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Sun, Jun 2, 13 at 22:19
| In past years I grew my tomato plants from seed and had little problems. This year I bought plants and they all seem to be prematurely flowering. They are growing but not quite as well as in past years. Do I pluck the flowers? It's too late to get any new plants I suspect. Btw, I grow in 50% top soil/ 50% leaf and grass compost. I use 24" raised beds. I water daily and use no fertilizer or herbicides. Thoughts? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| I had never heard of "plucking flowers"before reading this forum. Six decades of gardening without an outright failure of tomatos. Some years are better than others. I credit that to the plants taking advantage of soil and weather conditions when they are good. I say keep your plants and do as you always have and don't remove any more flowers. |
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| Why pluck the flowers? Don't we want to have that first bite on those juicy fruits? Plants are smart enough to know if they can raise those babies or not. Also, flowering , early or late, may depend on the growing conditions and the variety. E.g, in warm weather they would flower earlier than cool, damp weather. |
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| Are your plants now in the ground and how long have they been there? If your plants have been in the ground more than two weeks or so, don't pluck the blooms. They know when they are ready to make tomatoes. On the other hand, if they were blooming in the pots you boght them in, they may have responded to less than ideal conditions and bloomed in an attempt to propagate themselves. (Survival of the species.) Betsy |
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