I've gone pinch crazy. I am pinching all my fruiting bushes and it seems to work on all of them!

I've pinched all my figs and all of them are showing at least small figs now.
I am constantly pinching my blueberries and they are getting much bushier
I have pinched a gooseberry and the growth is amazing
I have pinched my Clove Currants and they are sending out tons of new growth
I have pinched my muscadines and now they have lots of young fruits on them
I've even pinched my Goji Berry and it is getting much bushier.

Herman's pinching seems to work on all fruiting plants. I am excited to see how much difference it makes next year on fruit volume because except for figs, fruiting is usually on 2yr + wood.

Gene glad to hear all the pinching is working great for you on all your fruiting trees/bushes.

I've just started pinching on my fig trees that have leafed out so far (Herman says after 5 leaves). This is a first for me and am anxious to see the growth.   I'm still awaiting green on about 5 trees. They do show green stems/trunk , no leaves yet :(  

I am pinching the fig also and getting lots more leaves.  I also scored a branch to try to get it to leaf closer to the stem.  I'll have to follow your example and start pinching currants, pink champagne and red perfection to see if I can get them more filled out.  When I planted my new apple, candy crunch, I discovered several gooseberries within 10 ft.  Maybe I should pinch those too.

Pinching? You must be Italian!

Pinching does work to make a lot of plants bushier and more robust.  On the blueberries you have to know when to stop though as the plants need time to set next years fruit buds.  If you pinch too long in the season you will reduce next years fruit production.  

Gene,

I would say you should stop 3 months before your first chance of frost, here that is mid to end of September.   You can push that but know if the wood does not harden you will lose the fruit buds on that stem and possibly the stems themselves as they would still be tender.  

My guess up in in zone 4, we have to stop pinching also before, say mid July, to let growth harden off before the bitter winter.  Any zone 4 fig growers doing the fig shuffle down a flight of stairs.  So far the best plan I've come up with is a dolly with bungi cords.  And now that I've gone up to a bigger pot size it will be a little more challenging.

Sounds about right. So I will stop pinching the blueberries end of June. The varieties I have are pretty cold hardy. They were still growing strongly last fall and only the tips of that growth died back. I lost no more than 2-3 inches on a few of the most tender. The rest went ahead and hardened off even after a couple light frosts.

Gene,

Yep it is just a different environment.  Here we prune AFTER the harvest is completed, I just pruned my 200 ish bushes 2 weeks ago and then after that pruning I start pinching which I just started this week.  Some varieties like Sweetcrisp grow so fast I have to pinch twice a week.  

Gina,

I would think you could pinch anytime up to the point where active vigorous growth stops.  Pinching so late very well  could impact, delay? your ripening period or prolong the harvest.....that is an unknown as I don't think any research has been done on it.  Our after harvest pruning of 1/3 to 1/2 the bushes mass is in and of itself a type of mass pinching.  As you know Gina it sparks a massive rush of growth from the plant.  I am just seeing the buds popping now so one stem becomes 2 or 3 or more and that just results in so much more fruit.    

Dale, I don't know if your question, "you must be Italian?" was for Gene or myself.  Actually, I am Irish, Swedish, Welch/Eng. and Native American.  But I sincerely believe the Italians know more about good food than all the other ethnic groups.  Not trying to ruffle anyone's feathers, just my sincere opinion.

I have never needed to pinch my Goji berry here, bushiness seems to come naturally. Man I can't wait to make more Goji berry preserve.
I'm glad the pinch is working for you. I haven't had to pinch any of my figs yet, one might get the pinch in a about 10 days.

I pinch my blueberries every 10 years or at 12 foot, whichever comes first. I pinch them 8-12 inches above the soil line after harvest. About 100 bushes each time. The ones I cut back last year are 3-4 feet now. No need to pinch for fruit production as the blueberries on most of my plants look like continious bunch grapes. Get your ph right and hold on!          

Jake,

You grow rabbiteye, we are growing SHB blueberries and rabbits tend to be bushier plants by nature BUT if you did pinch you would increase your production.  These are just young bushes, 3 years in ground.  You can see when you follow a stem up where it was pinched and then branched, it more than doubles production and if the bushes are well fed and vigorous they can mature all of the fruit.  

Once you have the blueberries planted is there any effective way of making the soil more acid?  I have access to pine needles and I have soil acidifier in little pellets.  Our soil is basically sand a foot down.  Do your blueberries go 12 ft. high?  What variety?

Greenbud,

Southern high bush blueberries do not grow as tall as the rabbiteyes but have superior quality and taste compared to the rabbits.  It really depends where you live what type you can grow.  My bushes if left on pruned might hit 10 feet on some varieties, others would top out at 5-6 feet.  I know on some I was picking berries over my head but I don't find that ideal as who wants to pick from a ladder if you don't have to.   I use sulfuric acid (battery acid) in my water to lower the PH from 7.4 to 4.5.  It is what the commercial BB farmers here do also.  Works like a charm.   Our soil is sand, period....on top a foot down a yard down.  You mulch the bushes heavily and at planting incorporate pine bark fines and peat and as long as you treat the irrigation water if it is high PH or bicarbonates you are set.  

Thank you both for the information.  Right now I have just two blueberry bushes.  One I planted last fall and I did incorporate peat moss and compost in while planting it. I think it is a Patriot.  The other one is a Chandler and it's not looking so hot.  I'll dig it up in the next couple of days, work in some peat moss and pine needles and compost.  Maybe with a little extra care it will come around. 

BTW where does a person buy battery acid?  I do understand the need for care when handling it. 

The blueberries are beautiful in the photos!

Anyone have a link to Herman's original thread on pinching?

Looking at posts I did for help with figs I realize that it was Martin that instructed me how to do it.  Sorry that I got it mixed up.  It's working Martin, but no figs that I can discern yet. 

I found Herman's pinching instructions on GardenWeb <

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fig/msg0611441718628.html?85