Help with patio variety tomatoes

[lindsaylou]

Hello! First time poster here!

My in-ground tomatoes I started from seed were looking pretty haggard, so a few weeks ago, I went to my local nursery and bought 4 compact container friendly tomato plants. 2 were a patio variety and the other two were either a bush boy or better bush variety.

Anywho, they are looking great, but still a little small. I noticed they are starting to make some flowers. Should I pinch these off so the plants can get a little bigger/stronger? I have never pinched tomato blooms before, but I have heard of others doing so early in the growing season.

Should I keep them on? I'm afraid if I pinch them, I won't get as much fruit this late. Any advice is welcome!

I'm in SW MO if that helps. Thank you for your time!!

[imafan26]

Better bush tops out between 4-5 ft, patio will top out about 3 ft. They have shorter internodes than indeterminate plants and they will produce most of their tomatoes all at one time. Once the terminal bud sets flowers you won't get any more growth. Bush types plants may still need staking or caging but are usually not pruned.

Usually for indeterminates, two branches are allowed to grow but the rest of the suckers are pruned out. Flowers are usually not pinched off since you want to maximize fruit production. Indeterminates have longer internodes and grow sometimes 8-10 ft. They produce fruit over a longer time than determinate types.

[jal_ut]

Here in high dry Utah to get a tomato we have to start them in the greenhouse for transplanting out later about June first. I never prune nor pinch blossoms. Just let them do their thing. Works for me.

[kayjay]

Hi. Are those plants in the photo the Patios? I grew one a few years ago. It did pretty nicely in a 4.5-gallon container. That container looks a bit small. How big is it?

I would leave the flowers alone for the reason imafan said - it's a determinate tomato. Just let it do its thing. I'm surprised to hear from multiple members now that they "heard" to prune flowers. I never read that anywhere. Maybe that's because the weather can be precarious here in Ontario, and the flowers will die off on their own if the conditions aren't right. See flowers, be happy, hope for good weather and tomatoes.

I went back to check my thread from the year I did the Patios, and they were sluggish. Not a ripe tomato until August. That could have been my conditions, of course.

Here's a pic from mid-June of that year. I bought it as a seedling in late May. For scale, the container is about 9" x 9" and maybe 14" deep. I don't remember the exact measurements, but I did the math and it's just shy of 5 gal volume.

Hope that helps a bit; good luck.