Re: Query: Suckering Tomatoes




>From: "Rachel Wozniak" <rachel@merus.com>
>Reply-To: veggie-list@eskimo.com
>To: <veggie-list@eskimo.com>
>Subject: Re: Query: Suckering Tomatoes
>Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2000 20:10:04 -0700
>
>I have grown the Brandywine without pruning off the suckers and would not 
>do
>it that way again.  They got so big that the tomatoes were hidden and
>therefore hard to pick and slow to ripen.  Many of the tomatoes had black
>bottoms and/or very large pithy stems, which I feel was from lack of water.
>Boy, can a plant that size take a big drink!
>I have been looking for brandywine  tomatoes but am unable to find them 
>here in New Brunswick. Any advice as to where one might aquire them. Thanks 
>in advance fore aNY INFORMATION. Romeo
>In the current issue (June-July) of Kitchen Gardener is a very good article
>about this issue.  If you can find a copy to look at I think it would help.
>
>Rachel
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Julianne Wiley" <jlw@planetc.com>
>To: <veggie-list@eskimo.com>
>Sent: Monday, June 05, 2000 9:37 AM
>Subject: Query: Suckering Tomatoes
>
>
> > Dear gardeners,
> >
> > Do you sucker your tomatoes?
> >
> > One disadvantage of the sucker (some people say) is that it diverts too
>much
> > of the plant's energy into growing a whole new set of leaves, and thus 
>you
> > will tend to get many, but smaller, tomatoes.  Sometimes suckers grow so
>far
> > past the tomato cage laterally that they flop down to the ground, 
>tipping
> > (or even bending) the tomato cage from the weight.
> >
> > So some people sternly pinch off (or snap off) all the suckers so the
>plant
> > conforms more to a simple main-stem-and-branches form, rather than a 
>huge
> > sprawly bushy viney tomato-producing giant which mugs nearby basil and
> > pepper plants, and then sets out to go mano-a-mano with the kudzu.
> >
> > (I live in Eastern Tennessee, USDA zone 6b, quite near the Unaka 
>Mountains
> > which are officially Temperate Rain Forest.  We *know* kudzu.)
> >
> > On the other hand, I have heard of some people clipping off and rooting
>the
> > suckers, and starting a whole new batch of plants that way.
> >
> > And (on the OTHER other hand) some people say that the physical damage 
>of
> > snapping of all the suckers causes wounds in the plants which invites
> > insects, blights, wilts, etc.
> >
> > I have some fine vigorous Amish Brandywines here.  I don't want to ruin
> > them.  What would you do?
> >
> > Juli(Unaka)anne
>

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