http://www.durgan.org/ShortURL/?YTTGL 19 August 2008 Lemon Boy not pruned This plant was caged, when planted, and allowed to grow without removing the sucker growth. The plant covers a ground area of a circle of six foot diameter. The fruit is large, many clusters are present and excellent in every way. I am almost convinced that pruning the suckers is not beneficial, if sufficient room is available, for tomato plants to grow well. The advantages of not removing the suckers outweigh the supposed benefits of pruning. My view.
I think if I lived in a climate with summer heat, I wouldn't prune suckers either. But here in the cool summer Pacific Northwest, pruning suckers helps limit the fruit per plant, increases quality and shortens ripening time.
We've always done the opposite of pruning the suckers...We always remove the non-fruit bearing branch at the bottom of the fork that the "sucker" grows from. Thereby increasing potential yield. We have a long growing season in Tennessee, last year I harvested my last tomatoes on November 9. So, we don't find it to be as much of a neccesity to try for optimum quality in a short amount of time, as we have many more tomatoes to choose from. So yeah, we let the suckers grow, opting for quantity. Personally, I don't see a big difference in the overall quality of the fruit. And you know-even a lesser home grown beats a store bought any day!
