"Steve" wrote in message
...


norma briggs wrote:
Okay you pro's....pull the suckers or no? I have read arguments both
ways....any consensus here?


I do it both ways. I grow a few plants in cages and the others I
stake. In the cages, I let everything just grow. The staked plants
are kept to a single stem by pulling out the suckers. Sometimes I'll
let a stake carry one sucker to make a bigger plant.

I find the advantage to the ones that are staked is that they ripen
their first tomatoes a little earlier. The ones in the cages have
the potential to produce a larger, if later, crop. Here, I'm usually
better off with the staked plants because the season is so short.

Steve

I do it both ways too. I seem to get a few more tomatoes by not pruning the
suckers but the fruit is smaller. Olin