Pinching out tomatoes: when, why and on which plant never

Your tomato grows and grows, but the fruit keeps you waiting? Then it is pouring its energy into leaves and new stems instead of the harvest. This is exactly where pinching out comes in: you take away the surplus side shoots and steer the plant's strength to where you want it.

It sounds like secret gardener's lore, but it takes about thirty seconds per plant once you know what to look for. The most common mistake is not pinching out wrongly, but pinching out the wrong tomato. So let us first sort out what a sucker actually is and which plant gets to keep it.

Cordon or bush tomato? That is the deciding question

Before you get to work, look at which type you planted. Everything else follows from that.

The rule of thumb is simple: if I have to tie it up, I pinch it out. If it stands on its own as a compact bush, I leave it alone. When in doubt, the growth habit is printed on the seed packet or shown in the plant profile.

Why bother at all? Because the pinched cordon tomato pushes its sugar reserves into the fruit instead of into leaf mass. The result: larger, more evenly ripening tomatoes, an airy plant that dries quickly after watering, and far less blight. In a wet summer especially, that open structure is your best protection.

One stem or two? The question of training

Pinching out does not necessarily mean removing everything down to a single stem. You decide how many leaders you train your cordon tomato on, and that changes yield, space needed and the pace of ripening.

The standard is single-stem training: you keep only the main stem and consistently pinch off everything else. The plant stays slim, ripens early and reliably and needs little space. In the greenhouse it is nearly always grown this way, led upward on a string.

If you want more fruit per plant and have the room, you can train two stems. To do that, keep a single strong sucker, ideally the one right below the first flower truss, and treat it like a second main stem: its own stake or string, and from there pinch out consistently again. You harvest more, but later and over more space. For a short outdoor season, single-stem is usually the safe choice.

How to pinch out properly

1. Pick the right moment

   Pinch out on a dry morning. The plant is under sap pressure then, the shoot snaps off cleanly, and the small wound dries over during the day before fungal spores can get in.

2. Find the sucker

   Run your eye up the main stem. Wherever a leaf branches off, a sucker sits in the axil above it. Flower and fruit trusses, by contrast, come straight out of the stem, not from a leaf axil, so you naturally leave those in place.

3. Snap it out while small

   As long as the sucker is young and soft (5 to 10 cm), just bend it sideways with thumb and forefinger. No knife, no scissors: the break is smaller and heals better than a clean cut.

4. Cut the woody ones

   If you missed one and it has thickened, take clean scissors and cut it off close to the stem. Wipe the blade with a little alcohol between plants so you do not carry diseases along.

5. Keep at it

   Pinching out is not a one-off job. Go through your cordon tomatoes every one to two weeks, then every touch stays small and quick.

When to keep your hands off

Pinching out is not an end in itself. There are two situations in which you deliberately hold back.

You already know the first: bush tomatoes stay untouched. The second is about the sun. In a hot, cloudless summer a little extra foliage shields the fruit from sunscald, those pale, leathery patches on the skin. If your tomatoes stand very exposed, feel free to leave one sucker more in place.

At the end of August comes the last important cut: topping. Shorten the main stem two leaves above the topmost fruit truss. New flowers would have no time left to ripen anyway, and without the growing tip the plant puts its last strength into the fruit already hanging. That way you still get ripe tomatoes into October (CW 40 to 42) instead of a pile of green ones.

Frequently asked questions

How do I recognise a sucker for sure?

It always grows in the leaf axil, at a 45-degree angle between the main stem and a leaf. Flower trusses, in contrast, come straight out of the stem, usually opposite a leaf. If you are unsure, wait a day: a sucker forms its own small leaves, a flower truss does not.

I missed a thick sucker. Should I still cut it off?

Yes, but carefully. If it is already half the size of the plant and carrying flowers, you can also keep it as a second stem and tie it up. If you want it gone, cut with clean scissors close to the stem on a dry day.

Should I also remove the lower leaves?

That is a different job from pinching out. You may gradually remove yellowing or ground-level leaves up to the first fruit truss, which improves airflow and helps prevent blight. But the plant needs the healthy green leaves higher up in order to ripen.

Does this apply to tomatoes in pots too?

Yes. A cordon tomato stays a cordon tomato, whether in the bed or in a container. On the balcony, though, compact bush varieties are often sold, and you leave those alone. Read more in Tomatoes in pots and on the balcony.

Can I spread diseases by pinching out?

By hand, with young suckers, hardly. As soon as you reach for scissors, yes: blight and viruses travel from plant to plant on the blade. So work on sick plants last and wipe the scissors in between.