Tomato suckers

[desertgirl]

Hello!


I was out pulling the suckers on my tomatoes this morning, and noticed on one the "suckers" I was going to pull had blossoms on it. I was under the impression that you pulled suckers because they just sap the plants energy without ever yielding fruit. So if it has blossoms,is it not a sucker?

 

[bid]

"Suckers" will bloom and bear fruit. Some folks prune them for several reasons. One being to increase the size of the fruit the plant bears. Less fruit per plant leads to increased size and allows the plant to concentrate the energy.

 

[aquarose]

I always find it impossible to keep up with tomato plant suckers, and I give up.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I think it thins them out too, allowing better air circulation thus less disease.

 

[desertgirl]

Hmm. So I guess I will try to keep up with pinching the suckers, unless they have fruit and then I will let them do their thing.

Is that what you guys do?:weight