How to pinch and trim plants

Removing a few shoots, flowers or leaves sends a plant's energy where you want it: more fruit, bushier herbs or more flowers.

Words to know

Pinch:: Nip off a soft tip or shoot between your thumbnail and finger, or with clean snips.
Node:: The spot on a stem where a leaf grows out. New shoots grow from nodes.
Sucker:: On a tomato, a small side shoot that grows in the joint between the main stem and a leaf branch.
Deadhead:: Snip off a flower once it has faded.

How to do it

Use your fingers for soft green growth and clean, sharp snips for anything tough or woody.
Work on a dry day, so cuts heal quickly and diseases don't spread.
Take a little at a time — never more than a third of a plant at once.

Tomatoes: pinch off suckers

Once a week, look below the first flower cluster for small shoots growing in the joint between the main stem and a leaf branch. Pinch them off while they're shorter than your finger. Remove yellowing lower leaves and any leaves touching the soil. Bush-type tomatoes need little pinching.

Basil, mint and other leafy herbs: pinch the tips

Pinch the stem just above a pair of leaves. Two new shoots grow from that spot, so the plant gets bushier. Pinch off flower buds as they appear to keep the leaves tasting good.

Peppers: pinch the first flowers

Pinch off the first few flower buds after planting. The plant grows a stronger frame first and gives more fruit later.

Flowers: deadhead

Snip each faded flower off just above the next set of leaves. The plant then makes new flowers instead of seeds.

Strawberries: snip runners

Runners are long stems with baby plants on the end. Snip them off unless you want new plants. On new plants, pick off the first flowers so they root in well.

Potatoes: hill up

Every couple of weeks, pull soil or straw up around the stems until only the top leaves show. Potatoes that get light turn green, and green potatoes are bitter and toxic.

Cauliflower: cover the head

When the head is the size of an egg, fold a few big outer leaves over it and tuck or tie them in place. The shade keeps the head white.

Avoid

✕ Tearing stems — pinch cleanly or use snips.
✕ Trimming wet plants.

Based on standard guidance from U.S. university extension services, including Cornell, the University of Minnesota and Oregon State.