Well, that's common old advice that our grandparents would use. The article may have been written by someone who practices that technique and has always done so because everyone he knows also does it. Kinda like fermenting tomato seeds ;-O

I heard Martha say this very same thing on her old TV show. She and her Chow's were strolling through the garden happily picking off all suckers as she walked and talked. I must say that I AM impressed that she could walk AND talk at the same time. I would have bet no on that one...;-)

Another dud! I thought you put your seed in a cup with a little water and let them ferment. Double duh.

I'm just saying that newer methods come along to replace the old.

In some cases the old methods (fermenting) work just fine too. ;)

But pinching and removing all the suckers isn't one of them.

Dave

Wasn't it originally meant to develop stonger main stems. I found an article from Fine Gardening that says they are removed because as they develope further and further up the plant they are weaker and weaker. (which I think is strange)

Here is a link that might be useful: FG Pruning Tomatoes

There are differnt reasons why some people elect to P & P; e.g., to grow the plant up a single support, to open up the plant to allow greater sunlight to hit the fruit.

To grow more tomatoes isn't one of them.

Rain (who wonders how many other items of egregious tomato growing misinformation are floating around out there)

Rain

I'm a newbie to gardening... And have heard (Mostly from older people... I'm only 25) that you want to pinch and prune. So, I guess I've been lead the wrong way?

Jen

I think it's interesting that the authors of erroneous gardening information are NEVER seen on various gardening forums. They seem to appear full-blown with fancy titles such as Tomato Maven or Master Gardener, have given all kinds of speeches in garden clubs, have written extensively in columns, but haven't had the leaven of running their theories and beliefs through the minds of experienced gardeners.

Now admittedly, forums such as GW can have their own propaganda, for want of a better word. Many of us can be corralled into not thinking beyond a given "box" of what's been accepted by traditionalists or the loudest and most persistent voices, but there are always rebels. Or those who ask "why", people willing to do needed research to prove or disprove claims.

Anyway, the point is that experienced and actually knowledgeable gardeners who are willing to be criticized and pestered with questions on forums such as this one are quite likely to be the best sources of information on the internet, not those who are "friends" with this or that celebrity or whose credentials seem to have been acquired far away from the real world of gardening.

the information is correct. it just needs to be qualified and put in appropriate context.

what I am wondering is how did tomatoes ever survive without washing them in chemicals?

What information is correct?

I'm just saying that newer methods come along to replace the old.

Sorta like no longer sowing tomato seeds under old milk jugs.

We don't sow under, we sow in them. If you're going to comment jtemOS can you at least get it right. Eh?

Okie-girlgardener Jen,
There are a lot of ways to grow tomatoes, all of them work to one degree or another. Many folks have grown tomatoes successfully side-pruning, sucker pruning, staking or not. Don't be fooled into thinking there is one certain way. I will prune only if I decide the plant is throwing too much energy into foliar growth. You say you are new to gardening, patience is gonna be your friend, try new methods and old and see how they work. Most of all, unless you plan on being a market gardener, enjoy it, don't get caught up in this one way or another, it is just a lot of fun to eat something you grew.

Jen, send me an email. I may be able to help you out a bit.

anney

both "prune suckers for more"

and "leave suckers for more"

can be correct.

each must be explained about why it is true in certain situations. I'm not trying to be rude but I am simply too lazy to explain it. And I hate saying this but it has been discussed here before.

I didnt read the original link (again too lazy) to see if the writer attempted to do so. However editors and word limits are often put on writers so info gets left out or "dumbed down".

Anney, if I didnt know otherwise I'd see the contradiction too.

Jen,

Tomatoes do just fine without pruning. Some do better with pruning. It's really up to the grower to apply to the types grown.

I will say this about pruning indeterminates: correctly done it is a rewarding task and a great way to interact with the plant.

I realize most people here are gardeners. Nothing wrong with that. Like a Doc McCoy rant, Id rather say I was "just an old country gardener" than a horticulturist. My heart is in gardening. I mention this because I do not want to seem pretentious. A few horticulturists, landscapers and landscape architects I've met are gardeners too. There is a purpose, time and place for both just as there exists for pruning.

Managing a well pruned plant can be "art" (or skill but yes, an art and that applies to more than just tomatoes). It's the applied skill and knowledge part that can bring things more to the meaning of "horticulture" but one doesn't have to have a title to do so.

