Tomato Suckers: Remove or Keep?
Anyone who grows tomatoes quickly discovers that the plant loves to spread sideways. These side shoots – called suckers – can be either your ally or a problem. It all depends on what you want to achieve and how you choose to train the plant.
What exactly is a sucker?
A sucker (also called a side shoot) is a shoot that grows from the leaf axil – the small triangular space where the leaf stalk meets the main stem. A new branch emerges from that point, with every intention of becoming a full stem in its own right.
Suckers grow surprisingly fast. Leave them alone for a week or two and they can reach tens of centimetres. The bigger they are, the larger the wound when you remove them – which is why the best time to remove a sucker is when it's under 5 cm. Small suckers can be snapped off with your fingers without scissors; the wound heals quickly and infection risk is minimal.
How to root a sucker into a free new plant
A large sucker doesn't have to go on the compost heap. Tomatoes root exceptionally easily – just:
- Place the shoot in a jar of water or push it straight into moist compost
- Water generously for the first few days to prevent wilting
- Keep at 20–25°C, away from direct full sun
Within one to two weeks adventitious roots will appear and you have a new plant – free, same variety, guaranteed.
Training methods
How many suckers you remove depends on how you want to grow the plant. Each approach has its advantages.
Single stem
Remove all suckers. One stem, trained vertically. Fruit is larger, ripens faster and more evenly, and plants can be spaced more tightly – meaning yield per square metre is often comparable to or better than multi-stem methods. Recommended in greenhouses and for indeterminate varieties.
Two stems
Keep the main stem plus one sucker – ideally the one just below the first flower truss, as it's the strongest and starts fruiting earliest. Remove all other suckers. A good compromise between yield and ease of management.
Three stems
Main stem plus two suckers. The plant needs more space and stronger support. More fruit overall, but each one will be smaller. Works well if you have the room and want a lot of tomatoes for sauces and preserves.
Free-range (no removal)
No sucker removal – the plant bushes out freely. Works best with determinate (bush) varieties, which stop growing after setting a fixed number of trusses. Even these produce suckers, but removing them is far less critical.
Indeterminate varieties grown free-range create a dense, tangled bush that's vulnerable to fungal disease. More stems means more fruit – but smaller, and harder to harvest.
What if two shoots appear from the same spot?
Sometimes two suckers emerge from a single leaf axil at once. Choose the stronger and healthier one and continue it as the main or planned stem. Root the other one as a new plant, or simply remove it.
More stems = more fruit, but smaller
The plant distributes its resources across all stems. More stems means more fruit – but each one will be smaller. It's also worth remembering that single-stem plants are grown more densely, so yield per square metre often looks quite different from what a simple per-plant comparison would suggest.
Plan your tomato growing in the app
Use Gardener Planner to plan planting dates, companion plants and a care calendar – including sucker removal reminders.
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