About those "suckers" on a tomato plant...

[probi]

I have been gardening with my son this summer. We have four tomato plants that have been through a very hard summer so far in SE Wisconsin. Our "June" was like early May, very wet and chilly.

There seems to be two trains of thought on what to do with the suckers. I always let my tomato plant do it's thing, cutting off only the obviously useless branches and little suckers. I figure the leaves and foliage kind of protect the blossoms and fruit as they grow... especially this summer.

However, I have been advised on more than one occasion to cut off non-productive leggy and leafy branches that do nothing. When I do, the plant starts to look a bit barren, as I am used to a "bushy" tomato plant. (They also keep the tomato plant steady in the cage with the weather we have had.)

What is best for the tomatoes? I have tons of blossoms, and the tomatoes are finally showing up inspite of the weather.

Thanks for the help.

Phyllis

[Chris]

Leaves feed fruit production, I don't see why you would want to trim off leaves at all - unless it was done for disease reasons. Either to increase airflow or remove foliage too close to the soil to prevent disease, or after disease infects the plant to remove the infected portions.

If you're talking about a true sucker, a new plant coming up from the roots, that I would probably trim as it isn't going to produce fruit for you and it will only eat up resources in the soil, but on the main plant, not really such a thing as a useless branch IMO.