To pinch or not to pinch.....

[dandycandyjellybean]

What is the thing about pinching out tomato plants after so many growing trusses or whatever? And could anyone explain it in laymans language? Ta muchly.

there was another thread about this a few weeks ago, basically you get "Mini branches" growing between the base of a branch and the main stem and you need to take them off, also you only want four or five "branches" so that the plant can put all its effort in feeding a few so you get bigger fruit.

like countydurhamlass says - you need to tell the plant to stop growing bigger and just concentrate on the fruit it already has. I tend to stop mine when they have 6 sets of tomatoes (or flowers) each, except for when I accidentally pinch out the growing point instead of the sideshoots.

However, don't do this for tomatoes designed to be bushy like Tumblers or other specifically developed for hanging baskets.

Apparently tomatoes orginate from hot counties (Mexico i think?) where they wouldn't die back in the winter, but keep going for a few years. Here we need them to give all their fruit in one season, so you pinch the side shoots out, this makes the plant think its under attack (or something) and it desperately tries to reproduce (hence the fruit).

Also i believe you don't want too much bushy-ness because that encourages blight, you want the air to be able to circulate nicely. Pinching the side shoots out is also a strangely satisying little job

There are two different types of "pinching out" that you need to do with tomatoes.

Number one is removing the side shoots. This is like shaving the armpits of the tomato plant! Except that the hair grows up. I try to be careful near the top as you can accidentally pinch off the growing tip if you are unlucky (as traumaqueen said). I tend to ignore the top until there is a clear distinction between the tip and the side shoots - it doesn't do that much harm.

As for pinching out the top, I haven't previously bothered but that's because my tomatoes always get going late so they never have more than 4 or 5 trusses anyway. Also cherry toms are a bit easier to grow - they ripen more quickly and develop at a nice rate between the different trusses. I have 10 plants this year and all but one are cherry toms