Mortgage Lifter - Tomatoes Galore!

[mattie g]

So it seems that I have a Mortgage Lifter that doesn't know what it means to drop blossoms without producing fruit. That's certainly a good thing, but given that the first set of blossoms that came from this one plant ended up with over 20 flowers, it's going to make supporting this thing a bit tricky!

Here's a picture from about a week or so ago:



In the meantime, there have been another seven or so fruit that have formed on this cluster, bringing the total into the 14-15 range...with more blossoms still left to possibly fruit.

Question is...given that these are (supposed to be) Mortgage Lifters, is this too many fruit to have in such close proximity? Should I thin them out a little? If I were to leave them: Will some/all of the fruits be stunted? Would I need to provide extra nutrients (compost tea) to keep them growing healthily? Would it become nearly impossible to support the fruits if they grow to full size?

[gixxerific]

If it were me I would leave it be.

Oh and send me some seeds of those.

[mattie g]

If it were me I would leave it be.

Oh and send me some seeds of those.

I plan to keep some seeds this year. First time ever, so hopefully I do it right. I'll be more than happy to send some out!

Gixx...do you think the plant might need a little extra "love" while all those maters are growing?

[applestar]

I imagine you've done so already, but I think you'll need to support the stem/branch and trusses. Looking at the photo above, I'm dying to tie a soft something on the sturdy stem between the truss and the leaves and tie it to the stake!

[mattie g]

I imagine you've done so already, but I think you'll need to support the stem/branch and trusses. Looking at the photo above, I'm dying to tie a soft something on the sturdy stem between the truss and the leaves and tie it to the stake!

I'm getting there, applestar! I've got it tied to the bamboo stake with a piece of an old t-shirt. I was figuring on tying another piece under the truss to give it some support, otherwise I'm sure the whole thing will just rip right off if they even get half the size of a normal Mortgage Lifter!

[michelletomato]

I'm growing Mortgage Lifters for the first time here in north KY, hoping they produce a lot like I've read they do. They looked good till I planted them, now they have tiny white dots all over the leaves, and just generally look like they don't like the soil here. I had to go out of town to Morehead, KY to get these plants What could be up with them?

[TZ -OH6]

The plant looks like it was damaged somehow (genetic or physical), note the axillary sucker that is taking over as the main stem now. It probably won't carry through to the seed, and if it does it most likely will be deleterious/lethal since there are no leaves or internodes being produced. That is why you have five trusses and no stem or leaves right there.

Will the fruit be stunted? Yes. There is only so much energy available and that has to be split up between all of the fruit and the new growth. Stunted means 6-10 oz instead of 16-24 oz, but add them all up an you will get the same total weight of fruit.

[mattie g]

I love seeing old threads of mine pop up a year later! I do appreciate the response, if it was a little late, TZ.

In case anyone's interested, that plant and its fruit ended up quite stunted. I don't recall getting any tomatoes from that plant that were more than 5-6 oz - some of the fruit you see in that picture stopped growing at the size you see and eventually turned red many, many weeks later. The other Mortgage Lifter next to it wilted and died only a couple weeks after this picture was taken, but whether that had anything to do with the poor ouput of this plant...I don't know. What I do know is that each of the other eight (?) tomato plants I had last year (four other heirloom varieties) produced a *ton*, so the issues I had with the Mortgage Lifters were limited just to those plants.

I'm letting some volunteers from last year grow in that spot. The seeds of those plants were in my compost, and not directly from the Mortgage Lifters, so I'm curious to see if they develop the same problems. I hope not...

BTW, whenever I see that picture, I see a hand with a big middle finger sticking up at me. Typical, considering what happened with that plant!

[TZ -OH6]

I was tricked by the thread hitting the New Posts board.