Right on! The only advice in that article that I follow is burying the stems both when I pot up--once--and when I plant into the garden, as early as I dare, holding some plants back as replacements in case a hard freeze takes them out.

This is off topic, but I just posted to another question that got me thinking about it. So many popular garden books don't seem to be practical for us. Take the practice of building deep raised beds in small sizes. 4x4 beds a foot deep sound like a great idea, but when I tried it, they had to be hand watered frequently. (The drainage was TOO good.) I hated that, so ripped them out. Last summer I still had several--17--beds that were 4x12 and just one landscape timber high. Still had to be watered by hand. So we are ripping 10 of them out and redoing the orientation of the beds to make 4 beds 4x25 in the ground. That way I can lay a doubled 50 ft soaker hose in each bed and water all four beds at once with the splitter that DH made--or turn off any hose to water only what needs it. That will still leave me 7 small beds to water by hand, but that I can deal with.

Like Dawn said, reading books written in other parts of the country can lead to a bunch of frustration.

Since my initial interest in 2012, I've continued to experiment with pinching. Last year mother nature pinched one that was covered up to protect from a late frost. The top of the plant was touching the lid covering the bucket it was planted in and was burnt by the frost. The plant was set back at first but then new growth came on with two terminal leaders instead of one and it became one of my best producers in what was a mediocre year.
This year I started several varieties of indeterminates both hybrid and heirloom very early, December 20th. The following photos show four of the pinched plants that have been potted up twice. They are now in four inch pots and are now 4-6 inches tall. The pinching triggers the formation of suckers from the nodes and show at least three terminal growth tips. My belief is that these pinched plants will give me a huge head start by already have 3-4 growth tips when they are transplanted later this month.

On January the 11th I started my determinates and more of the same indeterminates and none of these will be pinched.

Call me stubborn, but I have to find out for myself!

Keith

Well .... I don't know bout pinching, but I'm glad I'm not the only one who hoards cottage cheese containers :) My wife and daughters give me heck bout bein a pack rat.

I've got bout hundred of them in the garage. I drill a drain hole with my drill press , and they make a great pot.

I even buy the same brand cottage cheese :) , even the 2% fat. Hiland makes a good creamy cottage cheese :)

LC, Nope. You're not the only one. Cottage cheese containers make good pots. And Hiland, like Braums, doesn't treat their cows with rBGH.

Interesting idea! I'd love for you to be the guinea pig this year and report back on how it works so we all know if we should copy you! :) My problem isn't with leggy seedlings as much as it is with small root systems - I hate trying to pot up and finding 2/3 of my soil mix left in the container. I'm guessing it's because I usually start late (just started tomatoes this week, in fact) and the roots just haven't had time to go very deep by the time the top growth looks crowded.

I pinched a number of my peppers, and they did split off to make two terminals. Will be interesting to see if this increases pod production.

Live near Denton, removing all suckers as I see them on 40 tomato plants. 36" apart plants and every third plant have 6' t-post using Florida weave with twine applying as vines get taller keeping plants fairly vertical. Have great stand and many blooms/tomatoes as of today.
Noticing few green tomatoes with holes hoping this doesn't get worse. Some holes look like someone used a 1/2" drill bit but cannot find any evidence of worms or defecation. What is this?

warren31, Can you post a photo of the holes you're seeing in fruit? Usually if I see holes in my fruit, it is either birds pecking the fruit to get water or caterpillars. Since you're not seeing defecation, that kinda rules out caterpillars almost 100% of the time.

There's also a chance it is disease-related, but if that is the case, you ought to see some discoloration around the hole. I'll link the TAMU Tomato Problem Solver's green fruit disorder page. Maybe something in one of the photos will look like what you're seeing. I was thinking specifically of bacterial speck if the holes were very narrow.

I don't pinch plants back and likely never will, but I remove the lower foliage to improve air flow once the plants are several feet tall. I just did that on the largest plants, which were put in the ground in late March, last week. We've been harvesting fruit for a little over two weeks now and I've only had one that was pecked by birds, which isn't bad considering we're in Extreme Drought.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: TAMU Tomato Problem Solver-Green Fruit

Keith,

I'd love to hear how your pinching experiment turned out. I am in W. Washington where we have a short growing season. I just uppotted my tomato seedlings and am thinking of pinching the tops of them next week, as it's still a few months before it will be time to put them outside. Hope to hear the results of your experiments.

