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No dragon fruits right now. I have this problem with the stem rotting. I'm seeing a lot of bugs, so I cut off the stem that rot, and I started in new soil with heavy mulch, infrequent watering, and a neem soap soil drench. I'm hoping it helps.

I like to keep the suckers on my tomatoes.
 

alp

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No dragon fruits right now. I have this problem with the stem rotting. I'm seeing a lot of bugs, so I cut off the stem that rot, and I started in new soil with heavy mulch, infrequent watering, and a neem soap soil drench. I'm hoping it helps.

I like to keep the suckers on my tomatoes.

I read this

And it's especially important not to remove any healthy leaves if your tomato plants get full sun all day. They need every possible leaf to shade their fruits and protect them from sun scald—essentially a kind of fruit sunburn. The actual fruits of a plant can't process solar energy; only the leaves can do that. And having lots of leaves is great protection for plants in very hot and sunny locations. (This is why the common advice to 'ripen green tomatoes on a sunny windowsill' is equally bogus; all that sun is doing is cooking away flavor. If its fully grown, a green tomato will ripen in total darkness!)
 
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I read this

And it's especially important not to remove any healthy leaves if your tomato plants get full sun all day. They need every possible leaf to shade their fruits and protect them from sun scald—essentially a kind of fruit sunburn. The actual fruits of a plant can't process solar energy; only the leaves can do that. And having lots of leaves is great protection for plants in very hot and sunny locations. (This is why the common advice to 'ripen green tomatoes on a sunny windowsill' is equally bogus; all that sun is doing is cooking away flavor. If its fully grown, a green tomato will ripen in total darkness!)
I don't know where you found this material but the words in parenthesis is partially bogus. It all depends on what a "green tomato" is. If an IMMATURE tomato is placed on a windowsill then yes, what the writer says is true. But, a tomato is physically mature long before it changes to its final color. A tomato is mature when it starts to change color and that color is from green to white. When a green tomato shows the slightest lightening of its green it is mature and will ripen on a windowsill and the taste is not compromised. A green tomato with no lightening of its green color will turn red in time but its taste is not like a mature tomato. Grocery store tomatoes are picked green and gassed to make them color and the taste reflects this. Plus green tomatoes are harder and less likely to bruise during packaging and shipping.
What is a fully grown tomato? Is it its size or its age? It can't be size because all tomato plants will produce a fruit that is much smaller than its brethren and yet turn red at the same time as the large ones. Maturity determines the taste of a tomato, not at which color it was picked. And age determines maturity.
I must pick all of my tomatoes at the white stage. If they start turning pink or yellow or whatever color, animals and birds will ruin them. I ripen my tomatoes outside on a big table which is in deep shade all day long surrounded by chicken wire. As they reach their final color I move them inside to either eat or process.
 

alp

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Glad that it excites some discussion. I have no idea of its right or wrong. Here in the UK, we are told to remove the suckers .. I found this and thought it was probably the reason @CrazyConure doesn't want to remove his tomato suckers..
 
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Glad that it excites some discussion. I have no idea of its right or wrong. Here in the UK, we are told to remove the suckers .. I found this and thought it was probably the reason @CrazyConure doesn't want to remove his tomato suckers..
The reason why we don't remove suckers is that we have enough sunlight to properly maintain all of the foliage that a tomato plant produces. Even in the fall/winter in southern Florida there is plenty of sunshine. Also in the spring/summer the sunlight and heat is so intense that sunscald becomes a big problem. And removing suckers reduces production as the suckers are where future fruit will be formed.
 

alp

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I wish I had your amount and intensity of sunshine .. Alas.. today we have 16c max and the heat can't excite any flowers to bloom, not to say to fruit ..

Indeed, I'm blessed to have sunshine here. Some people live under a perpetual rain clouds and/or just clouds..
 
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Glad that it excites some discussion. I have no idea of its right or wrong. Here in the UK, we are told to remove the suckers .. I found this and thought it was probably the reason @CrazyConure doesn't want to remove his tomato suckers..

Yep. That's why. The leaves also is what gives the tomato its flavor from the sugars. I also feel like since it's a dwarf variety, removing side shoots will reduce fruit quantity.
 

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