My husband wants to know the proper way to sucker tomato plants.?

We don't want to pinch the wrong stems, can someone explain it very clearly as to what he needs to do? Thanks ahead of time. The plants are doing very well otherwise. Is it best to thin the tomatoes when they are clumped tightly together when they are small, or wait until they get to a bigger size?

My husband wants to know the proper way to sucker tomato plants.?
Hello,





I question the whole idea of suckering tomato plants. The argument for it is to use that energy instead for fruit. But suckers are typically very small and any gain would be negligible.





I have never suckered my plants and I have had no problems whatsoever.





If you have tomato plants all clumped together, you best thin them out as soon as possible. Otherwise you'll have a lot of weak plants: not a very good start in life. I did this once and I'll never do it again. Make sure next time you give them more room from the start. They should never be clumped tightly together.





The plants have to be quite tall before you notice the parts that are called suckers. Otherwise you may indeed be removing new stems.





You can do the following: grow a tomato plant fully without removing anything. When you have an adult plant, you will see the parts called suckers and say to yourself, "oh, so that's what they are". Then next time, you know what to look for. That's how I learned.





Personally, I would leave them. They are of no consequence.





(I have a neighbour who has grown tomatoes for years. He explained to me the importance of suckering tomato plants. I asked him what would happen if I left them. He said he didn't know, he had never tried it. (!)





I didn't sucker mine. I have too much fruit!)





I assumed btw, when you said tomatoes are clumped together you meant tomato plants and not tomato fruit.





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"I meant fruit"


In that case, sure. If you want larger fruit pick a few of their neighbours. It just means you'll have less of them.


Or leave it as it is and have more fruit.
Reply:Check the link below. It's in Romanian, if you want I'll assit you with the translation. Anyway, download the PPS file and on the 3rd slide in the right bottom corner there's a picture/drawing showing the way to sucker the tomato plants. My oppinion is that it is better to wait till the tomatoes are bigger, you might notice that they are ripening gradually and there's no need to thin them. Sometimes the small tomatoes are tastier than the big ones.


http://www.didactic.ro/?cid=disciplina%26amp;d...