Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Sucka !!!

Sorry, I've been with seniors too long. Actually, they don't call people "sucka" anymore when they're calling them stupid. It's now "salt." Yes, the word 'salt' is now a noun, verb and interjection. Whereas you used to ask for salt when at the dinner table, now you can officially "salt" someone. For example, when someone is called on their idiotic statement another student could utter the equally idiotic term "salt" usually accompanied by an introductory "oooooh" or "HA!" It's equally conjugated as in "quit salting me," or "you just salted her good" which is grammatically incorrect as well, but by this point, who's caring? The term has its origin in the phrase 'to pour salt on a wound', although they don't even get that reference, therefore even their own usage of the term is lost on them, which is a saliting all on its own.

I digress. My purpose here is a discussion of the tomato "sucka" or sucker as the case may be. I hear discussions all of the time on whether or not to prune the suckers. If you do, you avoid the rumble in the jungle that you'd inevitably engage in, but also you're limiting the number of fruit your plant will produce. Then again, if the plant is producing more flowers than it's capable of holding fruit for, it will abort the flowers on its own.

Last year I did not prune my one yellow pear tomato and it was like guerrilla warfare trying to keep up with the never ending directions and masses of branches. My rigging was rather MacGyver like and in the end the whole thing came tumbling down which never happened to MacGyver and he made rigging out of ball point pens and snot.

This is where you interject...."Ooooooh...Salt." I deserve it.

So, to the point. Do you prune your suckers and why or why not. Not that you would, but try not to "salt" each other. I think I just hurt my own feelings. ;)

14 comments:

  1. I tend not to prune suckers. I prefer the tomato to be prolific than to hack it to death. That doesn't mean I never prune. Sometime when it gets too thick I prune it out to let the air flow through a bit better.

    I think Granny once said that if God wanted his tomatoes pruned, he wouldn't have created suckers in the first place.

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  2. I prune the "suckas", but with a relaxed disposition. I let a few stay and do their leafy green thing.

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  3. I pruned two of mine last year, and they looked so neat. Unfortunately, I didn't get more than maybe five tomatoes from each plant, while their unpruned (I know, that's not a word, so salt me) brothers gave me bushels of fruit. I do begin the season by pinching out a few suckers, but that soon wears thin with me.

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  4. Daphne's reply errored out. She said:

    I tend not to prune suckers. I prefer the tomato to be prolific than to hack it to death. That doesn't mean I never prune. Sometime when it gets too thick I prune it out to let the air flow through a bit better.

    I think Granny once said that if God wanted his tomatoes pruned, he wouldn't have created suckers in the first place.

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  5. Kelly's reply errored out.
    Here's what she said:

    I prune the "suckas", but with a relaxed disposition. I let a few stay and do their leafy green thing.

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  6. I don't want to prune, I really don't, but Daphne's right, I think. Some of my tomatoes back up to the house, so air flow may be a big deal. Maybe I'll prune sparingly from now on.

    So, next topic...how do you Macgyver your tomatoes? I could lag bolt them to the house, but I'm thinking that may be a bit extreme. Not for EG, that is, but for me, maybe yes.

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  7. I do and I don't. In the beginning, when it's easy to see the suckers, I try to prune. But once the tomatoes are growing like gangbusters, I can't really keep up. I do prune the lower leaves completely, up to at least a foot of stem, once the plant gets to about 3-4 feet tall.

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  8. Odd. I'm getting your comments via email, but they don't show here. Oh, wells.

    Ribbit: "So, next topic...how do you Macgyver your tomatoes? I could lag bolt them to the house, but I'm thinking that may be a bit extreme. Not for EG, that is, but for me, maybe yes."

    I did fasten mine to the house eaves by driving an 8' 1x2 into the ground and screwing the other end to the facia boards. Otherwise, they get too heavy and topple over in windstorms. The ones out in the garden got my sooper dooper tomato fortress. Those by the fences got their cages stapled to the cedar boards.

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  9. "ball point pens and snot." LOLROTFLMBO!

    I only pinch the suckers on the lower foot or two just to keep the leafs off the ground and then let nature do her thing.

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  10. Hi! Nope, not a pruner here... I let 'em grow baby grow. However, I thought I'd offer up a bit of helpful info for supporting your 'maters without having to resort to Macgiver tactics. I use a rolled up piece of wire fence for my tomato cage... it's five feet tall and allows for plenty o' support. It sure is funtional, and my tomatoes feel nice and secure. (Although sometimes I have to run a piece of bamboo thru the grid for extra support, but nothing major.) ;)

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  11. Granny, Something downright odd was happening with the posts last night, wasn't there. This morning, all seems to be well. We've had this problem before, I recollect, right?

    I think the rest of you are right. It's been about a month or so with religious sucker pruning. I'm not going to be able to keep up so power to the suckers! I suppose I can trim side brances to add air space as they grow.

    I am thinking, however, that with my limited space and shading issues that determinate plants may be the only way to go for me....but they're just not that exciting.

    Jamie, I love your idea. Your bamboo poles can act like a support bra as they all grow. Fantastic!

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  12. Ok, my first tomato vine I kept pruning the suckers, or what I thought were suckers. Oh, look, there's something extra growing I'll trim it off. Oh, there's another. Let's trim this way. Let's trim that way. I ended up with one stringy vine growing up and no tomatoes LOL. Now I just let them do whatever they want and watch the tomato horn worms chew the leaves and the raccoons steal the tomatoes (but they leave the leftovers in the compost bin so how can I complain?)
    BTW, I feel really with it now that I know about "salt" LOL.

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  13. "Salt," huh? The teens up here in Michigan are not saying that. They don't really have any new terms right now, just lots of incorrect uses of the verb "to be!" (As in, "It be HOT out there today!")

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  14. "Salt," huh? The teens up here in Michigan are not saying that. They don't really have any new terms right now, just lots of incorrect uses of the verb "to be!" (As in, "It be HOT out there today!")

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