typically.. you dont want to significantly reduce the canopy of a plant... severely reducing it ability to convert sunshine in to plant food ...

under that general rule.. it sure seems that you could remove these know.. since it barely impacts the overall canopy.. and if it had been done a week ago.. when they were smaller.. it would have been great ...

i havent bought a tomato in a decade.. im kinda stunned by that price ...

the other thing to think about.. is what is your crop goal ... if you are going for minimal production.. but show prize size.. you dont allow a million Ts to form.. ergo.. you do what you suggest .. or what they might call sandwich sized fruit ...

but if you goal is just a million Ts for sauce or canning ... why go to all the trouble to prune the bush... just let it be itself ... i cant quite read the label for the name ...

when pruning.. which is basically what you are talking about.. how to prune.. is based on the goal .. so what is your goal ...

the general rules dont have to be specific to the plant ... though i am sure the tomato cognoscenti march to their own drum .. lol .. rumppa pum pum...

ken

Yes, you can remove them whenever you see them. I've never done so.

Thank Ken,

we have these in raised containers so the goal is to keep them from getting out of control. There are also only 3 of us and 4 plants so I would prefer quality over quantity.

I remove them as soon as I see them. Been doing it for years. Still get more tomatoes than we can eat.

That looks like a Black Cherry, so having less fruit will not make the resulting fruit any bigger. Removing suckers for more air flow (to reduce disease) and to keep the plant in check is a reasonable idea, but I don't bother.

If you end up liking that Black Cherry, make sure to save seeds because they will come true (they aren't hybrid). I've gone back and forth with the pruning vs no pruning over the years. Black Cherry can be a huge plant so taking some of the suckers off wouldn't be a bad idea.

I have been plucking all of the suckers on 3 of the 4 plants as an experiment. Would the below be considered a sucker or does it have to grow directly at the intersection of 2 branches?

Suckers form in the leaf axils. I think that what you are pointing to is the leader. I wouldn't prune that.

We planted ours by seed late march and now that they are over 2' - 3' tall, we do remove suckers. The tomatoes grow off the main stems, so so you really don't lose any by pruning suckers. YouTube has a bunch of videos on how to do that process.

is it true that pruning suckers can increase total amount of crop in pound from one plant?

I root the 'suckers' in a jar of water--increasing my number of plants.