when should i pinch out tomato plants?

[Chicken6]

I have grown loads of tomato's outside but never inside.

I seem to be doing really well. I have 35+ plants and most already have 8 trusses. The plum types have 7 - 8 trusses with the first 4 set and growing well. They are only 4ft tall so there is plenty of room for them to grow highr but should I let them?

The other plants are a mixture of salad and cherry types, they also have eight trusses but I will have to pinch them out as they are near the top of the tunnelk being that they were planted where there was less head room.

[Odsox]

I always leave mine until they are in danger of hitting the roof, or the middle of August, whichever happens first.
I find that most cordon types are a right pain if you stop them too early by sprouting out of the centre of their leaves and the trusses growing extensions.

[Chicken6]

I always leave mine until they are in danger of hitting the roof, or the middle of August, whichever happens first.
I find that most cordon types are a right pain if you stop them too early by sprouting out of the centre of their leaves and the trusses growing extensions.

Oh so with that in mind it sounds like my tomatos are on the early side. So do they still have time toi go red?

Forgive the stupid questions it's just growing in the PT is so different than outside. I can't believe how everything is growing so fast. I wanted to try and harvest enough fruit to keep us going through the winter with pasta sauces. You may be right SusieGee about having millions but I'm not complaining

[Odsox]

So do they still have time toi go red?

Yes, they should do if we have any sort of decent autumn.
If you stop them any later than mid August you run the risk of being overwhelmed with green tomato chutney

[Cornelian]

I very very rarely pinch out tomatoes. I just let them grow (until they disappear into the climbing rose that covers the roof of the potting shed where, presumably, they shed red tomatoes into the gutters ...). I still get loads and loads of tomatoes so it just doesn't bother me much.

[godfreyrob]

I'd go along with the last post - just keep training them up and over whatever you can rig up. If the autumn is mild you will continue to get loads of ripe toms (into November often) and if not you can always pick off unripened trusses and place them on a windowsill to ripen indoors.

[Millymollymandy]

and if not you can always pick off unripened trusses and place them on a windowsill to ripen indoors.

2nd that - I had to pick mine off in early September due to the start of blight and we were still eating them from trusses spread on newspaper on a sunny windowsill well into November!

[Chicken6]

I'd go along with the last post - just keep training them up and over whatever you can rig up. If the autumn is mild you will continue to get loads of ripe toms (into November often) and if not you can always pick off unripened trusses and place them on a windowsill to ripen indoors.

Thanks for that,

In the end I only pinched out 3 plants and they didn't have the head room to grow much more without a struggle. The others I have left. As mentioned on another thread I have some red fruit now so I've attached string to the top of the plants to encourage them to grow towards the crop bars.

I'm keeping an eye on my friends plot next door (chair) and his two greenhouses are full of plants, almost as high as mine but they have only just started to set fruit so I realised my plants are doing well and early. Due to blight problems last year never got this far, but pleased with my efforts thus far.