By making sure you buy the right kind of tomato plants(indeterminant)you’ll be able to grow them until they get to be 7 feet tall or even higher. The second trick for growing vertical tomatoes is to pinch back the suckers. Many folks might ask: “what’s a sucker? How do I know if I’m pinching back the right thing? The sucker is coming right out of the middle of the joint that’s pictured. I’ve also heard it referred to as that which is growing “in the crotch.” It might be an odd saying but it seems to help folks understand what to pinch back. In longer growing seasons you can actually take this “sucker” and plant it somewhere else in your garden and it’ll grow an entirely new tomato plant all by itself. This is the key to grow your plants really tall by the end of the season. This particular tomato plant is from Johnny’s. The variety is Sun Gold, and it’s said to be the sweetest cherry tomato available-even sweeter than Sweet 100’s. Unfortunately, I put them out a little too soon and didn’t cover on a freeze and now they’re gone. I’ve got others growing that are close to the taste, but not quit. I hope the information/picture on the sucker helps out…
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Thanks for the info!
Outside of pinching back the suckers do you do any other pruning of your tomatoes? Do you cut back any of the leave branches that are close to the ground or do you leave them all.
Thanks for the advice!
Hi Ken, I do no pruning of my tomato plants during the year. When I put them in the ground I will peel back the first foot or so of anything growing off the main stem, but that’s about it. If you go into the photo gallery I think I’ve got several pictures of what my tomatoes look like throughout the season that will give you an idea of what mine look like….Jim
Thanks Jim – appreciate the info
So I think I see the 2 suckers you have there yes? I need to do this to my tomato plant. I did not know I should be doing this. That explains why mine is short and wide. Thanks for the great tip Jim!
Ben
Ben…yep, those are both suckers, but the one on the right shows it really well. You also may have plants that turned out to be short and stocky because you probably bought/planted the wrong kind of tomatoes. More than likely you bought “determinant” tomatoes versus “indeterminant.” I think you’ll have a different experience this year.