One of my favorite things to grow in my garden has got to be tomatoes. Over the years I have learnt different tricks and techniques to grow bigger and juicier tomatoes. Just the other day I learnt how to remove suckers from tomato plants.

Why do you want to de-sucker your tomato plants? According to Kevin Lee James of the  A Garden For The House blog, it is because they burden the plants with excess foliage. Too much lushness promotes the shady, wet conditions that can lead to fungal diseases. Furthermore, plants with too many stems produce small-size fruit.

Here’s What You’ll Need:

• indeterminate tomato vines
• pruning shears (optional)

Obviously you cannot remove the suckers, if you do not know what exactly they are. So first you have to be able to identify the so called ‘suckers’. They are pretty easy to pick out because they tend to grow in between the the crotch of the stem and the branch.

Removing them is simply bending the growth back and forth until it breaks of the stem. If you leave them to grow bigger then you will need the pruning shears to snip off the suckers. I understand that you can even go ahead and plant these suckers in some soil and they will root. That might be an easier way to increase your tomato plants, mid season! 🙂

You can get more information on the A Garden For The House blog, here…

How To De-Sucker Tomato Plants

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