When to start pruning suckers on big boy.

[Dawn]

I have some young plants. What pruning should I do now or in the future to get large fruit? I always get smallish fruits so I just stick to cherry tomatoes...But this year I'm determined. I know I planted them fairly close but they seemed to do better for me that way.

 

[Dawn]

I should add this is around my front porch , so once the grow over the tomato cage they get support from the porch rails.

 

[Durgan]

Don't remove the suckers. All stories about suckers is an urban myth IMO. Tying with strings to an overhead structure is far superior to those ridiculous cages. Your spacing looks about right and the plants are most healthy.

 

[Chuck]

Removing suckers is removing tomatoes. Tomatoes form and grow on suckers. The only place to remove suckers is where the climate is low light such as in the UK. If I removed suckers down here in Texas I couldn't make a crop because of sunscald. But you wanted BIG tomatoes, not a lot of tomatoes. The main thing to growing big tomatoes is sunlight. The more the better. From your picture it looks like you have big shade trees and the house itself will also add shade. Fertilizing is a bit tricky. Too much nitrogen and you will grow a big plant but not many fruits. Too little and you don't get big tomatoes but you get quite a few smaller ones. Also, varieties are of big concern. Just because they sell the seed or plants in your area doesn't necessarily mean that the plants will give good results. If I wanted to grow BIG tomatoes I would remove some of the blooms not the suckers they grow on. Please update your profile so we will know your hardiness zone and your location.

 

[Durgan]

http://durgan.org/2016/August 2016/29 August 2016 Sicilian Saucer Tomatoes/HTML/ 29 August 2016 Sicilian Saucer Tomatoes.
There are two Sicilian Saucer Tomato plants which are prolific producers. The fruit are large. The heaviest being 2 pounds and the texture is excellent. However all the fruit is somewhat scared. Twenty pounds were made into 9 liters of juice and pressure canned at 15 PSI for 15 minutes. The canning portion is not depicted.

 

[Dawn]

The front of my house where the tomatoes are gets direct sun from about 8am to 6pm. I wasnt clear about suckers. I will def just let them do their thing. Thanks.

 

[Dawn]

I'm in the piedmont 7.5 I believe.

 

[Dawn]

I mean 7b

 

[Dawn]

Don't remove the suckers. All stories about suckers is an urban myth IMO. Tying with strings to an overhead structure is far superior to those ridiculous cages. Your spacing looks about right and the plants are most healthy.

That is what we do when they outgrow the cages. We get hurricane winds here and it rains sideways on occasion, so the cages are mostly to protect them from bending over in the wind. I put them around my pepper plants too for that reason. But we tie with string from the eaves of our covered porch when they get big enough. I usually grow only Cherry tomatoes and have great success. I want some big tomatoes this time!

 

[Chuck]

I'm in the piedmont 7.5 I believe.

what state?

 

[Dawn]

Sc

 

[Chuck]

Sc

Most large varieties are mid-season to late season performers. If your climate is similar to mine it gets very warm at night starting mid-May or thereabouts. When the nighttime low temperatures are above 74F you will get very little fruit set on just about anything except cherry types.

 

[Dawn]

Ah that makes sense then as I've always had more than enough cherry tomatoes.

 

[Dawn]

Removing suckers is removing tomatoes. Tomatoes form and grow on suckers. The only place to remove suckers is where the climate is low light such as in the UK. If I removed suckers down here in Texas I couldn't make a crop because of sunscald. But you wanted BIG tomatoes, not a lot of tomatoes. The main thing to growing big tomatoes is sunlight. The more the better. From your picture it looks like you have big shade trees and the house itself will also add shade. Fertilizing is a bit tricky. Too much nitrogen and you will grow a big plant but not many fruits. Too little and you don't get big tomatoes but you get quite a few smaller ones. Also, varieties are of big concern. Just because they sell the seed or plants in your area doesn't necessarily mean that the plants will give good results. If I wanted to grow BIG tomatoes I would remove some of the blooms not the suckers they grow on. Please update your profile so we will know your hardiness zone and your location.

Would you remove the first set or 2 of flowers on such small plants? I usually do with my cherry tomatoes but I never was sure if I should

 

[Chuck]

Would you remove the first set or 2 of flowers on such small plants? I usually do with my cherry tomatoes but I never was sure if I should

No. If you want BIG tomatoes wait and see if the first flowers set fruit. If they do, then remove some of the newer BUDS later on and let the plant spend its energy on growing fruit size.