Lynne

Hello Lynne,

On Saturday when I have more time, I'll post some photos and tell the story of last year's best ever tomato crop. Thanks for your interest.

Keith

Hello again Lynne,

Snowed in in OKC, (2-3") and just came in from potting up more tomato and pepper seedlings in the garage. First a couple of photos of this year's pinched seedlings. I started seed for these on Dec. 20th. the winter solstice.

This one is a Sungold variety, If you look closely at the "V" where the side branches grow off the main stem, you will see the suckers have formed all along the main stem, even on the cotyledon leaves.

This one is a Betterboy variety and you can see the same along with the new terminal tip just above where it was pinched. Both of these plants were pinched 4 weeks ago. These and others will be potted up deeply into the 4" pots and will be set out in the garden as soon as the weather allows in the next month.

Last year was the first time I went all in and pinched all of my indeterminate seedlings and was also the first time I had a couple of transplants with buds on them already. I also followed Dr. Sam Cotner's advice from The Vegetable Book a Texan's Guide to Gardening and only set transplants in about 2" deep. Before I had always planted transplants several inches deep.

Here are a couple of photos from last year.

This one was taken on June 4th, about 9-10 weeks after transplanting. The white tops of the T-posts are at about 5' high.

This one was taken on June 22nd and is a coworker. As you can see the plants have grown into a tomato hedge and are 7' tall, they continued to grow taller then across the tops of each other.

Pinching will set your seedlings back about 3-4 weeks and keeping them cool, about 50 degrees if possible will help keep them from getting leggy.

While my experiment is by no means scientific, it has made a believer out of me. Last year I took sacks of tomatoes to work every couple of days, gave them to friends and family and had so many for us that they went bad on the kitchen table before we could eat them.

If you decide to pinch, I suggest you only pinch a few of each variety you grow and mark them on a map of your garden where they are planted. Also this is for only indeterminate (vining varieties) not determinate (bush varieties). If bush varieties are pinched they will produce less, at best, and might not produce at all.

Best of gardening luck to you!

Keith

Hi Keith, I just wanted to say your plants look great! Congrats on your success with pinching and on having such a wonderful harvest.

Also, I'm always happy when I see the legendary Dr. Sam Cotner mentioned here. I'm on my fourth copy of his book, having totally worn out each successive copy and replacing it once it started falling apart. Any book used so much that it falls apart in one's hands is well worth reading. Being a gardener, when the new copy arrives, I always compost the scattered pieces of the one that has fallen apart, and I believe in my heart that Dr. Cotner would approve of that. The late Dr. Cotner knew more about raising vegetables in our climate than anyone else could ever hope to know in one lifetime. His book is as useful to me now as it was when I first read it, which must have been sometime in the 1980s I guess. I ought to have it memorized by now. I have newer veggie books written for Texans (there aren't many written directly for Okies) that are very, very good and a couple that are excellent, but his book is and always will be my favorite.

Thanks for the update, Keith. Your plants are very impressive. Here it is rare for the temp to hit 90 degrees outside. We put our tomatoes outside in June. I started Amish paste on Feb 3rd (left) and Cherokee Purple (right) on Feb 6th. Here are a couple of photos of one of each of them today (Mar 3). Is it still too soon to pinch them? If not, where would I pinch them?

Hello Lynne,

From your photos it looks like the 4th true leaves are emerging now. This is from the excerpt above in my original post:

My favourite method of pruning tomato seedlings is to pinch the tops when they have three good, strong leaves and a fourth emerging about 3-4 weeks old. Tomato seedlings have alternate leaves one leaf grows out one side of the stem, then another grows out the other side a little further up, and so on. The original seed leaves fall off soon after the true leaves start to grow: don't count these. When you see the fourth leaf beginning to unfurl on a little stem, snip or pinch it off above the third leaf.

When the 4th true leaf is about 1 /2"-3/4" long, I snip it off using cuticle scissors. By your still being 3 months from transplanting, you probably will have to repot them deeply a couple of more times to keep them from getting too tall and leggy. Good Luck!

Keith

"The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies." -- Gertrude Jekyll

Keith are you saying pinch the 4th new leaf or the top at the "v"?

So I pinched everything above the first true set of leaves....am I doomed?