Pinching out (apologies if obvious!)

[pringe]

Hi - I'm mainly growing chillies over here in rainy UK, but at the local nursery today saw some 'supersweet' tomato plants and thought I'd give it a bash.

My question is...do you remove all side-shoots? I've searched considerably on google and some say to do it, others don't mention it. The plant has about 3 pairs of true leaves at the moment and is in a 4" pot.

Thanks for your help,

[MikeH]

As you have said ,some do and others wouldn't think of it.My way of thinking is the more branches,the more fruit you get in the long run.

The only way I would prune anything is if you can't get down the path anymore to pick them mater's

[nctomatoman]

The main reason I let all side shoots go is to increase the yield - if you let just one main stem go, and you don't get good fruit set on that stem, the yield will be low - and since we have such a wide temp. range, letting as many flowers form as possible ensures that a reasonable number will pollinate and produce fruit.

[Andrey_BY]

Usually I let 1-2 shoots go for indeterminate tomato varieties at my big greenhouse and give the full freedom to my determinate tomatoes in the open ground. In the first case it gives me bigger fruits much earlier. In the second case I have more chances to bear more, but smaller fruits in the open ground.
There is a compromise decision which I use at my small greenhouse. I grow determinate or semi-determinate varieties there and let 4-5 shoots go. Usually it helps me to bear at least the same yeild from not so tall plants as from tall tomato varieties.
Other advantage (in greenhouse) from such a pruning is of course more sun light for this tomato plant and its neighboor plants.

[michael johnson]

Pringe- the tomato variety you mention sounds like supersweet 100, and despite alternative views regarding side shooting of this variety- almost everybody I know over here in the UK takes off every available side shoot right to the top of the plant- it keeps them a lot tidier and easier to manage, you will still get double trusses of long strings of tomatoes all the way up until the fifth truss which usualy splits into a triple forked truss, and then further up it does it again .

I think you will have more than enough tomatoes as it is to deal with running into the hundreds you will be hardly able to keep up with it.

A Tip- to save bad spliting of ripe tomatoes on this variety - cut the length of truss off whole and lay carefully in a dish and only remove tomatoes off the stalks when you actualy eat them- otherwise almost all of them will split if you pull them off the plant into a dish and carry them back into the house.

[SelfSufficient1]

I never pinch off anything. I believe the more leaves the healthier the plant must be and the better able to produce more tomatoes.

[kimpossible]

I think it all depends on your circumstances - if you have lots of space & the size of the plant does not matter, leave it alone for maximum yield. If space is at a premium and you need to control the plant and realize that will result it reduced yields, then prune.

[michael johnson]

Tomato plants are very addaptable and obliging, they will respond to almost any treatment and survive.

you can use this fact to your own advantage and make them do what you want, if you leave the plant to its own devices it will grow thousands of leaves, and yards of roots from its stem all the way up, you can even wrap a bit of moist compost in a polythene bag at the stem near the top and within a few days it will produce roots- and a new plant if required?.

the hardest part of this equasion is to get the plant to produce maximum amount of fruit in the largest tasty size, in the shortest possible time, with the least amount of energy wasted on extra leaf production at the expense of fruit production, all the extra leaf production takes longer for the plant to reach maturity and the ultimate goal- it only tricks the plant into thinking that it can go on growing forever into a giant plant,on the other hand if you can trick the plant into thinking the season is growing short and its life is almost at an end-it will go into a must produce fruit and seeds mode to enable reproduction of the species- ( thats when you get the best tomatoes ) .

In order to demonstraight this fact to any doubting thomas- next season grow two indentical plants or four identical plants side by side - fully side shoot and prune one pair of plants -that must be supported by a strong stakes, take them up to eight foot high,then stop them.

the other pair of plants just let them grow with lots and lots of leaves/branches etc, and stop them at eight foot.

Keep records of the total weight and size of fruit from each pair of plants, and also the total length of time to final harvest of the fruit (this is the most important bit )and then compare the two findings- I think you will be pleasantly suprised at the results, feed on a regular ten day basis with liquid feed to all the side shooted ones, and whatever you like to feed to the other ones.

I have seen comments by people who say they tried both methods and didnt notice much difference in results- if you do the job properly there is a massive difference.

[Andrey_BY]

Here are some Russian tips about pinching out and using side shoots:

1. For indeterminate tomatoes we usually take off most of side shoots expect several lowest and one 4-th or 5-th to form the plant with 2 stems for the better sun access and bigger and early fruits. You can use one or two lowest side shoots to get more roots for your tomato plant. Let them grow up to 25-30 cm and dig 2 holes (6-10 cm deep) near shoots (from their sides). Put these 2 side shoots in those holes and clip them with pins and add more soil to cover all shoot except its top. Approx. after 2 weeks they will get new roots and you should cut the top of side shoot and cover it with more soil. More vigorous root system will help your tomato plant with better productivity and bigger fruit size.
Hope to experiment with such tip for some of my determinate tomato plants as well this season.

2. You can use first several side shoots from your tomato plants to get more plants of the certain variety almost with the same earliness to ripe the first fruits.
Time difference will be 5-7 days usually!

3. Prun only 1 or 2 side shoots at onces. More will get your tomato plant became weak and you will get fruits later.

4. For the faster maturing of tomato fruits some of our gardeners use copper wire and tie round the stem 2-3 cm higher the soil.