Which one is the sucker and which one is the main leader?
I’m almost positive that this is a Cherokee purple tomato however this is my first time growing the variety. I was just wondering, which one the Main leader is and which one the sucker is.
by Huntmastaflex
5 Comments
skitskat7
The answer is “yes”. Mine look the same on the main.
tomatocrazzie
They are both growth tips that will produce tomatoes. “Suckers” are not really a horticulturally precise term. I grew up understanding them to be shots that come from the bottom of the plant late in the season that are leggy and rarely produce fruit. It wasn’t until I was on this sub that I saw people refer to any new leader as a sucker. There is no requirement to prune these.
I-am-the-law420
I wouldn’t prune this at all, the two upward stems at 45* degrees are both “suckers”, the double stem looking one in the middle seems to be your main, there should still be a growth tip(maybe 2) probably at the top of the flower cluster
carlovmon
The sucker is the one you’re holding as well as the other one growing across from it. The sucker always grows between the armpit of the main stem and a leaf stem. As the plant grows, try to only pruned suckers that are below your top most flower bud. This is a safe rule of thumb to avoid clipping your main stem.
GetToTheChomper
The question is, IS there a central leader on this plant? It looks like you may have a bit of a mutated flower cluster in the center and two suckers. I’ve had several tomato starts I picked up this season that did not have a central leader at all and instead had a situation similar to this going on – I just let a sucker take over in that case and it usually works out fine. You could keep both or just pick one and prune off the other, it really doesn’t matter which.
5 Comments
The answer is “yes”. Mine look the same on the main.
They are both growth tips that will produce tomatoes. “Suckers” are not really a horticulturally precise term. I grew up understanding them to be shots that come from the bottom of the plant late in the season that are leggy and rarely produce fruit. It wasn’t until I was on this sub that I saw people refer to any new leader as a sucker. There is no requirement to prune these.
I wouldn’t prune this at all, the two upward stems at 45* degrees are both “suckers”, the double stem looking one in the middle seems to be your main, there should still be a growth tip(maybe 2) probably at the top of the flower cluster
The sucker is the one you’re holding as well as the other one growing across from it. The sucker always grows between the armpit of the main stem and a leaf stem. As the plant grows, try to only pruned suckers that are below your top most flower bud. This is a safe rule of thumb to avoid clipping your main stem.
The question is, IS there a central leader on this plant? It looks like you may have a bit of a mutated flower cluster in the center and two suckers. I’ve had several tomato starts I picked up this season that did not have a central leader at all and instead had a situation similar to this going on – I just let a sucker take over in that case and it usually works out fine. You could keep both or just pick one and prune off the other, it really doesn’t matter which.