Juicy, sun-ripened, and full of flavour – homegrown tomatoes are the crown jewel of the summer garden. During May and June, I planted two tomato plants near two other plants in hopes of a better yield, and they’re coming along nicely. The first was planted near basil, and the second tomato plant was grown near marigolds.
Since planting them, I’ve been watering and fertilising them, but that’s not the only thing they’ve required. According to gardening guru Monty Don, once tomato plants are in the ground, they will grow strongly and need pinching out. This is one of the easiest tasks to do; it took me five seconds to do both plants, and you don’t need any tools for it.
If you leave your side shoots to grow, and don’t pinch them out, the plants may become very heavy, may become tangled, and could be hard to manage and control. They will take up a lot of space too.
Pinching out all of the side shoots tends to result in larger and tastier fruit. This is because the plant puts its energy into the fruit rather than into growing more foliage.
Plus, if you have too many stems coming out of the plant, it can also reduce the air to the plants and so increase the risk of disease.
For those unfamiliar with the shoots to pinch, these are the ones that grow. between the main, upright stalk and the branches (trusses). These often grow at a 45-degree angle.
It is easier to pinch the shoots out when they are small. I just used my finger and thumb together, literally as if I were pinching something, at the base of the shoot on the stalk, to remove the shoots really easily.
Once the shots grow larger, it will make them harder to remove, and you may need to use scissors or shears.
The advantage of pinching shoots out when they are young is that it leaves less of a scar on the plant, and so there is less chance of disease attacking it.
I added my shoots to the compost pile, but the larger ones can apparently be planted into wet compost and will form new tomato plants, though I haven’t tried this before.
After pinching out the tomato plants, I noticed that the plants could do with watering.
Given that it was the late afternoon, it was a good time to water the plants as the sun was still out, but it wasn’t too hot. This allowed roots to fully absorb moisture rather than it going to waste through evaporation and prevented the risk of disease and slugs.