cherry tomato question

Scituate, MA

I'm fairly new to gardening and have a bunch of "Super Sweet" cherry tomato plants. I've been removing suckers all along, and have recently topped the plants since they are about 6' tall now. I have a bunch of yellow flowers and green tomatoes near the top. Question is: should I continue to pinch off suckers, even at the top? Am I actually pinching off the new growth that might turn into tomatoes, or do suckers never produce? Why are there only flowers/tomatoes near the top? Do the viney shoots that hold tomatoes just start to grow from lower in the plant or did I pinch them all off by accident? Thanks for any info!

Cleveland,GA/Atlanta, GA(Zone 7b)

You have pinched of the auxiliary side shoots that would have grown and produced fruit. Pinching off suckers might be desirable if you are trying to grow less but bigger fruit. Kind of defeats the purpose of growing a cherry tomato as notoriously prolific as 'Super Sweet'.

I grow fifteen to twenty varieties, and about forty plants each year. I cut a few suckers to make late season root cuttings and never top plants. The exception is to remove damaged or diseased branches.

Nicholasville, KY

If you cage your plants say 24 diameter and 5’ tall” you don’t need to remove suckers.If you use a single pole you can remove suckers. I have grown tomatoes all my life and never remove suckers due to using cages. Removing suckers will give you larder tomatoes nor pruning tomatoes can notice used can give you more tomatoes.
I do remove about 18” of growth on bottom of cage for air circulation . I jut let them grow
Like my parents and grandparents did

This message was edited Jul 23, 2020 9:52 AM

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