Texas Gardening: Tell me the truth, please., 3 by rouxcrew

rouxcrew wrote:
There are two main schools of thought on tomatoes, one is to pinch every sucker because they will rob the plant of strength etc, etc. Two is to let them go.
I am way too busy/lazy to pinch, I always miss some anyway. My tomatoes are heirlooms, are loosely caged, sometimes just sprawl around. I guess they could be called free range tomatoes.
I get tons of tomatoes on the suckers as well as the main trunk so I don't worry about it. The only time I prune it is to get rid of something not where it belongs like a scraggly branch or too thick leaves that block air flow. My dad was a sucker hater and religiously pinched, pruned and culled them. When the plants grew over the tops of his cages, he pinched them back. Mine just bend over and grow back toward the ground. Now he got a lot of tomatoes, all hybrids that I don't think ever would have grown to the six feet of my plants.
Do what makes you happy and don't sweat the ones you miss if you pinch.
Here is my row of San Marzano and Oxhearts. And a couple free range ones.