Help please!

Hi, just hoping that someone can steer me along the right path to 'pinching out' properly. It's always a bit of a hit and miss task with me.
I fully understand why it's done. What I want to know is when and how often. Also are there any seedlings that should not be done. Do you just nip out the growing point or take off a bit more. If any one can link me a good video clip or an article that clearly explains ( pics would be good as I am more a visual learner it seems! ) I would greatly appreciate it. My plants seem to be in need of bushing out more and that is my aim for this year:bigthumb:

Thanks

 

Hiya Upsy
I pinch most everything from seedlings to mature shrubs that grow fast from being pollarded, e.g. cotinus, eucalyptus, acer Flamingo, sambucas etc that are grown for their foliage
Seedlings will be pinched when second or third set of leaves are growing well...the result is a denser more vigorous plant. You can take out the topmost growing point or even to the next but I continue to pinch out maybe two or three times more
Back to the shrubs like cotinus....I pinch out maybe 4 times during the growing season...it maintains thick bushy growth as well as promoting those colourful new shoots again and again.
Wallflowers too; I pinch at seedling stages and later when plants are vigorous...the final pinching in late summer
Honestly Upsy, it is nothing to be afraid of...as long as you pinch cleanly and gently. You don’t need a video, just try it and your confidence will soar with the knowledge you haven’t killed anything yet you have produced better plants
Similarly with certain herbaceous plants like sedums that often produce lanky growth, they can be cut back (Chelsea chop is a sort of larger scale pinching I think)

 

Thanks @Verdun , for some reason my plants never look as bushy as everyone elses...even my wall flowers and I have done them several times now ,but now I think it's too late to do them again as most of them are showing flower buds.
Do you pinch with your fingers or use snips?

 

Fingers Upsy but scissors will do too
No, don’t pinch your wallflowers now.
During active growth you can feed a little at the same time as pinching
Confidence Upsy.....breeds competence

 

Pinching out delays flowering, so you only do it in the early stages to create a bushier plant.
Cant ever remember pinching out bedding plants though.
Most modern strains are pretty much programmed to be bushy any way.

 

It does Pete but not by much. A better plant though. Works for me. Especially if folks are producing thin plants then pinching works wonders

 

I usually pinch out annuals, sweet peas, cosmos, zinnias etc.
I have always wondered about stocks though? (Seed sown)
My large stocks grow on one stem, if I pinch out would I get more smaller flower stems, a bushier plant with more flowers? Or would they thrive and give me huge flower stems on a sturdier plant?

 

I grow stocks as I do wallflowers, already outlined, ......pinched out the flowers are just as big but more of them thus the scent is phenomenal.
All I can suggest is folks try it. I have and proved to my satisfaction that pinching works well

 

Thanks @Verdun ...I will go forth and pinch with confidence now

 

Pinched out my sweet peas today, 2 sets of leaves....off with there heads

 

@pete .....you haven't see my bedding plants!! If anyone can grow some spindly plants....it's me. Or should I now say it was me!

 

Hi @Loki , in general my Cosmo aren't too bad but I definitely want to aim for bushier Zinnias this year....I love them, they go on for ever don't they!

 

They do @Upsydaisy !
I must admit they are not a favourite of mine, however their insistence of flowering until the frosts came , won me over
I don't think I've ever come across a more stubborn plant!
In my garden, last year, it was ......
Forgotten
Misplaced
Unwatered
Trampled on
It flowered its heart out!
It's definitely what I call a ' do again '

 

Cosmos, I'd start next month.
They germinate and grow pretty quick!
Definitely a pinch out! I grew rose picotee last year, they where really pretty!