Ask ten gardeners what to do with tomato suckers and you’ll get about fifteen answers. Some pinch off every last one like it’s a religion. Others never touch them and grow perfectly good tomatoes. So who’s right?
Honestly, they both are, and by the end of this you’ll know exactly which camp fits you. Let me start with what a sucker even is, because you can’t decide what to do with something until you can spot it.
What is a tomato sucker?
A sucker is a new shoot that sprouts in the little crook between the main stem and a leaf. Picture the plant’s “armpit,” that 45 degree angle where a leaf branch meets the main stalk. That’s where a sucker pushes out. University of Wisconsin Extension defines it simply as a branch that forms in the leaf axil, the junction between a leaf and the main stem.
Here’s the thing about a sucker. Left alone, it isn’t just a little sprig. It grows into a full second stem, with its own leaves, its own flowers, and its own tomatoes. It’ll even grow suckers of its own. So a single unpruned plant can turn into a big, many armed bush.
The easiest way to tell a sucker from a regular part of the plant? Find that crotch between the main stem and a leaf. A shoot growing straight out of that joint is a sucker. The main stem grows up, the leaves grow out, and the sucker fills the angle in between. Once you’ve spotted a couple, you’ll see them everywhere.
Should you remove tomato suckers?
This is the real question, and the honest answer is: it depends on your tomato type and what you’re after. Let me lay out both sides so you can choose.
The case for removing them. Pull the suckers and the plant stops spending energy on endless foliage and puts it into the fruit instead. An open, less crowded plant also gets better airflow. Leaves dry faster, and that cuts down on the fungal diseases tomatoes are prone to. And with less leaf cover shading everything, the fruit tends to ripen a touch sooner. Wisconsin Extension backs all three of those. Removing suckers redirects energy to fruit, improves airflow and lowers disease risk, and speeds ripening.
The case for leaving them. Every sucker you keep grows more leaves, more flowers, and more fruit. So a plant with its suckers left on often gives you a higher total number of tomatoes. They just tend to run a bit smaller. All that extra foliage does another job too. It shades the fruit and protects it from sunscald, those bleached, sunburned patches you get when tomatoes are exposed to harsh direct sun. In a hot, sunny climate, that leaf cover is worth a lot.
So there’s your trade off in one line. Removing suckers gives you fewer but larger, earlier tomatoes on a tidy plant. Leaving them gives you more but smaller tomatoes on a bushier plant with better sun protection. Neither is wrong.
It comes down to your tomato type
Before you pinch a single sucker, you have to know whether your plant is determinate or indeterminate. It flips the answer completely.
Indeterminate tomatoes are the tall, vining kind that grow and fruit all season. These are the ones where removing suckers actually helps, since left alone they sprawl into an unmanageable thicket. Most people train an indeterminate to one or two main stems and pinch off the rest of the suckers as they appear.
Determinate tomatoes are compact bush types that grow to a set size and fruit in one main flush. On these, you should mostly leave the suckers alone. The suckers are where a big chunk of the crop comes from, so stripping them just throws away tomatoes. Clean up the growth below the first flower cluster and stop there.
If you’re not sure which type you’ve got, our types of tomatoes guide sorts it out fast. And since suckering is really one piece of the bigger pruning picture, our full guide on how to prune tomatoes puts it all together.
The one sucker worth keeping
Here’s a tip that surprises people. Even on an indeterminate plant you’re pruning hard, there’s one sucker you usually want to keep. The one right below the first flower cluster.
That particular sucker grows into an unusually strong shoot and becomes an excellent second stem loaded with fruit. So a common approach is to let that low sucker run as a second main stem, and pinch out everything else. You get the tidiness of a pruned plant plus a good productive second arm.
How to remove suckers the right way
Removing suckers is easy if you catch them early. Here’s how to do it without hurting the plant.
The golden rule is to get them while they’re small. When a sucker is just an inch or two long, you can pinch it right off between your finger and thumb. No tools, no wound to speak of, done in a second. Make a quick pass over your plants once a week and the whole job stays trivial.
Let a sucker grow into a thick branch and it’s a different story. Now you’re cutting off something substantial, leaving a big open wound that heals slowly and gives disease a way in. If you do have to remove a large one, use clean, sharp pruners and cut close to the main stem. Pick a dry day so the cut seals fast.
One gentler option worth knowing is called Missouri pruning. Instead of removing the whole sucker, you just pinch out its growing tip. The bottom two little leaflets stay in place. Those leaves help shade the fruit below from sunscald. The sucker still stops growing into a full stem. It’s a nice middle path in hot climates.
Whatever method you use, don’t get carried away. Strip off too much and you leave your tomatoes exposed to the sun. The aim is an open, healthy plant that still has enough leaf cover to shade its crop. When you’re unsure, take less.
Don’t toss those suckers, root them into new plants
Here’s the fun part, and the reason a lot of people search out suckers on purpose. Every sucker you pinch off can become a brand new tomato plant, completely free.
Tomatoes root incredibly easily from cuttings, and a sucker is a perfect cutting. Because the new plant grows from a piece of the parent, it’s an exact clone, same variety, same flavor, same everything. It’s the easiest plant propagation you’ll ever do.
To do it, take a bigger sucker, ideally around 6 to 8 inches long, rather than a tiny one. Then pick a method:
- In water: drop the cutting in a glass of water, stripping off any leaves that would sit below the waterline. Set it somewhere warm out of direct sun. Roots show up in about a week, then you pot it up. Quick and satisfying, though water roots are a little delicate.
- In soil: strip the lower leaves and poke the cutting into damp potting mix up to where the leaves were. Keep it moist and shaded. The full rooting timeline is in our guide to growing tomatoes from cuttings. It takes a bit longer, around 10 to 14 days to root, but the roots come out sturdier and you skip a transplanting step.
Gardening Know How notes that tomato cuttings are some of the fastest, easiest rooters around, and that the result is a true clone of the parent plant. Do this in early summer and you get a second wave of plants that fruit later in the season, extending your harvest for zero cost. Not bad for something you were going to throw away.
Frequently asked questions
What are tomato suckers?
A sucker is a shoot that grows in the crook between the main stem and a leaf. Left alone it becomes a full second stem with its own leaves, flowers, and fruit. Spot them by looking for growth coming straight out of that stem and leaf joint.
Should I remove tomato suckers?
On indeterminate (vining) plants, removing most suckers keeps the plant open and productive with larger, earlier fruit. On determinate (bush) plants, leave them, since that’s where much of the crop grows. It’s a trade off: removing gives fewer but bigger tomatoes, leaving gives more but smaller ones.
Do tomato suckers produce fruit?
Yes. A sucker left to grow becomes a full stem that flowers and sets its own tomatoes. That’s exactly why removing them reduces total fruit count but tends to increase the size of the fruit that remains.
Can you grow a tomato plant from a sucker?
Absolutely. A 6 to 8 inch sucker roots easily in a glass of water in about a week, or in damp soil in 10 to 14 days. The new plant is an exact clone of the parent, so it’s a free way to grow more of the same variety.
When should I remove suckers from tomato plants?
Remove them while they’re small, ideally under a couple of inches, so they pinch off cleanly with no real wound. Check your plants about once a week through the growing season and stay on top of new ones.
Bottom line: a sucker is the shoot in the crook between the stem and a leaf, and what you do with it depends on your plant. Pinch most of them off indeterminate types for bigger, earlier fruit and better airflow, leave them on determinate types, and always keep enough leaf cover to shade the fruit. And remember, any sucker you remove can be rooted into a free new plant. For the whole pruning picture, see our pruning guide above, and for everything else, our complete growing guide.