Pruning Indeterminate Tomatoes in Containers and Identifying Tomato 'Suckers'

Tips, Tricks

206385View count

4m 3sLength in seconds

Tomato 'suckers' will actually turn into stems that produce tomatoes. If you don't prune the 'suckers' from your indeterminate plants you will end up with dozens of stems that produce tomatoes. It is a problem. You will end up with too much growth that is difficult to manage. That can lead to diseases, more but smaller tomatoes and you end up with a plant that won't survive in a container. You have to prune indeterminate container tomatoes to one main productive stem. If you are adventurous and can manage the plants water... you can get away with to main production stems. New to Gardening? Check out my 2nd Gardening YouTube Channel dedicated to New Gardeners. The videos are longer and more detailed. Each video presents as if you are new to gardening. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAPRtyacJ69AUdb7o-TZLSw Join My Google+ Gardening Community called Our Tomato & Vegetable Gardens - we are approaching 2500 world-wide gardeners: https://plus.google.com/communities/114956817444053979636 or Link from My YouTube Page.

Comments

great vids, haven't nearly got thru all yet. What about the leaves themselves? Do you prune those to manage the size of the plant as well? I've always argued with myself that if you take off too many leaves (not just the suckers) then you deprive the plant of photosynthesis. But sometimes the plant just gets too unruly. Please advise. Thank you.

so much easy to understand when you take video that close. Thank you

Great video! Thank you.

God you are good.. so easy to understand and so comforting. Noobs wonder what to do and why.. but your explanations are just so cool. 'Suckers'? Didn't even know it was a thing until I started looking. Thanks for posting!!

i just did a hrroble thing and prune my cherry tomatoes with regular scissor ...how bad is that ????

Umm, I cut the branch instead of the sucker because the sucker was thicker :/ what do I do

First time ever growing my own vegetables. Growing tomatoes now. Can you replant those suckers?

oops I took some suckers off the determinate plant, will it be ok?

Very good Thanks for getting right to the point!

Wow! That was so very helpful. Thanks a bunch.

Why we need to remove the sucker?

i always cut the leaves which are super close to the soil....so my cherry tomatoes which i have in 5gallon containers doesnt have any branches on the bottom 10inches(more less). it is easier to mix some tomato food into the soil this way and i feel like the plant is able to give all its energy to the top part where it has all he flowers at

why do we need to cut suckers off most plants why can't we just leave suckers can you explain that a bit my friend I'm unfamiliar with suckers, and someone told me to prune my lemon tree and all the suckers I did this and it killed my lemon tree, my lemon tree was doing quite well when it had suckers

how do we know which tomatoes are indeterminate and which isn't? sorry if this is a stupid question...I am a beginner gardener and started tomatoes from scrap tomatoe seeds...

Good information. I will cut the suckers and root them

another lesson learned... thanks... 😆😉👍👍👍

Thank you

my question is regarding the lower branches that sprout out. I noticed you took the suckers out...but is it ever a good idea to cut off those lower branches too? You said to leave the top 1/3 or so alone on top...but is it ever good to just cut off everything below a certain point? I'm overwhelmed by the art of pruning and with some trees i've learned by manipulating trimming, you force all the energy to certain spots, thus certain growth. So would doing so in this case allow more energy to the top growth and tomatoes to flourish more? My lower branches don't seem to flower anyhow so i wondered if it was good to get them out of the running.

As another commenter on here, I too have been looking at videos on here on how to IDENTIFY suckers on a Container Tomato Plant. Your video is THE BEST Gary !! It was great that you repeated over and over what exactly was a sucker, and showed us and stressed this was a sucker as you removed it - superb! worked for me! I now feel confident that I know what a sucker is and I will take a look at my plants tomorrow. Mind you, they are only 2 feet high as yet. I have 6 plants - and I am new at this. Grew some last year, but did not prune them. I certainly did not remove any suckers, not knowing about them. The plants did tend to go all over the place, but I staked them up well and got loads of tomatoes off them. I have 6 plants, but they are only babies.

I had no idea there was an determinate and an indeterminate. I've been planting tomatoes for years in an old galvanized container. Total success every year, plus nice to pick tomatoes from my patio rather than mosquito bitten from walking to the garden.This was my first year to see "wilting" leaves. Today's newspaper introduced me to this topic of ind and d. Apparently this year I have my first indeterminate tomato plant. Glad I read the article and so glad to find your video. I hope my new knowledge gives me a healthy, fruit bearing plant. Thank you so much for sharing, Gary. Fingers crossed that I clipped properly. Joan