Tomatoes are one of the easiest things to grow in your organic garden. Plant, water, and eat!
Yet, a few easy tips will help you be more successful and yield a lot of fruit!
What to deal with tomato suckers in the garden today?
To begin, let’s define tomato suckers. Then, you can choose whether or not to keep them.
What Are Tomato Suckers?
Tomato suckers are little shoots or leaves that emerge from the junction of a tomato plant’s stem and branch. Although relatively harmless to the plant, suckers don’t serve much of a purpose.
They may, however, divert energy away from the main stems, resulting in reduced tomato development.
How to Prune Tomato Suckers
- Maintain vigilance over your tomato plants. Eliminate suckers while they are just a small ½” stem.
- Just break them off at the stem to remove. If you need to use a tool, use a sharp pruner blade to make a clean cut.
- During the peak growth season, remove unwanted suckers and blossoms at least once a week.
- Pruning is very crucial when producing indeterminate tomatoes. In contrast to a single harvest, this cultivar yields fruits throughout the season. They demand more care and upkeep to foster development.
One of the secrets to a great harvest is to prune tomato suckers.
To Prune or Not To Prune…
Others claim that tomato suckers are advantageous since more leaves result in more fruit.
While this is true, less dense tomato plants may yield bigger, juicier tomatoes. (Don’t forget, to also use Espoma Organic Tomato-tone to promote growth of plump tomatoes.)
Eliminating tomato suckers may help reduce the danger of illness caused by standing water. Plants get more air with fewer leaves, and leaves dry faster. With fewer leaves, there are less areas for insects to nest and nibble.
Consider cutting suckers since they might possibly do more damage than good to the garden.
