A Brandywine in a 5 gallon pot? No way. Even with meticulous care she'd be lucky to get 1 fruit from it.

Dave

I didn't know how large it would get since it started flowering so small. Figured that instead of pinching the flower(s) off I could just dig it up. So should I just pinch them to get back in vegetative mode if I'm leaving it in the ground, or let it do what it wants to do since everything has been so delayed, and I have others (hoping for *some* tomatoes before Labor Day)?

I'll just give her the determinates.

A Brandywine in a 5 gallon pot? No way. Even with meticulous care she'd be lucky to get 1 fruit from it. ]
dave

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I respectfully disagree.

I was in a nursery (Freymeyer's) this morning. They had these tomato plants on CLEARANCE sale ($0.79 per plants) The plants were still in those 3 to 4' square singles. They have been in this place for long time, watered and fertilized. for months.Tthey all had small fruits , among them were many BRANDYWINEs too, with fruits the size of cherries and smaller,. The had been in one cubic pint of soil.

Tomorrow , if I remember, I will go there and take some pictures.
Container size is not the only requirement for plants to fruit. Actually, when plants are deprived of good growing conditions, they often tend to fruit much sooner although the fruits are smaller. My Brandywine, that I planted two months ago, in good soil and it is over 3 ft tall, abot 18" in diameter, just has few flowers. On a second though I might just buy and experiment on one of those 79 cent BWs. Thou I do not have room for it . Maybe I plant it in a gallon pot ..much better than a pint ..haha

Seysonn - I don't need to see any pictures. I see such plants every year in our greenhouse after sales are over. They all go to the compost pile

I am not denying that highly stressed plants will bloom or even set a fruit. But you are assuming that fruit will actually ripen and be edible rather than develop BER or even be aborted. So I guess I should have said one edible fruit but I assumed that was a given.

Nor am I claiming that "container size is the only requirement for plants to fruit." It is one of the primary requirements but then so is the mix in the container, the variety used, the growing conditions provided, the care given it, etc.

Nor can you assume that a plant that is currently stressed and trying to set fruit won't recover if given the proper growing conditions. Most do. But those proper growing conditions aren't a 5 gallon bucket, not for even a healthy Brandywine. It would recover only to hit another artificially imposed limit and go right back into stressed mode producing more BER and aborted blooms and fruit. So why would you gift someone something doomed to failure from the get-go?

So should I just pinch them to get back in vegetative mode if I'm leaving it in the ground,

Sure. Removing blooms and early fruit from highly stressed plants to trigger them back into vegetative mode is the standard practice.

Dave

Thanks, I learned that from you a few years ago ;-) I was just thinking of experimenting with this one since "standard practice" may be out the window this year with the unusual weather. I think I will leave it, see what happens. I have others in the ground, and as I mentioned more in pots (that I will pinch now since I think the 50 ft I had left along the fence for 2nd planting of pole beans will end up being tomatoes - I have 4 CPs in pots and 1 is flowering as well).

I'll tie a piece on yarn on that BW and report back later in the season, let you all know how it compared with the ones that were set out the same time but didn't flower early, and the larger ones transplanted 4th of July (when the rain should stop, at least temporarily).

Wish I could give my cousin some (more) indeterminates, but she just can't handle anything bigger than 5 gal, not unless I buy totes and make Raybo's SWCs for her.

Thanks again Dave!

This is a strange year for me as well in Ct. I have been pinching blooms off small plants for a couple of weeks now across several varieties I am growing. weird

I left that one but pinched some buds off other plants that hadn't been in the ground as long (replacements). That raises a question though - how long should a plant be in the ground before you allow it to flower? If it's been in the ground 3 weeks to a month, but is still small (like this one), do you figure the roots are established enough to let it flower, or is there some rule of thumb as to how much to let it grow first?

The BWs never purpled as much as some of my others (the Mark Twain planted 6/17 still look a little peaky), but they haven't doubled in size either - I think they went in on 6/8, most of the plants I put in 6/3 had to be pulled and replaced - just too much rain and I planted the runts still in 6 packs first.

I think this is the latest I've ever planted tomatoes - except for the leftovers I didn't sell last year (that never really produced after getting them in late June - makes me wonder about even putting in the large ones now but they look so healthy I hate to compost them).

Next year a hoop house or at least set the transplants out under row cover (I can't afford 100 WOWs)!

macbttz - where are you in CT that's zone 10??