What Should You Do With Tomato Suckers?
What you should do with tomato suckers has been debated for a long time amongst gardeners. Learn everything you need to know right here.
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If you grow tomatoes, you’ve probably had to deal with suckers at some point. They’re tricky little things, and deciding whether to leave them or cut them off isn’t as clear-cut as most gardening advice makes it sound.
The answer depends on what type of tomato you’re growing and what you want out of your harvest. Find out which is right for you in this guide.
What is a Tomato Sucker?
A tomato sucker is a small shoot that begins growing in the spot where a branch meets the stem of the tomato plant. If left untouched, that sucker grows into a full-sized branch, and the plant becomes increasingly bushy and sprawling. This is one of the main reasons gardeners remove them.
Eventually, suckers will start growing their own fruit. That sounds like a good thing, but there are trade-offs. More branches means more competition for nutrients, which tends to reduce the size and quality of the fruit the plant produces. A lot of gardeners would rather have a smaller number of large, high-quality tomatoes than a large number of small ones. But that’s a personal call.
Thankfully, suckers won’t cause enough damage to kill your tomato plant. The question isn’t really about survival. It’s about what kind of harvest you want.
Should You Prune Tomato Suckers?
When you talk to people about whether or not to prune your tomato suckers, the most common argument is that doing so will allow you to have larger, higher-quality fruit.
Although tomato suckers may start to grow their own fruit, they will be fighting the rest of the plant for nutrients by doing so. This means that as the number of fruit being produced by the plant increases, the size and quality of the fruit decrease. A lot of gardeners would rather have a small number of high-quality fruit rather than a large number of low-quality fruit, but to each his own.
It is not mandatory that you prune your tomato suckers. A lot of gardeners don’t, and their plants wind up being just fine.
When You Should Prune Tomato Suckers
There are two types of tomato plants: indeterminate and determinate. This distinction matters more than anything else when deciding whether to prune.
Indeterminate tomatoes tend to get large and bloom all season long, which means they benefit from periodic pruning. If the suckers are left alone, they’ll grow out of control and the plant becomes a sprawling mess. But if you remove all of them, your overall yield can decrease. It’s about finding the right balance.
A good rule of thumb is to leave two or three suckers on the plant at all times. If more start to grow, trim them back. Start by removing just a little and adjust from there until you find the approach that works best for your garden.
Pruning suckers on indeterminate tomatoes gives you a few clear advantages. First, the plant focuses less energy on growing new branches and more on producing fruit, which means an earlier harvest. Second, with fewer branches competing for nutrients, the tomatoes that do grow tend to be larger and healthier. And third, pruning keeps the plant more upright and off the ground, which reduces the chance of fruit sitting in moisture and developing mold, bacteria, or fungus. That alone is worth the effort.
When You Shouldn’t Prune Tomato Suckers
Despite those benefits, you don’t always need to prune — especially if you’re growing determinate tomato plants.
Determinate tomatoes are generally compact. They reach a certain size and stop growing. They also produce all of their fruit at once and don’t put out new growth after pruning, which makes removing suckers more harmful than helpful. Pruning a determinate tomato can reduce your yield without any upside.
Determinate varieties aren’t as common as indeterminate ones, but it’s worth knowing which type you’re working with before reaching for the clippers.
How and When to Prune Tomato Suckers
The best time to prune is when suckers are still young and small. At that stage, you can use your fingers instead of clippers. Grab the sucker near the base and bend it back and forth until it snaps off cleanly. This method causes less damage to the plant than cutting, which means it heals faster and is less vulnerable to infection.
If you wait too long and the sucker has grown thick and woody, you’ll probably need clippers. Be as gentle as possible and make sure to disinfect them afterward to avoid spreading disease between plants.
Don’t over-prune, especially if you live in a hot climate. Removing too many branches exposes the fruit to direct sun, which can cause sunscald and damage the plant.
If you do choose to prune determinate tomatoes, go easy. They generally don’t need it, and heavy pruning tends to hurt your yield more than help it. Indeterminate tomatoes, on the other hand, should be pruned regularly — they’ll become huge and unmanageable if you don’t stay on top of them.
Every garden and every plant is a little different. Start conservatively and adjust based on what you see.
