Picking off first flowers.

[ReptileAddiction]

So my tomatos are putting on their first blooms. The plants are only about a foot high though I know they are just making fruit because they are stressed and want to reproduce. They will go in their huge (15 gallon) pot later this week. Should I pull these first blooms off? I plan on caging them and letting them go wild. I will prune them a bit to keep them in the cage but other than that I wont do much to them.

[RogueRose]

I wouldn't pick them off. Just be patient. I thought mine were small and not producing much. Then it's like they grew overnight!

[ReptileAddiction]

Ok. I have never ever had stressed plants so this has never happened. These I grew from seed to. They are cherry tomatoes so they wont have much weight.

[barnhardt9999]

15 gallon pot is not huge. It is the bare minimum to grow indeterminate tomatoes in a hot climate. I would leave the blossoms, if the plant is too stressed it will drop them. Forming a cherry tomato doesn't take much energy. By the time it starts to ripen the tomatoes, which takes more energy, it will have dropped them if neccessary.

[ReptileAddiction]

Everywhere I looked it told me to grow it in a 5 gallon bucket. I was thinking this will be huge for it. I have always grown maters in smaller pots though the plant just didnt get that big

[cynthia_h]

I grow *some* of my tomatoes in 5-gallon pots BUT BUT BUT I live in the S.F. BayArea in a "fog" zone and really cannot get enough heat to make tomatoes happy. I also grow very small varieties in these pots: yellow pear, cherry tomatoes, Sun Golds, and the like. Romas go into the Square Foot Garden, and this year (like last year) everything else is in my rented box off-site with a southern exposure.

But if I lived even 7 miles further east, on the warm side of the East Bay Hills (Sunset Zone 15), I'd need those 15-gallon tubs for sure, and probably even larger. The roots would get too hot too fast, the plants would stress just a few hours after thorough watering, the nutrients would get flushed out practically every other day, and it would just be a problem all around.

I plant in containers because I simply don't have enough dirt to grow veggies in the dirt, so that's not an avenue available to me.

But you seem to be in one of the warmer zones of SoCal, so your tomatoes *NEED* the larger tubs.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[ReptileAddiction]

I am growing yellow pear. The pot will stay in the shade and they wont have FULL sun but pretty close to it. I have found growing them this way reduces sunscald. My neighbor has to throw out most of theirs because of sunscald.

[cynthia_h]

But it sounds as if your ambient temps are much higher than mine. My specific yard *never* gets very warm, due to the redwood tree blocking the sun during the prime sun hours: 11:00 to about 4:00. Tomatoes need more sunlight than I can give them, which is why I was so pleased to rent the 4'x8'x2.5' (or maybe 3' deep) container with the southern exposure: it gets all-day sun.

Here at the house, except for the containers along the driveway and the *one* corner of the SFG, the smart gardener grows cold-weather plants, even in July. I've gone ahead and planted green beans this year as a last-ditch try for a summer veggie, but probably won't get very good yields, even with 18 plants. That's how cold my own yard is.

I've also planted chard, kale, squash, over-wintered cabbage, soybeans/edamame, and potatoes, to cover any and all temperature possibilities. Oh, and one pepper plant in a container along the driveway next to the tomatoes. Something will work! But who knows what? One thing's for sure: nothing at this house will die from over-heated roots. It's much more likely that the heat-loving plants will give up the ghost....

Cynthia

[patientx3]

Here at the house, except for the containers along the driveway and the *one* corner of the SFG, the smart gardener grows cold-weather plants, even in July.

I know what you mean. The spinach I planted in late April is still very small (and took almost two weeks to sprout). I just planted more in a different part of the garden, even though its June (and it came up in five days!).

My tomato plant is loving the June daylight and is growing like crazy, but the coolish temperatures are stopping the blossoms from doing anything but falling off and dying. Here a "hot" day is above 70.

[PaulF]

I would differ from Rose, especially if you plant to transplant your tomatoes. As soon as blossoms appear, all the plant's energy is going into reproduction. You want your tomatoes to first concentrate on developing a root system then making fruit.

Early in the season blooms need to be plucked for the same reason until the plants get some size. Plants in 5 gal buckets will be smaller and less productive. 15 gal is pretty good. Cherries and small pear shaped will do OK in 5 gal buckets because they produce more than anyone could eat anyway. Larger sized tomatoes need lots of root space.

[ReptileAddiction]

There are a bunch of trussles of flowers. It is still growing like a weed.