Pruning tomatoes, cucumbers, and pumpkins

Cutting back side shoots is important for most summer vegetables. By removing them, you stop your plants from wasting energy.

These energy-sucking side shoots on tomatoes are called, well, suckers.

I'll show you how to recognize suckers on tomatoes, cucumbers, and pumpkins, and how to remove them.

After all, we aim for the maximum harvest in the minimum space. That is why we work in squares of 30 x 30 cm.

That applies to summer vegetables too, including the ones you grow by the trellis. If you let climbing summer vegetables do their own thing, they take up much more space in no time and leave no room for their neighbours.

To prevent that, it is really important to keep the plants compact, tidy, and within their own space.

All tall tomatoes produce side shoots. These grow in the axil - or armpit - between a leaf and the main stem.

They're called suckers for a reason: they are major energy suckers. So, get rid of 'em quick.

Small suckers snap off easily: 

But when they get bigger, use scissors: 

Check regularly for new suckers and remove them as soon as you see them: they'll grow into full-on side branches before you know it. 

Check the spots where you removed suckers before: sometimes they grow back in the same place.

Don't forget to check the bottom half of your plant. I've overlooked plenty of suckers close to the ground and wound up with huge side branches there. 

Do you have to prune tomato varieties that grow close to the ground? No: these varieties are supposed to get nice and bushy. Like our Yellomato:

There is one exception: if it's late in the year. 

If suckers show up on your bushy tomatoes in the fall, better cut them off. Your plant needs all its energy to ripen the tomatoes that are already there. 

A cucumber plant quickly turns into a tangle of stems and vines with flowers and cucumber fruits. This is our cucumber:

Cucumber side shoots aren't quite like tomato suckers. They can actually help you get a bigger harvest. So, you don't remove them right away.

You also don't want to let them grow forever. 

So, let them turn into side shoots but cut them off after the first flowers and cucumbers appear.

Here, some visual aides should help:

That little side shoot will just keep growing and growing. 

When it gets to be 10-20 cm long, you'll already see a few flowers and little cucumber fruits on it. So, cut off the rest of the side shoot after the first two cucumber fruits:

A pumpkin also produces a lot of side shoots. These have enormous growing power, so it's better to remove them all right away.

That can be a bit of a challenge when the plant is just starting to grow since the main stem and the side shoots look really similar.

So, start at the bottom of the plant, look carefully for the main stem. Then cut away the side shoots one by one.

After that, you can gently weave the main stem through the trellis net:

The bigger the pumpkin plant, the easier it is to identify the main stem. It gets thicker and usually dark green in color, while the side branches are thinner and light green.

Oh, and if the main stem accidentally breaks off when you're weaving it through the trellis, don't panic. Just let the next side branch grow out. It'll take over as the main stem.

That's one advantage of having so many side shoots, isn't it?

Our climbing zucchini - the Black Forest F1 - usually doesn't produce any side shoots. But once in a while, you'll spot a side branch growing at the base of the plant. Better remove it.

And one last tip for large tomato suckers you only discover late: pop them in water for fun. Roots soon grow along the stem, and just like that you have a new plant.

So, now you know what suckers and side shoots are. And how and why you should remove them: they use up a lot of energy, which would be better spent producing fruit.

So, check your plants often and get those suckers out of there.

Go get 'm 😉