That was an interesting comment from your friend in this modern gardening culture where many people want ripe tomatoes as soon as possible.

If your plants are still indoors, or are tiny and stunted, the blooms may be too much for the plant, but if they are planted out and show any signs of growth, leave the blooms on. Breezes will help pollinate tomatoes, and there are bees about to aid also. If your plants are small and buried in the confines of water walls of some kind, you may want to tap the bloom clusters on occasion until the plants outgrow the walls.

In July, the plants should grow faster and put out more blooms. Have tomatoes in September this year instead of early August.

Very hot weather is more of a problem in getting tomato blooms to set fruit.

Thanks for the advice. I planted the tomatoes outside about 1 month ago with walls of water in containers. They are growing well & are very healthy. The were actually growing over the WOW. They're about 2 ft or higher now and I removed the WOW this week. I'm afraid to cut the flowers. I really want to try these tomatoes!! It's my first time growing heirlooms. LOL!

I am also in Portland and have blooms on a lot of my plants but I haven't planted them in the ground because I am afraid they will drown! I few have leaves that seem to be rotting off because they were left outside in the torrential rains for a couple of days but most are doing great!

I would also say to leave them alone. You will have an early start on ripe tomatoes!

pdxwindjammer-I hear you about worrying about drowning plants. Luckily the ones I planted were in containers and with WOWs to keep them safe. I have 3 more heirlooms I didn't plant yet because of the weather. One of them was flowering but I pinched off the flowers on that one. I figured the plant would need energy to concentrate on the roots when I finally do plant them. I hope we can plant them out soon!!

You guys should try a hoop house! They are so easy to make and my tomatoes are so happy inside, even with it squalling and spitting rain outside. Here's a picture of them all tucked in. I close it up nice and tight when I'm not in there checking on them and it stayed pretty toasty.

I really like the hoop house. So simple to make.

What diameter PVC pipe do you use?
Where do you get the black clips to hold the plastic in place?
Are the hoops linked to each other with additional pvc?
Specs please!

Thanks,
Patrick

No, flowers are good (if I recall correctly Steve Solomon, a regional expert, said his tomatoes are already fruiting by the time he gets them in the ground). My tomatoes have been flowering and started to fruit a few weeks ago. If you're gonna cut anything there are various pruning methods out there.

Patrick,

The PVC is 3/4 inch in 10ft lengths. I drove rebar into the ground at regular intervals and slip the ends of the pipe over the rebar. The two end pieces are cut into 5 foot lengths and inserted into t-shaped connectors. The ridgepole is attached to the middle hoop with zip ties.

The clips are made with 1-inch black irrigating tubing. You can buy it in short lengths, rather than 100ft coils at Home Despot. You cut it into short pieces and slit them lengthwise with a box cutter. I found standing the piece of pipe on end on a piece of scrap lumber and cutting straight down was easiest.

The two end pieces of plastic are attached separately, then the top cover. I use two large binder clips instead of the pipe clips at the front for faster opening and closing.

Instead of the T connectors and zip ties I've seen the ridgepole attached by drilling holes and screwing it on. I might do that next time because I don't trust the ands of the PVC not to pop out of the connector at the worse possible time.

Here is a pic of the naked hoop house.