Keren, Given the situation I would not pinch them at all unless they produce too many flowers as that would just hurt the quality of the fruit you get. Figure on good stems 6 fruit buds. There is nothing wrong with planting older bushes. A few years ago I picked up some 7 year old blueberry bushes from a commercial grower who was switching to earlier ripening varieties. The plants were growing in 30 gallon pots and were only $10 each, he had 1000's to sell......how could I say no? They were so big I used my tractor bucket to lift them and remove the pots then in the ground they went. I still have them and they are still producing beautifully.

This is my first time growing the tall dahlias. I started the tubers indoors, and they are getting quite big now. My question is regarding pinching them back. As I understand it, you pinch out all side shoots and disbud side buds in order to get larger flowers. This would give you larger flowers but less of them, right? I'd prefer more flowers even if they were a little smaller, so I am wondering, should I let them grow naturally without pinching? Or, are they pinched in the same way as other annuals, to give you more bloom? I've grown the shorter, bedding dahlias but these seemed to take care of themselves, and I am not sure about the tall ones.

What height are they supposed to be? Short container types or tall staking types? I'd leave the last two alone; you'll delay flowering further if you pinch now. Even if the ten don't flower, hopefully they'll produce tubers when the daylength of late summer/fall usually causes this to occur. I usually pinch my bedding/container 18" tall seed grown at four to six inches tall. Not sure if I'd recommend, since this delays flowering. But, pinching does cause branching, when they're not naturally prone to do so. Good luck to ya.

There's always a huge debate as to whether or not buds and blossoms should be taken off before planting outside. Some remove most of them and leave just a few to get some tomatoes earlier. If I want earlier fruits I plant earlier varieties. But once a plant goes into the reproductive cycle of blossom formation and fruit set the energy of the plant is directed more to that process than maturation of the plant itself. And for that reason I take off all buds and blossoms as they appear and before planting out. Orange Minsk is a variety I got quite a few years ago from Andrey in Belarus from whom I get some wonderful varieties every year. He got this variety at a farmer's market in Minsk, where he lives, and so named it Orange Minsk. The full history can be found at Tania's wonderful online tomato base. I wasn't the only one he shared seeds for this variety with but I was the first to list it in the SSE YEarbook thus making it more available and I did send seeds of it to several seed sites for trial, as I do every year to those sites where I've known the owners for many years, thus making it even more available to the public at large. So enjoy it. Carolyn