when to pinch tomatoes?????

[sallynjack6]

hello everyone, i am very new on here and at gardening! i have successfully managed to grow some indoor tomatoes from seed, they are about 4 inhes tall and i am wondering if i need to pinch top leaves to keep them nice and bushy or not? never grew them in my life before so any advie would be grand! cheers sally

[DavidT]

Good evening Sally and welcome to the site. What sort of tomatoes are you growing, vine or bush? Bush toms don`t need stopping, but vine ones should be pinched out when there are 4 trusses. Also, If you are growing a vine variety, you need to remove any side shoots.

[sallynjack6]

they are bush tomatoes cannot remember variety, i know i dont need to worry because mine are not vine toms, but what is a truss? sorry if i sound stupid! thanks for the quick reply too !

[DavidT]

When the plants flower, the group of flowers form the truss. When the flowers drop you are left with the tomatoes. As you are growing bush tomatoes don`t go pinching anything out. When the flowers "set ", that is have baby tomatoes behind them, start feeding with tomato food.

[sallynjack6]

brilliant thank you very much, i will keep my pinching fingers well away! and hopefully get some tomatoes!

[DavidT]

You can pinch tomatoes when they are ripe.