The importance of pinching out

The Importance of Pinching Out

Pinching out will delay flowering

The one downside of pinching out is that your flowers will develop slightly later. So if you've got a special occasion that you're working towards you might want to think about pinching two thirds of a row of plants and leaving the final third to grow as normal.

What to pinch and what not to pinch

If I'm growing something for the first time and I'm not sure about its growth habit I will watch to see what it does. If it rapidly grows one long stem I know that it needs to be pinched out otherwise it will become very leggy.

Ammi majus and Ammi visnaga on the other hand are a little less clear, as they tend to grow quite bushily at the base. Generally, you don't pinch out Ammi majus because there is no need to, but you may want to pinch Ammi visnaga if it starts to get too leggy.

The most important thing to remember though is 'if in doubt, pinch out'. You usually won't cause any plants any harm by doing so and you'll help a lot of plants to become stronger and more productive.

Sunflowers

If you're trying to grow sunflowers for height then don't pinch them out. Pinching them will reduce the overall height of the plant but will bush them out so that they may get multiple heads.

Is it ever too late to pinch out?

The short answer is no, but generally, you want to pinch out a plant before it flowers as then it will be able to branch more and produce more flowerheads.