Thanks everybody for your opinions. It seems to me now that pruning can make sense for indeterminant tomatoes and that is our concern. One of the pros of pruners reason is to give the plant good air flow and therby prevent deseases. This make sense where you get a lot of rain and high humidity. Staking can partly take care of that too. Tomatoes laying down on the ground can be a problem, except where you have a dry and less rainy climat. I personally think that there is a trade off. Too much leaves under the first fruit is a burden. Those are the older leaves that once were vital but later on they are not necessary. Most of the times they yellow. So I prune most of those. With the so-called suckers, if the plant is healthy I keep some of them and often they bear fruits too. one thing I have experienced is that heavy pruning make the plant grow much taller aand they live longer. lets hear from other gardeners. I am here with open mind and ready to learn something new. I love internet that provides so much info and exchange of opinion. In the past all you could learn from were your neighbors and old uncle and things liks " I have heard..", "they say..". My seeding do not have true leaves yet, but it is not too late (in zone 8). Once again, Thanks and lets brainstorm over the topic.

Thanks as always, Dave. I guess 4 hours was only accurate in the early spring when I planned my garden...now it is closer to 5 and a half of direct afternoon rays, with dappled light through the morning. Basically my plants on that side sit dew-damp and shaded most of the morning then get baked. Harsh conditions for maters, but great for spores. Grr. I picked up some fungicidal spray per your recommendations on past threads. Thanks!

digdirt2: But it would be cheaper to just improve your soil so you could plant them in ground. I agree. Unless your soil is diseased, has some crazy pH, or is ALL clay with zero drainage, plants will be more resilient in the ground in your area, even in unimproved soil. You would just need to be more generous with the fertilizer than someone with more fertile soil until you do improve your soil more. But container tomatoes require constant fertilizing anyway, so its not as though growing in containers is an automatic improvement over poor soil. A lot of people who are beginners are under the mistaken impression that they shouldn't need to fertilize in-ground plants. That's false. It depends on the fertility of your soil, and most people who grow in ground fertilize regularly, especially with fruiting vegetables. Those who don't expend a lot of effort constantly adding organic matter to their soil over a long period of time.

Anyone? Basically should I cut plants or young fruits?