Gardening News & Tips

Tomato plant suckers

Tomato plant suckers look like harmless extensions of the tomato plant. They grow between the main stem and branches in the crotch where they connect.These are really side shoots that develop into another main stem if you let them continue to grow. They seem harmless and an opportunity to grow more tomatoes but they aren't. If you allow them to continue, they suck the nutrients from the main plant. This competition leaves both the tomatoes on the sucker and the main plant smaller and less developed.

If your goal is to produce as many tomatoes as you can and you don't worry about their size, leave the suckers on the plant. However, if you want a sandwich sized beefsteak tomato or one that looks good sliced in a salad, you must remove the tomato plant suckers from the plant. Remember, the suckers also have suckers, which produce even more suckers and eventually no fruit gets enough to eat.

Some gardeners don't prune their tomato plant, that is, they don't remove the suckers. As mentioned before, your tomatoes won't be as big if you don't and your plant will be almost too heavy, particularly if it's an indeterminate variety. Indeterminate plants continue to grow all season and can get quite large.

The main deciding factor on whether to remove suckers is the size of your main stem. If it's strong enough, you can allow a few, two or three, suckers to grow to get more fruit from the tomato plant. However, if you let everyone grow, you'll weaken the plant and have smaller fruit. There's no real agreement on removing suckers, some people don't remove any except those at the base of the plant.

You don't need to prune out your suckers if you have a determinate tomato plant. These plants are far more compact and cease growing when they reach a specific height. Normally, they don't have any fruit until they reach that height and then it all sets at once. You don't get any benefit from removing the suckers from this type of plant. If you don't know whether your tomato plant is determinate or indeterminate, look up the tomato on the Internet and it normally gives that information.

In order to prune, you simply look over the plant. When you see new stems growing in the V between a branch and the main stem, you have a tomato plant sucker or side shoot. It can be just a few small leaves at first but if left to grow becomes another full branch with fruit and leaves, stealing nutrients from the tomatoes forming on the main branches.

Pruning is relatively simple in the early stages. All you have to do is first identify the tomato plant sucker and they pinch them off with your fingers. This only works if your sucker is less than two inches in height. Larger ones require you to use a pruner to clip them off the plant. This also is far more stressful on the plant than removing them early. Make certain that your pruning sheers or clippers are clean and disease-free to protect the mother plant.

Go to Identifying-Garden-Pests from Tomato Plant suckers