Gardening Myths #9 – Keeping or Trimming Tomato Suckers

Now tomato suckers, people have always asked, you take those off, do not take them off. It’s kind of a personal opinion, to be honest.

They come off like a 45 degree angle, off the main branch of the tomatoes. I always leave them on my cherry tomatoes because you are going to get more fruit. But if you take them off, you’re going to get bigger fruit. I usually say it depends on the variety of tomato.

So like the older heirloom varieties that don’t produce as heavy, they just come on all at once. I do take those suckers off.

Definitely take them off the lower branches, too, to prevent any soil-borne disease from coming up onto the plant with the water splash and things like that. I always kind of take the bottom couple leaves off anyway. And I usually start breaking the suckers off as it starts to grow. After a while the plant just grows up, blows up on you. So it kind of depends on the variety. Whatever you feel like you want.

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