[afraidfortherepublic]

Diana: I’ve never grown stuff from seed before, as you know. I planted about 4 orange cosmos this afternoon that survived my seedling experiments. Each one is about 8 in. tall, single stalk and one bud on top. Should I pinch that back to make them branch out? How far?

What about the tomatoes? I planted 6 today. They are about 9 in. tall, single stem, no side branching yet, but nice sets of leaves. Any pinching required?

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I don’t pinch back the orange cosmos; they are a lot more airy than the other kind. I pinch back the hybrid ones (’Sensation Mix’, Etc.) to make them fuller, though.

Don’t pinch back the tomatoes yet, either. But take off the first set of blooms when they come about. I know. It’s hard. But you don’t want a tomato setting fruit too early in the season; it’s not strong enough to support it yet, and early fruiting is a sign of a ‘stressed out’ tomato plant.

[Nepeta]

What about the tomatoes? I planted 6 today. They are about 9 in. tall, single stem, no side branching yet, but nice sets of leaves. Any pinching required?

There are detailed instructions on tomato pruning online if you want to know how to do it. But I have also found university sites saying that pruning versus no pruning comes out fairly even at the end.

What you should be careful to do is stake or cage your plants so that the fruits are borne off the ground and stay clean. Vigorously, happily growing indeterminant tomato plants will sprawl all over otherwise.

You also need to keep the watering even as possible to reduce cracked fruit.