Turning Suckers Into Plants

 Each sucker is a new plant and takes energy to grow and produce fruit. When you take the suckers off your tomato plants you are giving the mother plant a boost in energy and at the same time creating a new tomato plant.

Make sure the sucker is about 5 to 6 inches tall before you remove it. This size seems to take hold quicker when planted.  You can pinch or cut it off.  It will look like a tomato plant without roots.

Bury it in the soil up to the top leaves and water. After the first few hours it will wilt. Don't be tempted to pull it out!! After several days it will "perk up" and as the root system takes hold it will become stronger and begin to grow.

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I have done this for several years and the tomatoes on the sucker plant have been just as tasty as the mother plant tomatoes. This is a great way to have several similar tomato plants without the cost and they will mature later so your tomatoes just keep coming!  

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Happy Gardening!

Single Stemming Tomato Plants

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I have been growing tomatoes for many years and this is the first year that I have been seriously single stemming my tomato plants.  I have to tell you that it truly is working for me. I have been harvesting tomatoes since the first week of July. They are much bigger and ripen quicker. My plants are very strong and growing taller then 6 feet so far. I have had as many as two dozen tomatoes on the vine since the beginning of the season and they just keep coming!!

Here's how I went about it. First I buried my tomato plant at least 1/3 of the way deep. I made sure to pinch off any branches that will be below the soil level. Second, as the plants grow, I pinch off any suckers that start to emerge from the main stem.

For those of you who do not know what a sucker is, look at your plant. Where the main stem meets a branch of leaves you will see an elbow or for those who are technical, a perpendicular angle. From this area a sucker (another plant) will start to grow. Before it gets too large I pinch it off.

Be sure not to pinch off the branch with the blossoms.  Repeat this procedure until the end of the season. In the meantime you should see more blossoms and bigger tomatoes. The stem of the plant will be thicker and stronger too.

The concept is that the energy it takes to grow the sucker will be going back toward the main plant and tomatoes of the main stem. Makes sense to me!

I know the season is well under way but hopefully this information will help you have a bumper crop of tomatoes next year.

Happy Gardening!