I'd leave em.

Pruning of any plant - hybrid or heirloom makes no difference - is purely optional and not required.

So what variety are they? Suckers will produce fruit so I leave them.

Dave

ATTA BOY, DAVE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, couldn't resist. :>)

I agree with Dave. Let the plant tell you what it wants to look like. It's possible that heavy pruning can cause a plant to pause its growth due to the stress of losing its foliage to pruning. This would be just like plants do when damaged by other forces like hail stones, etc.

Ted

Prune out all the suckers below the first flower cluster when they are small.

This will increase airflow to the plant and helps reduce foliage touching the ground. Both will help with disease control.

Pruning redirects energy. The energy from the lower suckers pruned out will go to making remaining fruit larger. If you left the lower suckers and the fruit touched the ground they will likely rot anyway.

Proper pruning can also result in earlier ripening.

Thanks, this is my first year for pruning, also my first year for trellis. Last year I used cages and they all turned into jungles and didn't produce a lot of fruit, and what they did was ruined by mockingbirds for a long time. This year, I want it all!

marti8a

FWIW, I don't see how pruning would help with the mocking birds. Maybe put out a birdbath for the thirsty feathered ones.

I don't prune my tomatoes either, except to remove the lower branches below the first flower truss. That's for the airflow mentioned by mulio. I've tied mine to a cattle panel trellis for years and have been overwhelmed with tomatoes. I truly don't see how pruning will give you more tomatoes, though some people say pruning the plant causes them to produce larger tomatoes. Eh -- when you're swimming in beefsteak tomatoes anyway, who cares about "large"? :-)

Anyway, you can't save that tomato so it will ripen unless it was full size and had already begun to turn color.

I do exactly what Mulio suggests and it has always worked out well for me. Besides, a jungle in a cage is asking for disease and pests, and often hides ripe fruit which ends up rotting. And I hate it when I reach into an overgrown vine and grab a rotten tomato. YUCK!

To avoid mockingbird damage, harvest your tomatoes ahead of the full ripe stage. I found mockingbirds favor full ripe or nearly full ripe red tomatoes and are particularly fond of tomatoes like Cherokee Purple even when they aren't fully ripe.

I don't believe that mockingbirds are only after water when they peck on tomatoes as we keep 3 bird baths full of fresh water all summer long, filled in the morning and again in the evening. And I've lost a lot of tomatoes to mockingbirds when there were puddles of rainwater standing in my garden after heavy storms.

You also can invest in some bird netting to drape over your cages if you have just a few plants and are losing a lot of fruit to birds.

Here's a quote from Craig Lehoullier regarding pruning(Posted on another forum).

"Just to pick up on one technical rebuttal of the proposed method: one of the main challenges of Determinate varieties developing full flavor is the high fruit to foliage ratio (such as Sophie's Choice and Taxi) - insufficient photosynthesis potential to really develop all of the trace flavor elements. You pluck the foliage off of an indeterminate variety and not only are you crippling its ability to do the necessary chemistry, but welcome sun scald as well."

So, IMHO, it comes to a decision of whether or not you want a tomato that tastes good. Or, maybe you enjoy growing tomatoes that replicate the "Walmart cardboard specials". It's a taste thing.

Ted

Well said Ted - good quote from Craig.

Personally I don't have any problem with removing the branches below the first fruit cluster to keep those branches from dragging on the ground but much more than that serves little purpose and does potential damage I feel.

As already suggested, if bird pecks are the major problem then just pick the fruit at first break (blush) and let it ripen on the counter. Leaving it on the plant after that point doesn't improve the fruit anyway and just risks splitting, birds, pests, and other damage.

But the choice is yours Marti. ;)

Dave

if you prune suckers, you should pot 'em up and stealth-plant them in other people's yards. Landscape the world with tomatoes!!!!

"So, IMHO, it comes to a decision of whether or not you want a tomato that tastes good. Or, maybe you enjoy growing tomatoes that replicate the 'Walmart cardboard specials.' It's a taste thing."

Never had that problem, Ted. Regardless of whether I pruned lightly or moderately, I always got about the same results with regard to flavor from same varieties. And of course after a period of time, one figures out which varieties yield the desired flavor profiles. No complaints from anyone else who eats my tomatoes either.

For me it's really more just a matter of proper tomato culture to prune sufficiently to facilitate sanitary plant management, disease and pest control, and a tidy tomato patch.

However, you may do as you find appropriate from your own extensive experience or from advice in which you place more value.

Thanks, Dave. If you've read my posts this year, you know that I trim off bottom leaf branches as I add mix to my containers. You and I agree on most things about growing tomatoes.

The more I research, the more sensitive I am becoming to the plants. We humans run rough-shod over everything on this planet and offer reasons that are based in fads and "old wives tales" as excuses. This year I'm thinking about things from the plant's point of view. When you do that, a lot of things that we humans have been doing don't make sense. Pruning may be on the top of that list.

Just once, people should ask , "If I was the plant, what would be my opinion on this? What are the things that I need in order to do my best?"

Anyway, that's enough "soapbox" on this subject.

Take care

Ted

Ted muses, "this year I'm thinking about things from the plant's point of view. When you do that, a lot of things that we humans have been doing don't make sense. Pruning may be on the top of that list. Just once, people should ask , 'If I was the plant, what would be my opinion on this? What are the things that I need in order to do my best?'"

Ted, consider for a moment what will happen if you don't prune an apple tree, or a peach tree, or a grape vine. Consider if you left a peach tree, an apple tree or a grape vine to grow as it wishes. Unmanaged overgrowth hosting hordes of pests, disease and small scabby fruit.

Now consider that the tomato vine isn't all that different with regard to generating huge amounts of unnecessary vegetative growth if left unpruned. Basically, the plant's "thoughts" are geared toward seed production/perpetuation of the species. Pure and simple. The tomato vine isn't thinking "oh, I should give Ted the most flavorful tomato possible" except maybe "from the plant's point of view" that you then would eat it, pass the seeds through your gut and perpetuate the species. Do you happen to facilitate the plant's point of view in that particular respect?

However, following along on your suggestion to "ask the plant," let me just say that if I were to ask myself as a plant what I would wish as basic care, it would include at a minimum an occasional haircut, a daily shower, fingernail and toenail pruning for sure, and in my case a shave of most of my facial hair, including that which grows, at my age, from the ears and nose.

But again, do as you wish with your tomato vines. To each his own.

Pennyrile, thank you. Your statements taken in whole make my point exactly. Your analogies and conclusions about grooming are from the human point of view using rules we humans made up to exercise total control over everything else on this planet. There's just nothing natural about it.

Have a good day and thanks again for helping.

Ted

For me it's really more just a matter of proper tomato culture to prune sufficiently to facilitate sanitary plant management, disease and pest control, and a tidy tomato patch.

OoooF! pennyrile - that's a low blow. ;)

I'd like to think that there are many different methods of "proper tomato culture" and even tho we are in the same zone my un-pruned plants, thanks to proper spacing and support are quite "sanitary" and "tidy" and has minimal if any disease or pest problems.

But then over the years I have experimented with all sorts of tomato culture approaches. So the best way for any gardener to discover what works best for them in their particular garden is try several very different approaches to growing tomatoes. Take notes, compare results, and choose. But then acknowledge that while approach B or C works best for them it will not be the ideal for others.

Happy Gardening!

Dave