When I was young, my dad taught me to diligently pluck the suckers from between the tomato stems and branches. He showed me how to identify them, and how to carefully pinch them from the plant. Later, I learned that it is wise to collect the clippings and to compost them properly to avoid diseases. I usually just toss them into the scrub brush nearby.
But, another thing I learned is that you don't have to pinch them. You can choose instead to let them grow, creating more tomatoes, but smaller ones. Not a bad trade off. Like most things in my life, I take good advice, and figure out what works for me. Do I pinch or not? Both!
I try to pinch early on, to give the plant a firm structure and foundation. Later in the season I let more suckers grow, or miss some, and let them go crazy. I find that some of these create late season tomatoes, on the newer branches. If you have a late summer that goes into October, you may still have fruit!
That's what I do, try to keep pinched early on, but by later season, they've gotten away from me.
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Happens every year! Usually it's the squash vines that take over, blocking every path, and pulling down the tomatoes. That's why we have the squash cage. Five butternut sprouts are coming up, and Silver Slicer cucumbers along the west side. I put some pole beans on the east side, and it seems we spilled some butternut seeds in the corner, so there are backups!
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