You can cut them off but you don't have to for any reason. Just means more production.

If you do and you want to root them you will need to reduce them in size as even a 1' sucker will usually die before it can develop enough roots to survive. All you want is the growing tip off it - the top and 4-6 inches of bare stem planted deep - and trim off most of the lower leaves and any of the bigger leaflets on the remaining branches. The smaller and more compact the cutting the faster it will root.

Dave

I just didn't know about planting the whole thing deep - like 5-6" above where they branch out. These things are huge! 2-3ft long and as thick around as my pinkie!

If it just means more production (and training) I will leave the "trident" shape and plant the whole thing as-is (except for taking off some true suckers and trying to root them - have some 2-3" long).

Thanks Dave.

I've planted tomatoes like that, though not with a plant as tall as yours.

Your branches are in fact suckers ... simply older suckers. Often after weeks of growth, the growth pattern is not as obvious; the main stem has elongated and the sucker either does not seem to be as close to where leaf joins the stem, or the leaf has fallen off.

Maybe someone pulled off the lower leaves when they planted it in this pot. Very strange, 2 coming out on opposite sides of main stem, right about the same height, and all 3 about the same height and thickness. I'll try to take a pic tomorrow.

I was cutting off the lower limbs before planting my tomatoes in the garden earlier this spring. I had some buckets of old potting soil, mostly perlite, that I was going to spread out to dry and reuse later.

I just stuck the trimmings in the buckets and forgot about them. A few weeks later I walked by and noticed I had about 20 nice tomato plants growing! I transplanted them to the garden and they are doing great.

My Hawaiian Orange Cherry tomatoes were going crazy and we could not get to the tomatoes to pick them. So I took my scissors to them. I then took the trimmings and saved the suckers...some about a foot long...some with blooms and some with small tomatoes. I stuck them in MG potting soil and kept moist. Today I gave away 20+ tomato plants on FreeCycle (I did not need more of this one). They had rooted very nicely and were growing.

I rooted a sucker from my Delicious because worms were a problem when I planted in March; they left me with just 2 Delicious plants. That rooted sucker is in the ground and looking good. Also rooted Green Copia suckers.

I have Black Prince suckers in MG now...it has been a great producer this year and tastes so good!

Finally took a picture of my "trident" tomato - this is the only one left to plant, I thought perhaps it might need a little more hardening off since I don't know if was straight out of a greenhouse last weekend.

Isn't it weird?

My roma was similar. Found it at walmart. Someone had deliberately pinched it to have 3 main stems, perfectly spaced. I kept those and have rooted most of the suckers. I never saw this done this way before.

My roma was similar. Found it at walmart. Someone had deliberately pinched it to have 3 main stems, perfectly spaced. I kept those and have rooted most of the suckers. I never saw this done this way before.