Do I do this? No. Though I know what to do, it really involves more time than I have for the volume of work that I do. I have done it and it's quite enjoyable really. I would like to do it and probably will when I get to the age that hundreds or even tens of plants are not manageable.

Jen, a pretty good book for a general overview is "Dick Raymond's Joy of Gardening". It not definitive but should provide a decent start.

Mulio

Here's what I object to, a positive statement that hardly lends itself to misunderstanding: Pinch and remove suckers that develop in the crotch joint of two branches. They wonÂt bear fruit and will take energy away from the rest of the plant....

Of course the suckers will bear fruit.

I recall the discussions to which you refer, about production of individual plants being affected by whether one prunes them or not. But that isn't relevant to my annoyance.

suckers produced late summer that wont have a chance to develop fruit and would therefore sap energies from others are ones that would fit what they said

although I would probably just pinch out the flowers myself

Mulio

YOU didn't write that phrase, did you? :-)

Anyway, I suppose it's like anything complex -- straight bare statements are bothersome to experts when part of a phrase could validly be expanded to apply to much more than the bare statement says!

The only suckers I pinch are a few to root to fill in bare spots in the garden if some early crop has faded and I'd rather have a few more tomatoes than a bare spot. That would probably be around early July.

"Anyway, I suppose it's like anything complex -- straight bare statements are bothersome to experts when part of a phrase could validly be expanded to apply to much more than the bare statement says!"

that or they are cut and paste experts

I just wish they would add some sort of qualifier - any qualifier like "some" or "consider" or "one option".

Instead they always make it sound like it is gospel, mandatory, required, the sky will fall and you'll never see a tomato if you don't do it. And many young or new growers take it literally.

But it is still only one of many contextual falsehoods about tomatoes that's out there.

Dave

Once a man asked his wife why she cut the ends off of the ham before baking it. She said; "Because that's how my mom always cooked a ham." So he then asked his wife's mother the same question. Her answer was the same. Finally he asked grandma who replied; "That was the only way we could fit it into the one small baking pan that we owned at the time."
This is how misinformation is passed along. It's sad but many people have become either too lazy to think independently or are too modest to ask "WHY?"
Fortunately most of the people on this forum do not push their methods as being the only right way to grow tomatoes correctly and are willing to take the time to explain why their techniques work for them.
I prune; Because I trellis. For larger size tomatoes, Not for more tomatoes. To make room for younger plants growing up the trellis and to acquire suckers to root to become those younger plants growing up the trellis. To stop plant growth at the top of the trellis thereby allowing the plant to focus it's energy to the remaining fruit.
My suckers do bear lots and lots of large fruit and do not take away any energy from the rest of the plant.
However if I were growing in cages or spread out on the ground I would not recommend pruning at all. But that's up to you.

"Sucker" is just a wrong term; they are branches.
But the question is : Do We Want All the Branches?

When I plant my tomatoes, I keep pinching the lower branches(when very young) because I want to have open area under the plant and also want the main to get stronger.
Later on I pinch/prune some of the new branching growth selectively, according to my(the gardener's) jugment. There is one main stem and root system that have to support all those branches. The amount of resources is LIMITED.
The plants, by their nature, are very greedy and set the stage for a big show in the future. Their plan is to produce lot of seeds, without knowing if it is possible.
So, as a gardener, I will take away the control from the plant and dictate it how to grow. I do this by staking, feeding, watering, and pruning.
Then there are people who give their plants complete freedom, to grow as they wish. I am not one of them.

Hardclay, the ham story is a wonderful analogy, thank you for sharing ;-)

T

There's definitely a case to be made for suckering tomatoes. If you're producing on a medium scale for fresh marketing, you may need the jump that I claim carefully managed, suckered tomato plants will provide. Home gardeners might not have the time or will to invest in managing their plants this way, and that's fine. Tomato plants are pretty serious about reproducing, and will put on fruit in any reasonable growing situation.

There are advantages to pruning aside from increasing the amount of energy put to fruit production. Pruning suckers and the bottom foot or two of leaves will hugely increase airflow, which in a bad disease year will likely make the difference between having tomatoes or not. I presuppose that the tomatoes are trellised here, as you wouldn't want to prune the bottom foot or two of a plant that is fully grown at four feet.

The only benefit I've seen to P&P is that it does make for a larger tomato, since more nutrient is going to fewer fruits, and if it's just you and a spouse eating them, where's the need for a zillion tomatoes per plant? Not me though, I want as many as I can get my greedy not-so-little hands on.