Once your tomato plant starts to grow, you will want to prune it to remove the suckers.

They will start to grow regardless of how you take care of your plant. You might notice them as your plant is growing, but think nothing of them. Suckers won’t harm your tomato plant, but will prevent it from producing more fruit.

A sucker is off-shoot growth that grows where the stem and a branch of the tomato plant meet. It doesn’t serve much of a purpose.

If you pick them off it will help encourage more growth because the plant can focus on growing more food instead of keeping the sucker alive.

To prune your tomato plant, eye your plant along the stem and look at where the branches are are. If you see growth in between the branch and the stem in that corner, you got yourself a sucker. Pick it off. You can either use your fingers or a scissor. That’s it.

You’ll have to check the plant every once in a while for suckers, but they are easy to identify and maintain.

That’s my suckers guide to removing suckers from your tomato plant.