Pruning Suckers on San Marzanos

[MaryDel]

I've always pruned the suckers from all of my indeterminate tomato plants, but I leave them for semi determinates and determinates. This year I have about ten varieties, all indeterminates so they have all been pruned.

All of my plants look fantastic, with the exception of the san marzano. They are growing and setting fruit, but they don't seem to have the vigor of the other plants.

Should I be leaving suckers on because they are a paste tomato? I've stopped pruning half of them to see if they respond better.

[mattie g]

I've been pruning the suckers on mine this year (first time I've grown them), and it has nearly 40 tomatoes of all sizes/stages on it. So I'd say that, from experience, you can certainly prune San Marzanos.

[fishman1113]

While I can't speak from experience about that variety, I have, in the past, always suckered my tomato plants.
This year I have many more plants than ever before, and if I remember correctly 4 varieties. I randomly left the suckers on probably 6 or 8 plants to see if there will be a difference in growth, fruit production and longevity of the plants themselves. So far the plants seem to be growing at a very similar rate. no fruit yet and I haven't counted blossoms, so I wont know any results for a while.

Good luck with yours!

Brent

[dustyrivergardens]

I prune all my tomatoes about once a week except for my determinate and semi-determinate tomatoes I just let them go. I grow 4 varieties of San Marzano tomatoes one is a determinate I don't prune it but I try to prune the others varieties of san marzano's but they tend to grow so fast that before I know it there are suckers with tomatoes hanging off them lol what kind of san marzano's are you growing the redorta has the wilt gene and never looks healthy even when there loaded...

[MaryDel]

I'm not sure which variety I am growing, but I grew them last year and they are definitely a INdeterminate. OOOOPS) They look somewhat like the redorta but the redorta says it's a semi determinate.

[mattie g]

I'm not sure which variety I am growing, but I grew them last year and they are definitely a determinate. They look somewhat like the redorta but the redorta says it's a semi determinate.

If they're determinate, then don't prune them. Try to keep as much growth as possible because the plant will put out almost all of its fruit at the same time. I'm growing indeterminates - different beast altogether.

[dustyrivergardens]

san marzano redorta is a indeterminate tomato with the wilt gene. the fruit on the redorta is much larger than a normal san marzano I have had some that went 1 pound and most go at least 8 oz. a normal san marzano tomatoes go I would say between 2 to 4 ounces.

[MaryDel]

My mistake, I meant to say it was an indeterminate.

I think it must be the redorta because of the size of the fruit is very large.


Thanks for the info.