Just to clarify, "suckers" are just the structures that become additional stalks of the plant. If you have no compelling reason to remove them, don't, as it means lost potential production.

Agree. And just because cherry tomatoes have small fruit does not mean they are small plants. Depending on variety they get just as big, if not bigger, than large fruited tomatoes.

Rodney

Thanks for your replies. I thought I read in the past pruning suckers either strengthens the past or makes it produce "better" (better being I don't remember specifically but I'm sure it was their subjective opinion in that case). If you are saying suckers simply make the plant bushier and that may or may not negatively affect the plant because of its variables then, yes, I understand.

In my instance they are planted too close already (long story) so I think I would benefit from pruning. Because I was so late to the growing season I left three together in the same container.... which isn't big to begin with. Yes, I know this is bad. I will not make the same mistake next year. thanks again

Good clarification, Rodney. Yes, my indeterminate cherries are usually my largest plants.

Tatiana's site describes Santorini as a big, indeterminate plant. With three in one pot, I'd instead sacrifice 2 (just cut them at the soil line). I think you'll get more tomatoes overall that way. Three in a pot, even heavily pruned, will be unhappy and unlikely to give you much. Unless the pot is really really large.

Seth there are several misunderstandings in your post so I really hope you got all your question answered? Agree that Santorini is not a small plant normally but a quite large one, like most cherry type plants. Many of the cherry varieties are the biggest plants there are. And as the others have said any pruning is purely optional and not required for any reason. Doing so costs you fruit production.

Dave

Thanks everyone. I'll go ahead and cut out two of the three in the one pot. If I had any misunderstanding about the need to prune suckers, it appears the consensus here is to leave them unless it blocks sun, air movement, or makes it more difficult to trelis.

Mostly correct. Especially with cherry plants.

The only thing I disagree with is the "blocking sun" thing. That's not really a consideration. Tomato fruit actually need some shade from the foliage or they're prone to sunscald. People who prune plants heavily have to be careful of that, especially in strong sun areas. A big problem with later-season fruits if you've had a bad season for disease is that you often lose so much foliage to the disease that the fruit start getting sunburned.

In addition, more foliage = more opportunity for photosynthesis, and more photosynthesis = more production and better flavor.

The important consideration is airflow. If foliage is very dense so that rain, moisture, etc. hang around too long inside the plant, that's an attractive breeding ground for disease spores. Sometimes, if I have a caged plant with dense foliage, I'll thin out the foliage on the inside of the plant for this reason. This has little to do with suckers, though. I'm not pruning stems--just removing leaves.

'I thought I read in the past pruning suckers either strengthens the past or makes it produce "better"'

That is kinda it, but not entirely. Better in this case means more efficiently not more, so more fruit per leaf area let's say. It's mostly for optimizing ground space usage, and to prevent disease if you are in a humid area.

Considering you are growing in a pot, one plant sounds about right. How many stems depends on how big the pot is. If it's kinda small, then you probably should limit the number.

I wouldn't do much pruning to a cherry plant. Maybe if it was a large-fruited plant. For a cherry, I would prune it just to take off senescent leaves or diseased leaves and just enough to keep it manageable so you can support it. A cherry plant in a pot will end up much smaller than one in the ground anyway.

Thank you very much to everyone who commented. This has helped me tremendously!