I was told to cut off the suckers on my tomato plants. The person was not really clear about what suckers are. But it sounded like most of the small branches with no flowers or fruits should be cut off.

Did I get the right advice? I thought any of the leaves will help feed the pant sunshine. Should I give them radical pruning or not?

Suckers are branches extending from the main stem, close to the ground. You can cut those off to encourage more top growth, but there's no law that says you have to - you'll get tomatoes either way.

I prune the suckers only off indeterminate vines that I tie to vertical stakes. They will continue to grow indefintely with or without suckering

The indeterminates (my Royal Chico plums, are left unpruned and sprawling freely on the straw mulch. Most of what I have read argues against doing any pruning to determinates as it will reduce the yield. Some advise never removing the suckers above the lowest flower sets or you will be throwing away potential fruits.

So I would suppose the first thing to do is to "determine" if your maters are determinate or indeterminate and if you are determined to pinch the suckers off. (The suckers being new stems growing from any part of the main stem at the crotch or axils of the leaves.)

Wayne

Suckers and the branches that grow between a main branch and the stem (in the Y formed there). They pretty much should snap off without pulling any other skin with them. You also can plant them (just stick the end in dirt - they root pretty easy). If you Google "Growing the Eternal Tomato), you can find an interesting article on propagating by suckers. It also has good pictures of what suckers are. I tried it this year on one tomato plant and it's doing OK.

I believe the general idea behind suckering is that, if you sucker your plants, more energy (growth) goes into the existing fruit rather than expending it on the suckers (branches). With indeterminate varieties that means bigger fruit, but less fruit. Some people argue that you should sucker determinates since the suckers will seldom produce fruit and only suck energy from the rest of the plant. Myself, I seldom sucker any plants unless it is to try propagating them further (mostly because I have better things to do and I don’t typically plant many determinates).

Thanks for the replies.