Pinching Back Suckers on Tomato Plants (2024)

FAQs

Pinching Back Suckers on Tomato Plants? ›

Pruning tomato suckers is often recommended because the resulting new stem is competing for nutrients with the original plant. Your plant may have more fruit if you let the suckers grow, but the tomatoes will be smaller, and the plant will be more cumbersome, requiring a lot of effort to stake as the summer progresses.

Start pinching out your tomatoes once there are at least 6 sets of true leaves. You are aiming to cut back the side-shoots, rather than pinching from the top, because you want the main stem to keep striving upwards for a good while.

Pinching out your tomatoes is an essential part of tomato plant care. The reason for this is the tomato plant is a naturally bushy plant, and if you let it grow as it wants to, it will put all of its focus into growing foliage at the expense of fruit.

Usually, indeterminate tomatoes grow best with one or two low side shoots; so, remove all side shoots above this. The lower shoots help make the plant more stable and is where they bear fruit. With beef tomatoes, on the other hand, leave just one side shoot at most other than the main shoot and tie them both up.

For example, some gardeners “pinch back” suckers on their tomato plants. This means removing the shoots that appear in the “V” or “axil” that is created between the branch and the main stem of tomato plants. In northern regions like Pennsylvania, many gardeners remove all suckers as they appear.

Beefsteak tomato plants are “indeterminate,” which means they require staking and pruning to grow properly. By contrast, many cherry and grape tomato plants are determinate and grow shorter, more like bushes, and do not require staking and pruning.

As a general rule, I will trim at least several branches off both determinate and indeterminate tomatoes, so that the lowest several inches of the stems are bare. Trimming around the base of the plants limits the spread of disease and maximises air flow through the foliage, both of which are important for plant health.

There is no specific number of leaves to remove from a tomato plant. If you see a stem with no flowers on it, chop it off, it's useless. If you see a stem with three or four trusses you may want to sacrifice one or more of these trusses to ensure that more nutrients are getting to the remaining ones.

What to Pinch. Any flowering annual with a branching habit can benefit from pinching, especially those classed as 'cut and come again' bloomers. Ageratum, carnation, calendula, chrysanthemum, godetia, marigold, snapdragon, sweetpea and sweet william can all benefit from pinching.

In a compost pile, coffee grounds decompose and break down, mingling with other organic matter like vegetable scraps, leaves, and grass clippings. This process creates a nutrient-rich compost that is much safer and more beneficial for tomato plants.

Do you pinch first flowers on tomato plants? ›

Early/mid-season

Remove flowers until plants are 12 to 18 inches tall, so plants can direct more energy to the roots. Remove all leafy suckers beneath the first fruit cluster so they won't slow the development of the fruit.

A good compromise is to remove all suckers that grow below the first flower cluster. This helps keep the main supporting stem strong, but it doesn't remove upper suckers that will eventually produce flowers and fruit. Removing ALL the leaves and suckers will weaker the plant.

Fertilize tomatoes at planting time with a water-soluble fertilizer high in phosphorus. Fertilize again with a 5-10-5 fertilizer after you see the first fruit. Finally, fertilize one last time after harvesting the first fruit.

To force ripening, water the plant less frequently, but don't let it completely dry out. Increase sunlight: Tomatoes need plenty of sunlight to ripen. Make sure your plant is getting at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight each day.

Too Much Nitrogen

Phosphorus and potassium are both necessary for fruit production. Nitrogen-rich fertilizer can result in beautiful rampant green foliage production and a delay or decrease in flower production. In order to know how much to fertilize your tomato, take a soil test every 3 years.

Early/mid-season

In northern regions, many gardeners go further, removing all suckers as they appear. In warmer zones, though, experts often recommend practicing what's known as Missouri pruning, where you pinch off the leaflets on the end of each sucker, leaving only the two base leaflets in place.

Remove leaves

The plant will focus more energy on growing the tomatoes if you remove some of the leaves too. I remove all of the leaves up to the first tomato bunch on the main stem.

Garden care:

Tumbling tomatoes are naturally self-branching and will normally cascade on their own, but can be encouraged by pinching out the growing tip once they reach 25-30cm. Keep well watered and feed weekly with seaweed extract once flowers form.