Pinching and Potting

[WiZeR]

My only surviving tomato plant seems to be coming on nicely. Somewhere in the back of my head I hear a voice mumbling about 'pinching out'.




So what's all this pinching out lark and do i need to do it?

Also, my courgette plants are coming on.



They are growing in 4" newspaper pots and are now about 4" tall. When is it time to pot them on to bigger pots? and how big should those pots be?

Thanks

[Lesley Jay]

Wizer they look very good. Don't pinch out the tops and with courgettes I grow them in 3 inch pots so your 4 inch newspaper pots look fine to me.

[Nicos]

wizer - if the tomato is a bush or tumbling variety, it is not supposed to be pinched out at all. If it is a typical one -I think you pinch out the side shoots and top later on ,but perhaps one of the tomato experts can advise you how and when to do that later on?

The cougette look great (....and the pots! )

[WiZeR]

It's called Gardener's Delight

[andrewo]

Wait until you've got it growing and you pinch out any side shoots but not at this stage.

[sewer rat]

WiZeR
Gardeners Delight is an outdoor cordon tomato.
The "pinching out" you are referring to is as Andrewo says, the removal of side shoots. As your tomato plant grows, it sends out leaf stalks, and these in turn flower and then produce fruit (god willing anyway!). Where these main stalks join the stem, the plant will endeavour to produce these side shoots. These should be pinched out - this is easier to do when they are about an inch long - too small and you can't grip them properly to remove them cleanly.
Hope you followed that - it's dead easy to show someone but not so easy to put it in writing.

[nick the grief]

Your right rat, so here's a bad drawing I've found & tried to make it better with a bit of colour.

[andrewo]

Also, you will notice as they get taller that the bottom leaves may turn yellow, don't worry, this is the toms drawing all the nutrients up to higher trusses and fruit, just take these leaves off when it happens.

[SueA]

Your toms look fine. you don't need to pinch out the tops at all but I usually do that when the plants reach the top of the canes (about 4ft) or they will keep on growing upwards & not concentrate on producung fruit. you have to pinch out the little shoots of leaves which grow in the 'V' shape where the leaves grow off the main stem otherwise you end up with masses of leaves & trusses of tiny fruits which will never ripen but you shouldn't need to do this until the plants are growing well outdoors.

[WiZeR]

when should i start feeding?

[andrewo]

When they go in the ground, there are two schools on this that you feed once a week or just when the fruit sets. I tend to do it once a fortnight.

[nick the grief]

I feed mine once the first lot of flowers are open, twice a week at half strength. The theory being the hotter it gets,the faster they grow ,the more water they need so they get the feed to match. It would be the equivalant of you sitting down to eat an entire christmas cake in one go rather than nibbling at it

[sewer rat]

The advice I was given last year was to start feeding afer the first flowers have set and to feed weekly thereafter - seemed to work for me

[Nicos]

We feed once it's in flower,presuming that there should be plenty of nutrients already in the compost when planted out. Just goes to show....I wonder who gets the biggest/juiciest/flavoursome tomatoes in the end?!!

[nick the grief]

if you give them loads of water, you don't get so good a flavour I don't think Nicos, guess the flavour gets watered down!