novice gardener needs help!

[growbag]

I have been given some tomato plants, Alicante and Moneymaker, and the instructions with them are to pinch out sideshoots as they appear, without taking off the bit where the tomatoes grow. I have no idea how I'm supposed to go about doing this, can anybody advise me please?

[sandbach99]

Where the leaves join the main stem you will see new leaves developing, also the flowers develop there, the flowers look like tiny balls on a stem.

Pinch the leaves out when you can recognise the difference, a few days makes no difference, just rub or nip the out with your fingers. The reasons are to give the plant more strength therefore more tomatoes and makes it easier for the sun to ripen them .

When the flowers are open very gently tap or shake your plants to help pollination.
Hope you get a good crop of tomatoes.

[Clanad]

The sideshoots are called suckers here in the U.S. and are, with a little experience, notably different in appearance than the bloom bearing shoots. They have a finer leaf pattern that you can discern before they are three or four inches long. The bloom bearing shoots have a finer, hairy looking appearance when they first develop from the main branch. They take a lot energy from the main plant and keep tomatoes from ripening or developing...