Pinching growing tips on tomato seedlings?
jcheckers
12 years ago
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mulberryknob
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Pinching tomato seedlings
Comments (5)Why? Think of how they grow. First "pinching" of a young seedling and pruning of an established plant aren't the same thing and have different effects on the plant. Whether or not pruning of an established plant is beneficial is a whole other can of worms. ;) Indet. varieties like other vines are woody stem plants with 1 terminal growing/blooming/fruit producing tip. None of the rest of the regular branches will produce fruit. Pinch/cut/break, accidently or on purpose, that terminal tip off, the plant will eventually grow sucker branches (V-stem side shoots) - it does that normally as it matures. These suckers will turn into secondary growing tips and will eventually produce fruit. But just like any secondary stems that sprout from the root, these are secondary not primary stems so they are subject to second-class, support, nutrient/water/supplies and production. They are the exit ramps to the gravel road from the interstate highway so to speak. Sucker branches will produce fruit but it is often smaller and it is later to develop and the weight of the fruit can easily cause the sucker branch to snap off. So why would you want to "terminate" that primary growing tip? Just to get a "bushier plant? If bushy plants are your goal, then grow determinate varieties. Det. varieties have multiple primary stems and terminal growing tips that will produce fruit. Pinch/trim/break one of them off the others will still produce just fine. But pinch or prune off too many of them and you reduce overall production of the plant. Since the point is production of fruit it pays to understand the nature of the variety you are growing. Dave...See MoreHow do i pinch / Should i Pinch Zinnia Seedlings w/Four Leaves
Comments (1)remove the growing tip it will encourage branching & will delay flowering........See MoreTomatoes in zone 5 - to pinch or not to pinch?
Comments (2)We don't pinch our maters. Spose it is a good thing to do. We just let everything go and harvest all the maters at first frost. Bag them in paper sacks and store in a cool dark place. Pull a few out and set in a sunny warm location. Throughout the winter, green maters ripen into beautiful red sweet fruits. We have had fresh maters in March using this technique. We have saved probably 150 green maters in early Oct in a bag and used this method. Good luck from Omak Wa. Dave...See Moretip roll, pale spots on tomato seedling leaves
Comments (5)Thank you both. Purple, I've had tomato blight before, both late blight and early blight (though never on seedlings), and I don't think this is it--the spot color is different and it isn't spreading in the same way Ken, I had them in the greenhouse in the sun for their first 3 weeks, then put them outside for an hour or so and brought them back into the greenhouse, then left them out for longer periods of time. They still come in at night as we're still getting freezes--I think the lowest temp they've been exposed to is 45 (though with strong wind it might affect them as if it were colder). I was hoping this was just environmental stress, wanted to check if it looked like a disease anyone knew. Thanks for your time and thought. Joanna...See Morejcheckers
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoLynn Dollar
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agomulberryknob
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoMiaOKC
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agosfmathews
9 years agolast modified: 9 years agowarren321
9 years agolast modified: 9 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
9 years agolast modified: 9 years agojcheckers
9 years agojcheckers
9 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
9 years agoexperimentsrus
9 years agojcheckers
9 years agoTina Kantor
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Okiedawn OK Zone 7