To pinch or not to pinch?
Last year I pinched off so many suckers that I think I did more harm than good. I read somewhere to only leave the lowest one. So far this year I haven't pinched any and my plants are soooooo thick that I can't even see the stem. I believe too much pinching is bad because the leaves help shade the plant. What do you guys do?
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rainbowgardener
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We have lots of discussion of this in the past. My sense is that it depends at least partly on where you are. Folks in places like Texas find that leaving lots of leaves is good for protecting the tomatoes from sunscald in their fierce sun. Those of us in humid, hazy, little direct sun areas like the Ohio river valley, find that pinching the suckers out lets the tomatoes take better advantage of what sun there is and ripen up better.
Depends partly also on whether you want lots of tomatoes (don't pinch) or bigger tomatoes (pinch). Also on how crowded your tomato plants are. If crowded and you leave all the suckers and everything grows together, you are cutting down air circulation and risking spread of disease. (Again, disease is more an issue in my humid climate, than in more arid ones.) If spaced more, you can better afford to leave all the suckers.
You will likely get lots of responses and everyone swears that what they do is right, but bottom line is you can get good tomatoes either way! (I do pinch out all the suckers in the stem joints myself--crowded plants in Ohio climate!).
Depends partly also on whether you want lots of tomatoes (don't pinch) or bigger tomatoes (pinch). Also on how crowded your tomato plants are. If crowded and you leave all the suckers and everything grows together, you are cutting down air circulation and risking spread of disease. (Again, disease is more an issue in my humid climate, than in more arid ones.) If spaced more, you can better afford to leave all the suckers.
You will likely get lots of responses and everyone swears that what they do is right, but bottom line is you can get good tomatoes either way! (I do pinch out all the suckers in the stem joints myself--crowded plants in Ohio climate!).
Pruning has been advocated since the earliest tomato books (e.g Livingston and the Tomato, 1893), but usually in the context of growing tomatoes for market when fruit quality (size and shape) were critical for profit. The plant doesn't care to much. A large unpruned plant will produce more fruit (number and total weight) but many will be smaller. A pruned plant will produce more large and medium (market size) fruit (percentage wise), but not necessarily larger (top size) than on the unpruned plant. Pruning back the number of fruit per truss will increase fruit size. Because "Farm wisdom" is not always converted to "garden wisdom" many "How to grow tomatoes" articles advocate pruning.
Prune to take advantage of space and light (more than 5-6 vines fills up my cages with scraggly interior vines that don't fruit and block air movement (I pinch all of those). Leaves on the lower foot or so of my plants block air movement and increases the likelihood of leaf diseases (Septoria, Early blight etc) so I prune them off once the plant gets big. I prune to 3-4 vines when growing on stakes because more just won't fit. I prune to one vine when growing on drop lines because I'm trying to fit as many different plants into a given space as possible.
Leaves provide the energy and materials needed to grow fruit, and they shade fruit and prevent sunscald. I have never read or seen any evidence that sunlight hitting fruit helps ripen or enhances the flavor of fruit, although it may affect the color of "black" tomatoes.
Prune to take advantage of space and light (more than 5-6 vines fills up my cages with scraggly interior vines that don't fruit and block air movement (I pinch all of those). Leaves on the lower foot or so of my plants block air movement and increases the likelihood of leaf diseases (Septoria, Early blight etc) so I prune them off once the plant gets big. I prune to 3-4 vines when growing on stakes because more just won't fit. I prune to one vine when growing on drop lines because I'm trying to fit as many different plants into a given space as possible.
Leaves provide the energy and materials needed to grow fruit, and they shade fruit and prevent sunscald. I have never read or seen any evidence that sunlight hitting fruit helps ripen or enhances the flavor of fruit, although it may affect the color of "black" tomatoes.
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gixxerific
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I live in MO so it gets hot, not Texas hot but still hot. I do what you are planning. I normally sucker them in the beginning. But by mid season they are so bushy it is not possible. Though I may take off a few suckers here and there. So I guess what I'm saying is I probably sucker %50 or less throughout the season. I normally have way more than my share of tomatoes of all sizes. Really I guess I do it depending on the health of the plant as well if it is dark green and you have a ton of tomatoes why mess with it. The plant knows what to do.RickNC wrote:Well last year I believe I had some sunscald issues. I am in E. NC and it gets really hot. We've been in the 90's several times already this year. I think I will prune the few stems/leaves I have that are touching the ground but leave the rest unless they grow together. Thanks.