[markygreenfingers]

Hi everyone  

I know you must have had this question many times so please accept my apologises. I have heard you need to pinch/cut the little side shoots that appear between the stem and main leaf branch.

So before I do this can anyone advise me if this is right as I dont want to damage my tomato plants. I have small trusses of flower buds forming further up the plant that I will leave as these will be yummy tomatoes.

Also do I start feeding once the first trusses of tomatoes have started to form or wait until I have 5 - 6 trusses of tomatoes as I dont want to starve my tomato plants.

Any help and advice on this would be much appreciated as I am a newby

Thanks and take care

markygreenfingers  

[peggyprice]

Hi Marky, don't worry, I'm a newbie too  

But tomatoes I have grown before - and it depends whether they are bush type or cordon type.  Did you grow them from seed?  If so, the packet should tell you what type they are and whether they need the side shoots pinching out.

If you got them as plants or don't have any instructions, do you know what variety they are?

[markygreenfingers]

Hi Peggy

Thanks for the reply, I have gardeners delight tomatoes which I did grow from seeds   and they are cordons. They are about 18 inch tall at the moment and the first flower buds are starting to appear.

It does not say on the packet weather to pinch out the side shoots or not but I have heard if you do then the plant can concentrate on growing upwards and producing flowers/fruit.

So any advice on this would be great.

Thanks and take care

markygreenfingers  

[purplebean]

pinch  

[peggyprice]

Yep, Gardener's Delight - pinch.  Lovely tomato to grow - I'm hoping mine will do better this year than last - I don't have a greenhouse so everything got held back in the horrible wet weather and by the time they ripened they were too thick skinned to eat :-(

You're already ahead of me with flowers though  

[woodburner]

You can grow them as bush, too, apparently, but from experience I don't recommend it if you are growing them in pots! I have yet to try it in open ground, I have a dozen small plants waiting for the risk of frost to pass.  

[DD.]

As regards feeding - once the first fruit has 'set'.

[Stevens706]

Pinch out the side shoots and feed when you can see the tiny baby toms

[fibilou]

Do I need to pinch Tamina or Black Cherry ?

[markygreenfingers]

Hi Everybody

Thanks for the all the replies and invalueable advice once again  :thumright:

I am a newby and as this is the first time I have grown anything before the help I have recieved on this site is much appreciated.  

Thanks and take care

markygreenfingers  

[franmeerkat]

I was reading a Bob Flowerdew book last night and he suggests potting up the side shoots that you pinch out...these new plants, he says, will go on to fruit at the same time as the original plant. Never heard of this before, but will give it a go this year.

[DD.]

I was reading a Bob Flowerdew book last night and he suggests potting up the side shoots that you pinch out...these new plants, he says, will go on to fruit at the same time as the original plant. Never heard of this before, but will give it a go this year.

I've done this before & they are dead easy to root, but I wouldn't say they will fruit at the same time as the parent. They are well behind the parent plant in development.

[franmeerkat]

Oooh - thanks, DD! Very useful advice. Do you use growbags? Bob F has a real rant against them.

[DD.]

Oooh - thanks, DD! Very useful advice. Do you use growbags? Bob F has a real rant against them.

errrr - in what way?

If I'm going to put my foot in it, I may as well do now. Yes I use growbags, but I slit them open & put the compost into large plant pots! I find it one of the cheaper ways of buying compost.

I also grow a lot in the allotment - blight permitting! They go straight into the soil.

[franmeerkat]

He says that they're not big enough for the three plants they're meant to take, and the compost formula gives too much food at the start and not enough at the end of growing...made me think that I'd mix some topsoil up with the growbag compost and put my indoor toms into pots rather than the bags. Most of my toms, like yours, will go outdoors on the lotty.