Should I - Off With Their Heads?

[Bigmallly]

All the Toms I have in the ground are cordon armpits from last years plant, around a foot tall & are flowering. I'm tempted to remove the flowers but want approval first.
Cheers everyone.

[Tripmeup]

All the Toms I have in the ground are cordon armpits from last years plant, around a foot tall & are flowering. I'm tempted to remove the flowers but want approval first.
Cheers everyone.

half off, half leave...best of both worlds

[Bigmallly]

Cheers Trip..........My head tells me that the aim of a plant is to set seed/fruit. Once it has done it's job it calls it a day.........so with that in mind I'm concerned that they won't grow to their full potential.

[Thelma Sanders]

They should soon show growth points above the flower truss, and continue upwards. Removing flowers shouldn't influence upward growth on a cordon plant.

[vixylix]

I've removed mine...

CAVEAT I have no idea what I am doing

[Jungle Jane]

I wouldn't remove them,you're getting early tomatoes!! As long as you haven't nipped out the growing tip,they'l carry on growing,stop at 5 maybe 6 trusses if they have time for 6?

[Scarlet]

I wouldn't remove them either. Ive got flowers on several of my potted toms. They are all staying.

[Bigmallly]

Cheers, I'm so glad I asked cos you're answers are not what I expected................

[veggiechicken]

Cheers, I'm so glad I asked cos you're answers are not what I expected................

Hope you didn't expect everyone to agree

[Small pumpkin]

That's brilliant......... Thanks BM.
I was going to ask that question. I've got a ovi's Romanian giant about 1ft tall in a pot with flowers coming. Wasn't sure what to do with it.

[jackarmy]

Nope deffo not remove, peppers yes, toms no.
my tuppenceworth .

I have read about removing flowers but their generally just the one "oversized" bud ( tip) on some black /purple heirloom varieties.

[Penellype]

I find when growing tomatoes from armpits the first truss of flowers sometimes doesn't seem to set, especially if it was already forming in the shoot when it was taken off the main plant. However I always leave all the flowers. Tomatoes are perennial plants and there is absolutely no reason why they should suffer any damage from flowering as far as I am aware. Mine don't seem to anyway.

[muddled]

Nope, I wouldn't remove them all either!

I think...in the spirit of experimentation and all....it will be really interesting to see just how long you can crop tomatoes for in a season.
Last year someone on here mentioned that if you limit a plant to one truss, all energy goes into ripening and they come ready much earlier. If that's true you could limit a couple to one or two trusses, let some 'flower at will' and have the original (non-armpits) flower later!

You could end up eating fresh toms from May to October!

(my tommy plants are about 2 inches high now )

[Bren In Pots]

My arm-pit toms are on their second truss and like Jungle Jane says I'm hoping for early toms from mine.

[Penellype]

Nope, I wouldn't remove them all either!

I think...in the spirit of experimentation and all....it will be really interesting to see just how long you can crop tomatoes for in a season.
Last year someone on here mentioned that if you limit a plant to one truss, all energy goes into ripening and they come ready much earlier. If that's true you could limit a couple to one or two trusses, let some 'flower at will' and have the original (non-armpits) flower later!

You could end up eating fresh toms from May to October!

(my tommy plants are about 2 inches high now )

My record from 1 plant is a plant I bought from a garden centre in April 2013. I ate the first fruit on 11th July 2013 and threw the plant away when it died in February 2015. It produced fruit on and off on my sitting room windowsill throughout winter 2014 but there wasn't really anything to eat after December that year.

My method for growing these is to allow 2 or 3 trusses on the main stem and leave the bottom sideshoots to grow on to replace the main stem when the fruit has ripened. I find this works well.

These are this year's contenders, sown in January. The biggest fruit is currently about the size of a golf ball, so I am hoping it will be ready to eat much sooner than July.