To Prune or Not To Prune

The hot debate on tomato suckers! by Janet Johnson

There has been a hot debate in our house about tomato suckers. The suckers are the little side branches that grow at a 45 degree angle off of the major branches. We do agree on one thing, tomatoes do need some pruning. Last year, in one section of the garden we let the plants grow rouge as somewhat of an experiment, and that is what we got, a jungle of tomatoes with very little fruit and lots of bugs. You can research this question on line and find 1000’s of opinions. So here is what we suggest as a general rule of thumb:

First of all think of pruning tomatoes is a balancing act, it depends on the variety you grow and what you want out of your plant.

If you prune the suckers you get bigger fruit, but less of it. Why: The suckers turn into fruiting branches and eventually make more fruit, but the plant is putting its energy into growing more leaves and fruit, vs. bigger fruit.

For Indeterminate tomatoes (vine) each sucker you leave turns into another main branch. If you keep those suckers, they will grow more tomatoes. You may want to select which suckers to keep as they need to be supported by stakes. You may chose to cut some of the suckers to allow airflow, again a balancing act.

For bush type tomatoes, you may want to prune suckers to get that big show tomato.

For cherry tomatoes, all the fruit will be the same size, so no need to remove suckers, other than to selectively allow air flow and prevent disease.

In any case we suggest you prune the first 6 -8 inches of leaves to allow air circulation and help prevent disease. Most of all, never let your tomatoes go rouge!