Question
     Hi Mike:

         I am growing my first tomato's and

     getting all kinds of advice on removing

     the "suckers" off the plants.  Some tell

     me that it is at the "Y" of two branches,

     some tell me that it is any branch that

     does not show a blossom.  Thats alot of

     branches!  What should I be picking off?

     Why should I be doing this?  Will this

     produce more fruit?  The plants are nice

     and tall. however there are alot of

     branches with no blossoms. They get water

     every day.

                          Thank you

                           Charlie Sladky

Answer
Charlie, the suckers are the growth that occurs between the main stem and the leaf axil of the flower stem. Eventually, if allowed to grow, they branch out into their own plant.  By leaving these on, the plant expends much of its energy into the new growth rather than producing tomatoes.  You end up with more tomatoes over the long run, but sacrifice size and space.

The reason I prune the suckers is that I prefer the larger tomatoes and more compact growth.  Not only do you have a neater appearance to the plant, but you also have much better air circulation which means the plant is less prone to fungus diseases.  To prune, simply snap them off when they are about 2" in length.

Unfortunately we cannot paste jpg. files or other pictures on All Experts due to the formatting they use.  However, I would be glad to send you a photo if you supply your email address.  If you're not comfortable doing this, attached are some websites that give decent illustrations of tomato suckers.

http://msucares.com/pubs/infosheets/is0560.pdf

http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/pages/g00031.asp

http://ceinfo.unh.edu/pubs/HGPubs/baskweav.pdf#search='tomato%20suckers%20pinch'

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM608.pdf

http://msucares.com/lawn/garden/vegetables/tomatoes/

I hope these help.  Good luck, and have a great weekend.

Regards,

Mike