If you grow tomatoes yourself, sooner or later you'll come across a technique that sounds more complicated than it is: pinching out side shoots. It's a simple job, but it makes a real difference to your plant's yield and health. We explain what side shoots are, how to remove them properly - and which varieties you can skip this step for entirely.
What are tomato side shoots?
"Side shoots" (also called suckers) are the small shoots that grow right in the angle between the main stem and a leaf on a tomato plant. Left alone, they develop into full side branches with their own flowers and fruit - and the plant keeps branching out further and further. That sounds good at first, but there's a catch: the more shoots a tomato plant has to support at once, the smaller and less flavourful the individual fruit becomes, and the longer the plant takes to produce ripe, harvestable tomatoes at all. Pinching out side shoots simply means removing these regularly, so the plant puts its energy into the main stem and its fruit. Vigorous cordon tomatoes like our San Marzano benefit from this especially.
How to pinch out side shoots correctly
The easiest way is with your fingers: once a side shoot is a few centimetres long, grip it between thumb and forefinger and snap it sideways until it breaks off. For larger, already-woody shoots, clean, sharp secateurs work better than snapping by hand. It's best to check your plants once a week - that way the shoots stay small and the wounds on the plant stay minimal. Pinching out is most effective in the morning on a dry day, since the cut heals faster and the risk of fungal disease drops.
Which tomato varieties don't need pinching out?
Not every tomato needs this care. Pinching out side shoots matters mainly for tall-growing cordon (vine) tomatoes, which can reach several metres over the course of a season. Compact bush and patio tomatoes, on the other hand, are bred for exactly the opposite purpose: they grow compact and bushy on their own and generally don't need pinching out at all. If the weekly effort feels like too much, take a look at our low-maintenance patio tomato varieties.
Beyond pinching out: shaping your tomato further
Pinching out side shoots is the ongoing basic care step throughout the whole season. If you want to go further and deliberately boost yield or structure - for example by training a second leader shoot, topping the plant in good time towards the end of the season, or removing lower foliage - you'll find that in our separate article Shaping Your Tomato: Second Leaders, Topping and Deleafing Done Right.
Your tomato plants at Tschida Tschili
Whether it's a higher-maintenance cordon tomato for a big harvest or a low-maintenance patio variety for less effort - at Tschida Tschili you'll find both, as sturdy, open-pollinated young plants grown by us in Illmitz. Have a look around and find the variety that suits your garden and your time budget.
