Thanks Holly!

I wasn't really thinking of "pruning" them. Clipping off foliage that will be below the soil would be the only leaves that I would take off at transplanting.

What I do with the indeterminates is remove any flowers or fruit that may show up while they are still waiting to go out into the open garden. When I have not done that, the plant will fairly much just stop growing until fruit ripens and is taken off. That fruit isn't of any quality and I'm left with a stunted plant.

Large plants that produce high quality fruit is what I'm looking for.

Determinates have not always been the best choice for me but I am coming around to see the value of some of those varieties. They are, however, different.

Linked below is advice from a CSU master gardener on pinching blossoms when transplanting. She says, "If blossoms or fruit are present, pinch them off to prevent a delay in vegetative growth and flowering."

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: Judy Sedbrook, master gardener, Colorado State University

I think that it is pretty well accepted to remove any tomatoes that are started WHEN TRANSPLANTING plants. Give the plant all its got to over come the transplant.
Pruning flowers and branches later on is highly debated, and to me, is entirely up to what you want from your plant.

Steve I will add my 2 cents. I used to remove most but leave a few especially on determinate plants. Then I joined the internet forums and started removing all. Then the drought hit over 3 years ago along with some disease and insect issues. Along with the weather I've had trouble with plants setting fruit at all. So now if they have early flowers especially on a determinate I leave them. I may feed them a little extra with a hose end sprayer. I've kept notes and haven't seen any drop off in production. If a plant was loaded with blooms or setting fruit then I might pinch a few. I noticed no difference in the mature size of the plant from those that were blooming when I set them out and those that weren't either. I have even left a fruit on occasion in the last 2 years. If you do feed the plant well. It will be a little slower to reach mature size but if fed well will do ok. I've done this mainly on plants I didn't have anymore seed of and really needed to save seeds and didn't want to risk the chance of pinching one off and not getting anymore. The one thing to remember is if you leave fruit or blooms the first fruit may take longer to ripen than the later fruit. I attribute part of that to the fact the plant is trying to grow along with produce fruit at the same time. The fruit may also be smaller than later fruit. My results have been different from yours in that my fruit has been of good quality just smaller usually. Like so many things what works in one garden or one region won't work elsewhere. Jay

I intentionally start my plants early enough so that there are a few flowers on them when I set them out. I plant indeterminants, but never noticed much difference in plant size,/vigor/final harvest - now on the cherry tomatoes, those early blooms just yield tasteless stuff. But on the larger varieties, they taste just fine.

But I deal with a very short season, low night-time temperatures for most of that short season, and other issues.

I think I'll keep on removing the flowers & especially any fruit on the indeterminates, just as I've always done.

On the determinates - I'll just leave those flowers and any fruit that may form, alone.

Thank you everyone! I once said (or, sure came close to saying), "No more determinates!" Then realized that it was more ME and less THEM that was the problem. So, I'm trying to be reform my ways.

Steve

Ah, somehow I missed the part where you said "when setting out" :-o I thought you were talking about removing flowers while they were already growing in your garden. Now I understand!

I guess I have a lot to learn about growing tomatoes; I never have removed the flowers when transplanting the plants into the garden, and never really pruned the plants afterwards, either. I may try pruning some this year to see if it makes a difference.

Holly