I think that you are confusing leaders/suckers with leaves. Suckers (branches) will emerge from the crotch of the leaf/stem beginning about the time the first flower buds show up on the main stem.

they will recover. new growing points will eventually be established.

I have never pruned any tomato plant, indeterminate or other. People who have very little space and want to squeeze several plants in a small area will prune to one leader. They then get less tomatoes on each plant, but more plants. So, in all, they get about the same amount of tomatoes. Plus, they may also get some disease from lack of air circulation, lack of light, close proximity to contaminated plants, etc...

If you can give at least a 2 feet by 2 feet space for each plant, you don't need to prune at all. I space mine 3 feet by 30".

I do some lower suckers pruning, to prevent the plant from getting too bushy, spending too much energy for foliage gowth and MORE IMPORTANTLY, to provide ample air circulation underneath and discourage some possible bacterial diseases. Space consideration is another reasont to prune.With the sucker pruning, it is better to snipe the off as soon as they appear. This way, I think , that it wont be a big shoch to the plant.

Thanks everybody for the responses. I should've mentioned that I'm doing a Square Foot Garden, so each plant is 12" apart.

From what I've read, that will require some pruning, just not as much as I've been doing!

The real question is why are you pruning?

Pruning, except for removing any lower branches that touch the ground, is purely optional. It is not required. Thousands grow tomato plants without any pruning. The need for it all depends on available growing space and the support method you use. It can stress the plant, reduce production, and when done improperly it results in exceptionally tall, skinny plants that often cannot support the weight of the fruit and exposes them to sun scald.

But yes, IF you are going to do it then you need to learn how to do it properly and when to do it.

As mulio said, with no more stress your plants will probably recover. When they do I suggest you leave them alone or at least restrict yourself to nipping out small suckers only.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: How to prune with pics

Digdirt,
Thanks for the response. To answer your question of "why", it's because I thought I was supposed to! I had been told that I should immediately snip off all of the branches but the primary leader so the plant's energy would be focused on growing upwards. Once it got tall enough, I could "tie it in" to the trellis.

I have never really pruned Tomatoes except to remove diseased material. They'll live just fine without it.

I prune heavily all the time. If I don't, I end up with
a mess of foliage and I can't find half the fruit.

When faced with a small area, you almost have to prune.

I prune to 4 main leaders and get rid of the rest.

Here's a shot of my garden showing the results.

smossman - yes I see you are Sq. Foot gardening now. I didn't see that post when I was posting - forgot to refresh the page. Sorry for that.

But you are right that with SQ> Foot you likely will have to trim them up a bit just because of the limited space they will have but 2 stems or even 3 stems can still work in Sq Foot gardening. Under normal growing conditions with the average 3-4' per plant it honestly isn't required, just optional, except for as mentioned - diseased foliage, increase air circulation or any that hangs on the ground.

I just wanted to be sure you didn't get the old wives tales about "you have to prune because suckers suck energy out of the plant" and "you must prune because suckers never produce fruit" dumped on you as neither one is true.

There are hundreds of ways to grow tomatoes and while many of them work, some of the things you read about growing them is pure hogwash. But each of us has to experiment to see what works best in our particular garden.

Enjoy your tomatoes. :)

Dave