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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] tomato suckering

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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] tomato suckering
  • Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2022 12:19:03 -0400

(We should try to remember to change subject lines as applicable.)

Does anyone know of any research done about this which considers flavor as well as yield?

From an heirloom variety, I'm getting nearly the flavor that I do from the same variety field grown. I sucker them only to keep a clean stem and area at the bottom of the plant, so leaves don't contact the soil in the pot. I think the extra foliage may be contributing to the flavor; but am not sure.

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 6A now I think
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale

On Jul 12, 2022, at 12:11 PM, Shoemaker, William H <wshoemak AT illinois.edu> wrote:

I've never read the studies done on suckering, but I've heard several researchers talk about results from their studies and who've offered recommendations. I sucker all my tomatoes as a result. The determinates I remove all the suckers starting with the one at the base of the plant up the main stalk to the one just below the first flower truss. That one I leave as studies show removing it can have a negative impact on the first flower sets. I do the same with indeterminates, but then I train them up poles to keep them off the ground. I still leave the one below the first flower truss but the I remove others as they emerge further up the main stalk, and the sucker I left under the flower truss, which becomes a second stalk. Inevitably, I miss some. I will sometimes use pruners to remove those, which often get too big to just break out at the base. With my cherry tomatoes, I often wait until fruit set several trusses up the plant, then look for another sucker near the base. I'll then train that one up the pole, treating it just like the main stalk. That gives me a later crop. I can keep my indeterminates going right up into Fall if pests don't get in the way.

Anyway, that's my brief take on suckering tomatoes.

Bill
William H. Shoemaker 
Retired fruit and vegetable horticulturist
University of Illinois
Now in NE Oregon, near Walla Walla, WA

From: Market-farming > on behalf of E C GRANATA 
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2022 5:06 PM
To: Market Farming 
 
I'd love some advice on suckering tomatoes.  I sucker the indeterminates, both heirloom and cherry, but not the one determinate cherry I grow.  And a local famer (Denver area) said not to sucker Romas.  




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