How do I get two main stems per tomato plant?

[EVP MAN]

My tomatoes this season will be tied to stakes and I'd like to prune them to produce two main stems. I'm not sure if I allow the sucker to grow above the first flower cluster OR is it the sucker below the cluster? I tried to research this but get different answers. Some sites say the sucker above the flower cluster while others say below. Maybe it doesn't matter but I'm a bit confused. Last season it wasn't an issue as I pinched off all suckers only allowing one main stem. I want to try two stems this year to boost my harvest a bit.

Rich from PA

[brooklyn1]

But your plants have only one root each... think about it, do you want to grow fruit or stem... you'll get more fruit, bigger and better fruit with one main stem. I recommend plucking/sacrificing some fruit so the remainder benefit... and tomatoes are heavy... don't leave so many that their weight breaks the stem and then you get nothing. With some kinds of tomato a lot of farmers don't stake, they let the plants vine on the ground so that an abundant crop doesn't break the plants. My suggestion is to someone who wants more tomatoes is to enlarge your garden and put in more tomato plants. You really can't fool Mother Nature.

[Pat Kiewicz]

I always keep the sucker that is below the first flower cluster.

The idea of two stems is (in part) to double the leaf cover and lower the chance of sunburning the fruit, so keeping the lower one makes the most sense to me.

[Phisherman]

Tomatoes are vines, and that is their behavior. If you want to boost production allow the tomato to vine on the ground protecting the fruit with a straw mulch. Staking tomatoes is an ideal method for restricted space areas. Remove the bottom or two clusters, that's all you need. Most tomatoes will produce many branches--I do not prune after removing the bottom two suckers. This is the second year I am feeding my tomato plants (and 21 pepper plants) epsom salts (1 T per 2 gallon water) once a week. You can also increase yields using companion planting, I suggest borage (bee plant).

[Bill who putters]

In the past sugared borage was on our table but it fell in disuse. Nice flowers blue if I remember this 30 years ago.

Still there are recipes for borage.