Yesterday Mr. Cooke came to the LACCHC’s garden and showed us a sucker on a tomato. At first, I was really confused about what a sucker was or what the purpose of it was. In short, a sucker on a tomato is a non-important stem coming out of between two stems.
The purpose of a sucker is essentially like a weed. It wants to absorb sunlight and grow. If suckers are not picked and remain on a tomato plant it could produce fewer tomatoes than one without suckers. Also, it was explained to us that if suckers remain on the plant, it will cause the plant to look like a bush instead a plant and when the plant is like a bush, less sunlight goes into the bush which means less tomatoes.
So when you’re out in your garden and you spot suckers on your tomatoes. Just hold the sucker tilt it to the side and break. It is as simple as that! Also, you can trim your tomatoes when they grow up. Starting from top to the flower cut off the extra stems besides the main stem.
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