Pruning or Suckering Tomatoes

When the summer garden comes into full swing, tomatoes are usually the most abundant fruits you'll grow. Everyone loves a good, homegrown tomato, but some gardeners don't understand the basics of pruning. There are a few reasons for pruning or "suckering" your tomatoes. The most important is increasing your yield by taking the energy away from foliar growth and concentrating the energy into fruit growth. Another reason for suckering is to reduce disease by allowing air to circulate freely around the plant. Pruning your tomatoes will be the best thing you can do for them, next to watering.

To prune a tomato plant, start while the plant is still small at about two feet tall. The suckers will be located in the leaf axils and will be from two to six inches long. Some of the suckers will be longer and may even have some blossoms on them. These can be taken off without fear of reducing fruit set. You will want to trim the plant into two main branches. The main stem will grow up with a set of blossoms, while the other branch will grow directly under the main stem blossoms. This will create two forks that will continually be pruned every week to week and a half. This will invigorate the plant and produce ripe fruit earlier than non-pruned plants. These suckers can be pinched out with your fingers or cut off with pruners. Discard the suckers in the middle of your rows or take them from the field. Leaving these suckers close to the plants can cause disease, so take caution when throwing these in the middle of the rows.

Some plants don't require pruning due to their bushy growing habits. Most likely, these plants are determinate varieties and will only grow to about three feet tall. The indeterminate varieties will need pruning along with staking every week or two. When you pick your seeds out from the catalog, they should be labeled as one of these two types of tomatoes. Alternately, the seed packets will have this information printed on them.

Another tip for pruning is to pinch off all growing tips about a month before your first frost date. This will encourage ripening of the fruit before the temperatures dip too low. Tomatoes lose flavor when the mercury falls below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. When these tips are followed, you should see a dramatic increase in the quantity, size, and quality of your tomatoes.