Newbie tomato flower question

[pizzarrhea]

So, on most of my tomato plants ( Sweet 100, Big Boy, Better Boy ) when the flowers show they're just yellow with petals but on my German Pink tomato the flowers that bloomed look like wild flowers. Now, I don't think anythings wrong but can anyone tell me why the flowers aren't like the ones on all my other tomatoes?

[TZ -OH6]

The first tomatoes you listed are hybrids bred to have nice pretty round fruit all the same size and shape. That is reflected in the flower shape. The big beefsteak heirlooms, like German Pink, have what is called fasciated fruit which is a complex female reproductive structure in the flower that grows out into the large irregular boatshaped fruit. They are also more prone to megablooms, which are fused flowers that look like dandelions. Often the first flower of the season or the truss will do that. The megablooms are the ones that can grow into the big knobby ugly 5-7lb competition winning monsters. I often pinch off the biggest most ugly flowers because the irregularly shaped fruit can have problems cracking during development because they tend not to pollinate evenly. The more normal flowers behind them on the truss will set fruit so you get the same production you would if you left the big ugly one on.

[pizzarrhea]

Thanks a lot for the info, it really filled me in TZ!
I hope I get a 5lb tomato haha!

Pizza

[TZ -OH6]

Unfortunaterly you would probably have to prune off most of the other fruit to get one to grow that big...then a squirel would eat it just before it got ripe. You might want to leave them on just to see what happens. Its not a sin to cull gnarly looking green tomatoes if it looks like development is going badly.

[rainbowgardener]

Unfortunately you would probably have to prune off most of the other fruit to get one to grow that big...then a squirrel would eat it just before it got ripe. .

[url=https://www.freesmileys.org/smileys.php][img]https://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-laughing005.gif[/img][/url]

ROTFL.... too true!

[pizzarrhea]

so far pests have been staying out of my garden