See ya, Sucka

A great debate among tomato growers seems to be whether to sucker the plants or not. For those not familiar, tomatoes begin to grow "suckers" at the joints where branches meet the main stalk. The first picture to the right shows a sucker emerging on the stalk just to the right of the flowers. These suckers are essentially new plants feeding off of the main plant. If left to grow long enough they'll blossom and produce fruit just as the main plant. Most casual gardeners may not even notice these additional stalks on the plant. I prefer to cut them while they're young and before they have much opportunity to suck away precious nutrients but there are good reasons to leave them and occasionally I will.

Some people prefer to leave the suckers to provide shade for the ripening fruit and to keep the ground a little cooler during the dog days. The result will be a bushier plant. I recently began growing heirlooms and have noticed that they are considerably "stalkier" than their hybrid counterparts. For this reason, I have left a couple of suckers just to provide a little shade. Another good reason to leave one good sucker is because of the possibility of some varieties to lose or have damaged the top of the plant that provides new growth. If the top of the plant is inadvertently broken off the plant will stop growing larger.

Whatever fruit you have on the bush is pretty much all you'll get. I had this happen last year to a plan that was about 18 inches tall and although it was healthy, it never got any taller and only

prooduced a few fruits. So having at least one backup is a pretty good idea.

The reason I clip them is because I believe they unnecessarily take nutrients from the main plant. This is only a problem until they begin to grow flowers and set fruit but up until that point they are just dead weight. The other reason is because, perhaps it's the human in me longing for order in a world of chaos, but I like the plants to appear groomed and not too bushy. I also tie my plants to stakes. That's probably another post in and of itself but tying to a stake forces me to interact with the plants and get to know them better than I would if I slapped a wire cage down and waited for fruit. So, since I'm a tie-er, I prefer to have one or two main stalks to worry about rather than 6 or 7.

If you decide to desucker your tomatoes, be sure to know the difference between the top of the

plan and a sucker. Generally, I won't cut anything in the top 2 or 3 levels of branches because it can be tough to distinguish. Romas are really bad about that. What appears to be the top one day can actually turn out to be a flower branch a day or two later so if there's any doubt, just wait.

Garden Journal?

I've always loved the idea of keeping a garden journal to take meticulous notes on the performance different vegetable plants based on variety, weather, soil, siting... the list goes on but every time I began to put my grand ambition into action, to create a great garden journal in

the spirit of Tho. Jefferson's great journal I'd freeze up on page one from fear of making a mistake. After all, TJ never scratched through misspellings or tore out pages of goofed up diagrams. Then one day it occurred to me if Jefferson were living today he wouldn't record his journal with feather, ink, and blotter - he'd BLOG!

I live in Richmond, Virginia and I enjoy vegetable gardening.

I'm no professional, but I was raised in Raleigh, NC working in the yard with my parents who are both great gardeners and my grandfather from Mississippi who always planted tomatoes and okra... huge amounts of okra. I planted my first garden when I was 16. Carved out of our backyard right up against the house I planted tomatoes, beans, and maybe squash. It didn't seem strange to me at the time but looking back I don't think any of my friends ever even thought about that kind of thing. Fast forward a few years and I found myself living and working on an old plantation my parents bought to renovate in Southern Virginia. That's where my interest really flourished. With an abundance of space, fertile natural amendments, and sunshine it was a fantastic living laboratory.

Now I find myself with my wonderful family in Richmond. I started a garden in our backyard last year and really enjoyed sharing the experience with my three daughters ages 3, 4, and 6 (in

2009). This blog is primarily a journal to record what's going on in my own garden but I also hope to get advice from other gardeners and inspire new ones.