To pinch or not to pinch, that is the question. I'm growing indeterminate Better Boy and Beefsteak. Temps have still been abit chilly getting low to mid 50s at night. I've been pinching the suckers and they have also been forming flowers which I pinch as well. They are still quite small (12" and smaller). Please discuss.....
why are you pinching the flowers? they make fruit....are these the tomatoes in pots or in the ground? indeterminates need the suckers pinched out to keep them from becoming a huge mess. I pinch them and keep them on a trellis
I have these in the ground. They're to tiny right now to support fruit. I tgoutho if you pinch the flowers it helps root and vegative growth.
I don't pinch off flowers after they are in the ground. I do pinch off ugly little fruits or fused blooms instead of allowing them to waste energy making a relatively ugly unusable fruit. I don't want to eat around scared skin or that nasty rough burnt looking scar tissuey skin. nor will anybody be interested in buying such ugly fruits. I grow to sell not compost the poor quality fruit. You can do whatever you would like with your blossoms, though.
From what I've read, thoughts on this are all over the place. I really shooting for 6ft towers, but I don't want to take away from yeild at the same time. I'll stop pinching flowers and just look for the suckers.
I am in total agreement with Mart and Carolyn on this subject. I would leave the blossoms for sure. I am always happy when I get the first ones near the soil surface. I think that your goal of getting your toms to grow to ~6 feet is realistic. Blossoms that form after this height will not have time to ripen before seasons' end. Good luck with your crop this year. I would like to see some pics of your toms.
Thanks everyone for your input. I'll stop pinching blooms and only pinch the suckers. I do need to update my garden pics. It's been growing like gang Buster's except for the sweet bell peppers I seeded, can't get those to germinate. Maybe ilI' get some starters and do it that way. I also installed a drip irrigation system yesterday and it's working great. I'll get some pictures of the progress later today.
give up on the pepper seeds. at this point you will not have enough growing season to get ripe peppers. stop and pick up some plants somewhere. my peppers that I am now selling were started in March. you surely will make it to the 6' mark with your tomatoes though. they will easily grow that tall.
I have never pinched flowers off tomato plants. I have grown extra tomato plants from suckers. This season, I have only snipped off the lower two to four branches, those close to the soil. I have tiny tomatoes on all four Grape tomato plants. I doubt they will ripen by July 4th. Northerner, I'm interested in how your tomato crop turns out.
