By too early, I mean the first week of February or so.

(Winter was bumming me out and I got anxious!!)

I now have thirteen plants that seem fairly healthy, each about two feet tall, in six-inch peat pots set under fluorescent lights. I bring them outdoors during the day.

I've been mildly concerned about them becoming root bound, but I figured burying the stems when I plant them out would prevent them from suffering any permanent damage.

A few of them recently started to bloom, and, I know, you're supposed to remove flowers from young plants. But I really thought nothing of it, because they're older, and have already undergone a lot of (perhaps too much,) vegetative growth indoors. And encouraging more root development would just further the root-bound issue, right?

So, I let the blossoms go. Now I have fruit. A few of them, actually. Now, here's why I'm concerned: (and I apologize if this issue has been resolved somewhere in the GW archives, but I personally haven't been able to find an answer anywhere...)

I read that tomato fruit set will not occur if nighttime temperatures aren't over 65 degrees, which is a bit of a way off outdoors here in Philadelphia. I was thinking of planting out in the next few weeks or so.

So, if my plants experience nighttime temps below the ideal fruit-setting range, after they're already in tomato-making mode, will it shock their systems into possibly not producing in the future?

And if so, will removing those cute little tomatoes help them out?

Thanks for your help!

Personally I would remove them before you transplant them outside. That puts the plant back in to vegetative growth and root development mode which should be the focus right now.

But you can leave them if you wish. The odds are the plant will kill them off in some fashion anyway due to all the transplant stress.

Dave