I wouldn't worry about the damage -- the center of the stem isn't used for much anyway, and a hollow cylinder is almost as strong a support as a solid one. Nutrients and water are taken up close to the surface, just under the skin, where it hasn't been disrupted. The damage itself sounds like a stem borer, which are fairly uncommon and (as I suggested above) not a huge problem. Be alert to the fact that the stem is a little weaker, and you can either tie a stake to it or figure that you can tie it back up again if it does fall over. A splint and a little tape takes care of a split trunk, and the plant hardly notices most of the time. --Alison

uscjusto, tomato seed leaves are simple elongated ovals. See the second photo in this FAQ: http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/tomato/2005015135020413.html Technically these seed leaves are called cotyledons or dicotyledons; the latter simply means there are two of them. (Grass, corn, lilies, and dichondra, however, begin with a single monocotyledon.) Dicotyledons of poison ivy and the common blue violet (violet sororia) look much the same as tomato dicotyledons. (And yes, I do find them in the same flower beds.) === Tomatoes will never grow shoots from roots. No, but suckers can grow in the leaf axil (the area between the main stem and any leaf location) ... whether the leaf is still there or not. So if you have stripped the older leaves and planted the seedling low, you could have suckers starting from those buried leaf locations. I have seen that happen.

Thanks. I figured I would throw in a picture as well to see if that helps. You can see the top of the main stem is green and has green buds. Further down, where I think I need to cut it, it is brown, more "trunk" like. The buds (if that is what I should call the nub off of the side of the "trunk") aren't growing anything down where it is brown. The old dead tree is actually still there, so you can see where it branched out originally. Also, there are two more shoots coming out of the other side of the old dead tree. They are smaller, but leaves are growing on them. Should I keep these? I really love the fig tree and can't wait for it to return to it's old glory - so I want to make sure I do the right thing and don't kill it!

I don't know who "they" are, but there's a lot of debate about pruning indeterminate tomatoes. A big reason, however, to take off foliage low on the plant is to reduce contact of leaves, which are more permeable to fungal pathogens, with the ground and any pathogens that may splash up from the ground. Fungal diseases take hold most often in the lowest leaves both because they're older leaves that are more susceptible to infection and more exposed to fungal organisms from being closer to the soil. This has nothing to do with suckers. "Suckers" on indeterminate plants are just new branches. Of course the low suckers will eventually produce flowers and fruit. There is no biological mechanism which would prevent them from acting like any other branches. Whether you want more or fewer branches depends on your goals, garden space, growing conditions, etc. Anyone who offers you absolutist advice on pruning or not pruning without knowing the facts about your goals, garden setup, and disease and pest pressures is talking out their you-know-what. But saying pruning is always a myth that "they", whoever "they" are, are trying to push for no reason is also incorrect. Some conditions and goals do benefit from pruning.