'pinching out' tomatoes - please advise dimwit

[iheartdusty]

DM told me to pinch out the side shoots on my tomatoes in grow bags, but I can't tell which bits are side shoots. They all look like leaf stems to me. What am I supposed to be doing?

toms are now about a foot tall, they have lots of side stems with leaves on, but they only seem to be growing upwards at one point, if that makes sense.

one of them does have a shoot with flowers on, but don't I want those for fruit?

Side shoots are new little shoots that appear in the join between the leaf and the stem. (Think of them as growing in the plants armpits IYSWM?) They'll start as a little stalk with a tuft of leaves on top but if you leave them they'll quckly grow into new stems with leaves of their own and your plants will put all their energy into making leaves rather than fruit. If it has flowers on it though keep it!

'plants armpits' - what a fantastic description, I see exactly what you mean.

Thanks very much

Hope they do well and you get loads of toms.

I was about to post 'armpits' as well but see someone else got there first

Good luck with your toms!

Armpits is a great description!

Bear in mind that you only need to do this for some tomatoes - the ones described as "bush" varieties you cna just leave to grow as they like.