Comments on: Pruning Tomato Suckers

By: Kendra at New Life On A Homestead

Kendra at New Life On A Homestead — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:02:39 +0000

Great tips, Elisha. Thank you!!

By: Elisha

Elisha — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:53:20 +0000

The fruit on determinate varieties of tomatoes all get ripe at about the same time. They are usually your bushier tomato plants & you would generally use them for making sauces, etc. We grow Roma tomatoes because they are determinate and I can get enough at one time to can for tomato sauce, pizza & spaghetti sauces. We don’t prune (sucker) our determinate tomatoes and they don’t usually need tomato cages. Indeterminate tomatoes are the ones that produce their tomatoes over the whole season, up until frost, and the plants grow much taller than determinate varieties. We prune our indeterminate tomatoes and have to put cages around them.

By: Lisa Shenk

Lisa Shenk — Sun, 13 May 2012 02:00:17 +0000

Determinate means “determined” size of growth, or, a specific size. Indeterminate is an “undetermined” amount of growth. That means it keeps growing, and growing, and growing….. ;>)

By: Lanna

Lanna — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 04:56:18 +0000

I let the tomatoes do whatever they want. I figure they’ve been around longer than I, and know what they’re doing. My caveat though is that I don’t do a ton of long-season or indeterminate tomatoes. They just don’t throw a lot of fruit up here – I have to stick with early-season and determinate tomatoes for the bulk of what we grow.

By: Amanda W

Amanda W — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:11:51 +0000

I read somewhere that you prune the suckers that grow below the first set of flowers, but anything higher, leave on and they will produce fruit. Had a pretty good crop last year doing that, but can’t say whether it was better than other years. Happy tomato growing!

By: Anna

Anna — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 03:37:56 +0000

Brandywine is sure indeterminate, Celebrity is said to be determinate (I have not grown it yet, not sure), you can Google the others if you do not have the seed package anymore.
But even if you are not sure, just gave them some time. If the plant stops growing after setting out flowers, it is a determinate plant. They (usually) stop growing when fruit sets on the terminal or top bud, ripen all their crop near the same time, and then die.
Indeterminate grow tall, bloom, set new fruit and ripen fruit throughout the whole growing season.
I hope this is helpful.