Florence Fennel and Tomato side shoots

[tflowerMember]

Hello all, a couple of questions:
1. When should I plant out my Florence fennel? I’ve sown 2-3 seeds per module and they have some true leaves. Germination wasn’t great, so can I separate the seedlings and plant out or should I thin to the strongest plant in the usual way?
2. How many tomato side shoots should I pinch out? I’m never sure if I’m pinching out too few or too many. Shouldn’t I let some of them grow to produce new trusses of flowers?
Any advice as always greatly appreciated.

Tom

[charlesModerator]

On cordon plants, any sideshoots you leave make lots of new leaves and take quite a time to make trusses too which are often in awkward places and near ground level, so you don’t want any at all, there is enough fruiting on the main stem for plants to mature and ripen.

Fennel can go out at any stage really, yes thin to the strongest, watch for slugs…..

[tflowerMember]

Thanks Charles, sound advice as always!

[DaucusMember]

Has anyone else seen this – there are shoots growing along the centre rib of the leaves on a couple of my Gardener’s Delight plants. Not all the plants have them. Is this common? Should these shoots be removed as well or considered a nice bonus?

[charlesModerator]

Your plants are just bursting with energy, and Gardeners Delight is prone to this. I remove them to keep air moving around leaves.

[DaucusMember]

Many thanks!

[Author]

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