Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi Everyone, I am new to all this and just having a go at growing a few vegetables in pots on the back yard. I have a tomato plants which is starting to flower (currently has 3 flowers). I read that you have to pinch out new shoots to concentrate energy toward growing fruit. But which shoots should i pinch? How do i know that the shoot will not develop into a flower or a fruit in which case i would not want to pinch it out?

Hi rookie adam,you pinch out the growth between the main stalk and the branch if you see what i mean.If you wait until its a few inches long,you can plant the growth and you will have another plant from it.Thats what i've done.Dont do this if you are growing a bush tomato though.Just leave it.Hope you get lots of tomatoes!

Before we can advise properly we need to know which variety of tomato you are growing. Some are bush varieties which need no pinching out, and some are cordon varieties which do need side shoots removing.

Cordon i think

pinch out when you get between 4 to 6 trusses....

Where do the tomatoes grow under the flower? Is there a danger of pinching them out by accident?

I find the whole idea of to pinch out or not to pinch out really confusing. I have bush tomatoes (which you are not supposed to pinch out) but they were putting all the energy into producing greenery, so I pinched them out and quite radically hacked some of them back and now I have tomatoes all over the place.

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pjh75

We sow the seed, nature grows the seed, we eat the seed.

I was going to ask the same question! We have cordon type varieties growing at the moment, and they have a couple of flowers, but mostly leafy! We have been pinching out (I think correctly!) and am worried we have ruined the chance of fruits producing.

"We have been pinching out (I think correctly!)"

I suggesting having a look at this video

How To Prune Tomatoes

Thank you for that link!