Help needed with tomatoes - trusses, pinching shoots...

[MaggieW]

I've got six very healthy tomato plants and in my book it talks about pinching out shoots and removing trusses. What is a truss and which shoots do I pinch out please? The plants range between 15cm and 30cm high at the moment. Can anyone advise and tell me anything else I should be doing please?

i am in the same boat as you and my dad (an experienced grower) said shoots will appear between the stem and the "branches", and they should be removed

It's these shoots
I don't know about trusses

Also, there are good videos on the Gardeners' World website.

Why do you have to do that? I also have tomato plants growing well and I had no idea I was supposed to do this. ANyone know the reason why?

I take off most of the leaves and any stems that are growing out to form 'branches' I just leave the tomato bits and some of the top leaves. Not sure of this is righht but I've neevr had any trouble doing it and I get over run with toms. They seem a pretty tough plant.

TRuss is the little branch with the yellow flowers on it that become the bunch of tomatoes

You pinch out the shoots on vine type toms so that you end up eith a long stalk just with trusses of fruits all the way up - it waves the plant bothering to put energy into growing leaves, wneh you want it to grow fruit.

Bush toms are a bush not a vine and you let them go mad and do what they want - they will also fruit well, but are a nightmare to prop up.

Once more in English this time:

You pinch out the shoots on vine type toms so that you end up with a long stalk just with trusses of fruits all the way up - it saves the plant bothering to put energy into growing leaves, when you want it to grow fruit.

Bush toms are a bush not a vine and you let them go mad and do what they want - they will also fruit well, but are a nightmare to prop up

Yes if you imagine a cordon type tomato plant ( ie most tomato plants but not bush variety ), they grow upwards. They have on either side of the main stem some big branches that will form flowers and then fruit, this is called a truss. Most books advise you to "stop" the tomato at 5 trusses.

This means you must pinch off any growth above five trusses of flowers/fruits. This has the effect of concentrating the plant on producing the best fruit in the 5 trusses. Its unlikely to need to be done for a month or so.

Apparently when you pinch out the side shoots you can pop them in compost and they root easily, giving you a free tomato plant the same age as its parent.

Thanks so much all - much clearer now!