Tomato pinching

[piers]

My tom seedlings are now getting quite big and are hardening off in the cold frame. How many branches (trusses?) are you supposed to let develop before beginning to pinch out? Last year I let too many develop and got lots of miniscule tomatoes.

[piers]

[tim]

Indoors - up to 10, more normally 6-7.

Outdoors, depending on your climate, 3-4.

[cleo]

Just on my way to the gym but I think there is some confusion here between,trusses,stopping and pinching out side shoots on cordon type toms.

stephan.

[tim]

OK - I thought that piers meant 'how many trusses to leave on' before 'stopping'.

[terrace max]

Tomato seedlings getting big? Hardening off???!

Do you live in Malaga or what? Mine must be 3" tall and I sowed them in February!! Truly, it's grim up north...

[David R]

Too much panicking going on. For the last couple of years I have had self seeded toms growing in the garden (not the lottie, I grew those properly!) where unpicked fruit rotted into the ground. The seedlings come up in July and I get cherry toms a month later to have with my summer salad. I then leave a few late ones to rot, providing next years supply.


Not for the purists though...Same thing can be done with leeks that have self seeded.

[Budding Farmer]

Are we talking trusses of fruit or branches of leaves?  I would've thought trusses of fruit. 

I've never pinched mine out and just let them grow until the season is nearly at an end and then I've pruned the top off. 

How early should it be done - once the 10th truss appears?

[wardy]

I think the plant is reduced so it concentrates its efforts on fruiting rather than producing masses of green leaf.  So I leave about four sets of trusses (set of leafu clumps) on (outdoors) and cut off the rest.  Sorry for the non technical description of a truss  ;D

[fat larry]

i've bought two tom plants  - one is now 10 inches tall, the other about 6-7. they have about 8-10 branch growths. I never understand what all these tecnical terms are.

what do i cut and how do i know I'm cutting the right bits, and are you better to cut with a knife or snap of with hands etc

[kenkew]

A truss is the side stem where the fruit is produced, the bit you don't want to allow to grow is the stem in the pic.
This will rob a plant of energy and should be snapped off by a left-right bend with the fingers, don't cut it out.
If you look closely you'll see that this stem grows right in the crook between leaf and main stem. A truss grows from the side of the stem but not in the leaf joint.
(Trying to post the pic again. I'll reduce it and see if it works.)

[Svea]

we call them 'suckers' and they get removed every once in a while so that the tomato does indees concentrate on the main business.

you can root the 'suckers' very easily if you want more tomato plants :)
svea

[Veggie Mad]

My tomatoes are very slow to germinate this year, >:( I blame the weather (and the fact the plastic greenhouse blow over!)

[piers]

Yes, just to clarify, I was talking about trusses. Last year I let the plant get too tall and therefore it didn't concentrate all its energies on the trusses, where the fruit it. So my question was about how many trusses/branches to allow the plant in order to get the right balance between number of tomatoes and size of eventual fruit. 3-4 seems realistic?

[Moggle]

Yep what I have read agrees with what Tim says. 4 is ideal for outdoor, although some of my plants last year on a sheltered balcony I left 5 or 6 on with no noticable reduction in yield.

[kitty]

great picture kenkew-very clear thanks!

[redimp]

I can't see it and when I paste the link there is not photo at the end and I was thinking it would be useful as well as I am a tomato newbie

[kitty]

cant understand it clanger-its there for me.......pm kenkew...

[redimp]

If you have been here before it may be in your cache.  Will consider pming kenkew if picture does not show up tomorrow.