need is some vine twine and just continue to tie the branches to the cages for extra support and you'll be fine.
Tomato suckers will end up producing fruit, just like chile suckers.
Hope that helps.
Brandon
This "pruning" tomatos debate has and will go on for years. It would be interesting to do a side by side to squash this debate once and for all ha.
I personally have never pruned a single tomato plant other than the large lower leaves late in the season.. Last year my tallest plant was a infact, a yellow pear, in a 5 gal container it was 19ft tall at its peak and very very bushy and full of fruit The "suckers" produce lots of fruit every year for me. For example.. A yellow pear, sunsugar, and a sweet 100 produced over 180 lbs of tomatos that I sold at my work a few years ago. Just like Potawie said though, pruning the suckers will make the plant studier and more managable when it comes to harvest time but you will IMO and experience, see less fruit overall. All you need is some vine twine and just continue to tie the branches to the cages for extra support and you'll be fine.
Tomato suckers will end up producing fruit, just like chile suckers.
Hope that helps.
Brandon
I have a Pruned tomato plant and sevral non prune, and from what ive seen not worth prunning, If I do take out suckers I just take them out to replant them somewere else, From the pruned tomato plant I have a few tomatoes rippening and the non prune I have Millions of tomatoes slowly rippening but worth a bit more time
Disagree.
I say imitate Mother Nature....leave the suckers alone regardless of the variety.
We get world class tomatoes at Pennys Tomatoes and recommend to our customers to leave the suckers on.
Fiery Regards,
Pepper Joe
Depends on what kind of tomatoes they are determinate or indeterminate. I always sucker my San Marzano's which are indeterminate and tie them vertically. Yes the branch will eventually grow fruit but the rest of the plant above that sucker wont do much if anything. But to each their own.
let me start by saying yellow pear......... suck. they have no real super flavour. they are just as describe, a yellow, pear shaped tomato. they flavour is quite, bland. so, if you are looking for a super, sweet tasting tomato, you aren't going to get it. it has more a mild, acid flavour.
but, when it comes to suckers, you have to know your growing season. those in northern regions should pinch the suckers on indeterminate varieties, this is due to your very short growing season. don't touch determinate, like patio. yellow pear is a indeterminate but if your season is short, pinch. if your season is long, you can snake the plant through your garden, pinching at the sucker, whilst burying the post-sucker and it will root even further. determinate will not.
i have grown yellow pear in the past and do not save the seed, just based on the fact that the plant is so readily available in the spring. now, you also have to watch if your yellow pear is an heirloom or a hybrid, the plants i grew, were hybrids. they produced a lot of fruit but with little flavour that i was looking for. i did many side by side comparisons, with the ultimate judge....my wife, who only buys tomatoes from the grocery store and detests anything from the garden. even she couldn't detect the difference in the hybrid yellow pear from those similar purchased in the supermarket. in comparison with other heirlooms that i grew, that had a noticable flavour, she could detect the difference without coaching.
as, i look around my basement, i have heirloom tomatoes everywhere, growing large and lanky due to the cold and lack of sunlight. for a while i was driving around with my tomatoes in the back of my van, but the recent turn in weather, back below zero, has made me bring the plants back in the house - looks like next week i can go back to the van.......... peppers are completely house bound!
but, when it comes to suckers, you have to know your growing season. those in northern regions should pinch the suckers on indeterminate varieties, this is due to your very short growing season. don't touch determinate, like patio. yellow pear is a indeterminate but if your season is short, pinch. if your season is long, you can snake the plant through your garden, pinching at the sucker, whilst burying the post-sucker and it will root even further. determinate will not.
i have grown yellow pear in the past and do not save the seed, just based on the fact that the plant is so readily available in the spring. now, you also have to watch if your yellow pear is an heirloom or a hybrid, the plants i grew, were hybrids. they produced a lot of fruit but with little flavour that i was looking for. i did many side by side comparisons, with the ultimate judge....my wife, who only buys tomatoes from the grocery store and detests anything from the garden. even she couldn't detect the difference in the hybrid yellow pear from those similar purchased in the supermarket. in comparison with other heirlooms that i grew, that had a noticable flavour, she could detect the difference without coaching.
as, i look around my basement, i have heirloom tomatoes everywhere, growing large and lanky due to the cold and lack of sunlight. for a while i was driving around with my tomatoes in the back of my van, but the recent turn in weather, back below zero, has made me bring the plants back in the house - looks like next week i can go back to the van.......... peppers are completely house bound!
As I understand it, the reason for pruning suckers is to force the plant to direct sugar production toward the fruit, rather than toward leaf production. From my experience, at least with the heirloom types, I can tell you that it's effective—The fruit tastes way sweeter than any other tomatoes I've had.
Back when I was heavily into tomato gardening, I got a deep OCD gratification out of training the unruly vines, pinching every sucker, and forcing the vines straight up, so that the thick-stalked heirloom types appeared almost tree-like. This pik is from my 2008 tomato garden, before I became an OCD chile gardener. The variety is Burgess Trip-L Crop, a.k.a. Italian Tree Tomato:
Back when I was heavily into tomato gardening, I got a deep OCD gratification out of training the unruly vines, pinching every sucker, and forcing the vines straight up, so that the thick-stalked heirloom types appeared almost tree-like. This pik is from my 2008 tomato garden, before I became an OCD chile gardener. The variety is Burgess Trip-L Crop, a.k.a. Italian Tree Tomato:
I agree that yellow pear tomato is yuck! Also cracks like crazy. Try to find Sweet Beverley instead.
As for pruning, I have done both. When I did the Florida weave like in the above pretty pic, I pruned much more. Last year I had all the nice big cages my heart could desire so I did not prune until I got disease. Through June it seemed like it was going to be the best harvest ever since the plants were amazing, but then we had nonstop heat and humidity like a sauna and few tomatoes did ok in that. My goal last year was to not touch the plants and see if they did better.
You definitely see more fruiting on suckers on cherry tomatoes but on bigger ones they don't have enough time to make a fruit and ripen it in many places.
As for pruning, I have done both. When I did the Florida weave like in the above pretty pic, I pruned much more. Last year I had all the nice big cages my heart could desire so I did not prune until I got disease. Through June it seemed like it was going to be the best harvest ever since the plants were amazing, but then we had nonstop heat and humidity like a sauna and few tomatoes did ok in that. My goal last year was to not touch the plants and see if they did better.
You definitely see more fruiting on suckers on cherry tomatoes but on bigger ones they don't have enough time to make a fruit and ripen it in many places.