Pruning tomato flowers?

Donald V Zone 6 north Ohio

11 months ago

Do you? When? Why? I only have when a frost is possible in the next few weeks. What about after transplanting?

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Comments (7)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 months ago
i am very surprised there isnt a tomato forum.. those peeps are nuts .. lol ...

presuming you are north of the equator.. why are you already ready to reduce your output?? .. will you be competing???

ken
Donald V Zone 6 north Ohio
Original Author
11 months ago
No I just read an article about flower pruning, plus the first flowers never produce fruit so why not?
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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
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Thanks everybody for your opinions. It seems to me now that pruning can make sense for indeterminant tomatoes and that is our concern. One of the pros of pruners reason is to give the plant good air flow and therby prevent deseases. This make sense where you get a lot of rain and high humidity. Staking can partly take care of that too. Tomatoes laying down on the ground can be a problem, except where you have a dry and less rainy climat. I personally think that there is a trade off. Too much leaves under the first fruit is a burden. Those are the older leaves that once were vital but later on they are not necessary. Most of the times they yellow. So I prune most of those. With the so-called suckers, if the plant is healthy I keep some of them and often they bear fruits too. one thing I have experienced is that heavy pruning make the plant grow much taller aand they live longer. lets hear from other gardeners. I am here with open mind and ready to learn something new. I love internet that provides so much info and exchange of opinion. In the past all you could learn from were your neighbors and old uncle and things liks " I have heard..", "they say..". My seeding do not have true leaves yet, but it is not too late (in zone 8). Once again, Thanks and lets brainstorm over the topic.
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Donald V Zone 6 north Ohio
Original Author
11 months ago
I am not saying that is correct but it got me thinking. That and another post about days to harvest, everyone said it starts from transplanting, so that means first several flowers will produce no fruit.
vgkg Z-7 Va
11 months ago
My first tomato flowers produce fruits (see pic below). Some of the first fruits may not be perfect (catfacing) but most are a-ok. It would be best to remove the deformed fruits after blooming time rather than to remove the flowers first. If no fruits form from your first flowers then it may be due to cold temps during bloom time.

My First cluster of this season...there was no catfacing (so far) so none were removed.
vgkg Z-7 Va
11 months ago
btw, there is a tomato growing forum here...

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/growing-tomatoes
daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
11 months ago
It's understood that tomatoes can flower well before the plant is mature enough to support lots of fruit. So first flowers are often removed to allow that maturation to happen. No question that first flowers CAN produce fruit, but those fruit may not grow well.
vgkg Z-7 Va
11 months ago
I can see the logic in that Dan, have heard the same practice is used for pepper plants. In my case I typically re-pot my tomato plants twice before planting in the ground so they have a well developed root system. Once planted they bloom about 10 days later and keep producing well for the rest of the season (unless blight hits them). My main goal for those first blooms to get a jump on harvesting some extra early tomatoes by about 2-3 weeks.

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Pruning tomato flowers?

Comments (7)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

Donald V Zone 6 north Ohio
Original Author

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Donald V Zone 6 north Ohio
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vgkg Z-7 Va

vgkg Z-7 Va

daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)

vgkg Z-7 Va

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Pruning tomato flowers?

Comments (7)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

Donald V Zone 6 north OhioOriginal Author

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Donald V Zone 6 north OhioOriginal Author

vgkg Z-7 Va

vgkg Z-7 Va

daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)

vgkg Z-7 Va

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Donald V Zone 6 north Ohio
Original Author

Donald V Zone 6 north Ohio
Original Author