Growing Cherry Tomatoes. Do I need TO Pinch Out?

divadee

This is my first year growing cherry tomatoes. Normally grow the yellow sungold big tomatoes.

Now do i treat cherry tomatoes exactly the same ie. pinch out the side shoots etc...

Someone told me that i dont have to, but mr divadee is nagging me to death about it!!

Can anyone give me advice on looking after my new cherry plants. Which are already massive and lots of lovely flowers.

katskorner

If the plants are single cordon variety (most are) then yes you do need to pinch out sideshoots to maximise fruit production. Bush varieties do not usually need side-shooting.

Some cordons are Gardener's Delight, Sungold, Loveheart (Cutie), Ruby, Supersweet.

Hope this helps.

divadee

mr divadee threw away the card that comes with them but he seems to think they are moneymaker. Does that sound right for cherry tomatoes? When i google it they are not cherry but normal size fruit


should i strip off the bootom leaves that are turning yellow-ish as well, i always have done in the past.

Lord_Gardener

Yes to both q's, treat them like normal tom's!

divadee

Lord_Gardener wrote: »

Yes to both q's, treat them like normal tom's!

Thanks very much i will get on with doing that now. Will give them a good feed whilst I am out there.

LindseyM

Being a newbie at growing toms, I found this site really useful for showing what to prune

savingsara_2

I don't want to hijack this thread but this is my first year growing tomatoes and I'm nervous they're getting too much sun - do they ever need shading?
I bought one of those mini greenhouses from Instore last weekend which certainly protected them from last weekend's weather, but where I've put it is against a south-facing wall and it's getting pretty hot in there!
One plant is totem (I think!) they other two were given to me.

mapcr77

Hello, as a newbie gardener, I'm completely lost at what exactly does "pinching out" tomatoes mean. Sometimes gardening seems like a brand new language to me!

So, sorry about my ignorance, I hope someone out there can enlighten me.

Thanks! :beer:

olibearhorse

This completely threw me the first time I heard of 'pinching out'. I shall attempt to explain...

You have one main stem and side shoots growing out the sides. what you need to 'pinch out' are the little shoots that grow between the side shoots and the stem.

If I could draw this I would but hopefully this helps!

mapcr77

Thanks so much Olibearhorse. So does that literally mean I have to get rid of the side shoots and just let the main stem grow?

Thanks again!

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there
yep you will have the main stem of the plant, and then at coming off should be quite decent sized "branches"...if you look where the branch bits are joining the stem you will see new little shoots just remove them...regards jill