[heygrow]

Is it a good idea to pinch out the growng tips on peas and mange tout when they get high enough and will this encorage more bushing up? Maybe I should also ask is it ok to do this as my mange tout are now over 6 ft.

Separate question. Should you also pinch out the tips on greenhouse cucumbers?

[Goosegirl]

They advise you to do it with sweet peas to make them bushier, so I don't see why it shouldn't work. Can't help with cukes as I don't grow them.

[mumofstig]

Pinching out for sweet peas is done when they're a few inches high, I don't think it would benefit plants that are already 6 ft tall 

Cucumber main stems can be trained upwards until the reach the top of the cane/netting, pinch out the top and then the sideshoots are left to grow hanging downwards

RHS advice here
http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/grow-your-own/vegetables/cucumbers

[heygrow]

Thanks for the answers.

Main reason MOS for pinching out the mangetout is I don't want them to get any higher.
They're only supposed to get to 4 ft! 

[mumofstig]

Let the top growth fall back down on itself - if you pinch out now you will delay flowering and pea production 

[Jackypam]

Birds have done mine for me! 

[jaydig]

I know that many years ago the farmers would pay a man to walk the pea fields with a twitch which he would use to strike off the tops of the pea plants in order to make them branch out and increase the crop. What I can't tell you is how tall the peas were when this was done. I shouldn't think they were too tiny or the man would have been going round the fields on his knees!

[Goosegirl]

I was always told to pinch out the tops of climbing beans to make them produce more from below - maybe the same principle?

[Jackypam]

Do you wait until they get to the top of the frame before you pinch GG.?

[Goosegirl]

Yes I do, but you still get more growth in the axils of the stems that make more climbing shoots, even at the top. I just pinch these out as well just to confine it all from taking over my greenhouse, but don't know if it is beneficial as they produce more beans than you can throw a stick at anyway.

[Annen]

I pinch the runner beans out when they get to the top, that is if I can reach them.  I usually let peas fall about the place looking untidy, but I don't grow many so it doesn't matter.

[Jackypam]

It's the first year my mange tout have grown tall enough to be untidy, so I'm very pleased with them.