April 8, 2025, 12:21 pm | Read time: 2 minutes
Thinning out is an important aspect of growing your own tomatoes. This involves removing the so-called suckers so that the plant can invest its energy in growth and fruit formation. However, there are exceptions to this rule. myHOMEBOOK editor Franka Kruse-Gering explains which plants can be grown without this practice.
Tomatoes from your own garden or balcony taste the best. You can taste not only the fruit but also all the work that went into it. However, it is important to follow the rules of the plants in order to achieve the desired results. For some tomato plants, thinning out is important, while for others, this procedure can even be harmful and should therefore not be carried out.
These Tomato Varieties Don’t Need Thinning
There are different types of tomato plants. On the one hand, pole tomatoes (also called indeterminate varieties) do need thinning, as they grow continuously and can become unruly without pruning. On the other hand, bush tomatoes and wild tomatoes do not require thinning. These do not need to be thinned out. Special varieties, such as balcony tomatoes, also do not need to be thinned out.
On the contrary, this procedure could have the opposite effect on some plants. The tomato plants could die because they put too much energy into “wound care.” This would weaken them too much. An overview of the most common tomato varieties:
- Pole tomatoes: Pole tomatoes are plants that continue to grow in height. They can grow over two meters tall.
- Bush and vine tomatoes: These varieties are characterized by compact growth and rarely grow taller than one meter. They grow bushy and do not need to be stabilized.
- Wild tomatoes: The fruits of wild tomatoes are very small, comparable to a cherry. This plant grows very bushy and bears many fruits.
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Why Is Pinching Out So Important?
Tomato plants need a lot of energy to produce tasty fruit. Some varieties form so-called suckers at the leaf axils. However, the tomato plant does not need these shoots. On the contrary, they take energy away from the plant as it grows. It is therefore important to remove them. If you are not sure whether it is a stingy shoot or not, you can look at the leaves. Small leaves grow first on a sucker, whereas flowers grow directly on a main shoot.