Fused Blossoms
 

I removed about 7 or 8 fused blossoms from my tomato plants yesterday.All of the Cherokee Purples and Greens and all the the dark tomatoes had them.I think Earl's Faux and Beefsteak too.

Just wondering if anyone knew why this happens.It happens to often at the beginning to be a anomaly.It is obviously something that is meant to happen.


I always assume the plant knows best but in this case I nip them.I have a wild guess that maybe its has something to do with pollination.Maybe a trait from when tomatoes were bee pollinated or something.Maybe putting out huge blossom to alert the bees:lol:

I always leave mine and get the monster tomatoes they produce. I have even heard of people who try to grow the HUGE tomatoes will remove all of the blossoms except a fused one and try to grow one tomato on a plant. I don't do that, but I do think it is fun to have a couple of monsters in the garden. My largest is only 2#.

It seems to happen most often with the early blooms. Beefsteaks are most likely to have compound blossoms and some varieties more than others so genetics plays a role. It happens more in spring and especially when the weather is cool.
KarenO

Also known as megablooms, and here's a link with lots of info,many threads from here at Tomatville.

[url]https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=megablooms+tomato[/url]

And the best book on megablooms by Marv Meissner,a retired cardiologist whom I know very well.He used to come here to Tville,but interest was limited so he stayed mainly at those sites which featured large vegetables.

[url]https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Marv+book+about+competition+size+tomatoes[/url]

Carolyn

If I recall it is mostly the flower buds being exposed to night temps below 55. This is while the tissue for the buds are still forming inside the stem, meaning that the exposure happened before you even have the flowers externally present to see. Might explain why you see these on early flowers when the temps are lower.
Genetics plays a part too as mentioned.

I usually clip them off if I have a good fruit set because the tomatoes they produce though usually larger than normal are not great slicers and are just plain messy to deal with. They frequently ripen very unevenly so one or two lobes will be over ripe and another may be still green. Of course I miss a few and I also like to get an occasional monster for showing off.

Bill

Agree wit PH cool temps while bud is forming.

I used to get quite a few of them up in PNW. but down here in NC i have not noticed any or maybe I am not paying much attention to it. We didn't have cool weather here. Maybe that is why the incident of megabloom/cat face is rare here. Today , May 1st I picked 4 ripe tomatoes. No cool weather here.

Sort of found the answer. It is called a fasciated blossom. Seems like it is just a gene common in beefsteak tomatoes.

[FONT=serif]
[/FONT][FONT=serif][FONT=serif]Fasciation in tomato flowers was described first in the 1920’s; a 1948 paper from the National Institutes of Health described the genetics of fasciated beefsteak tomatoes. In botany, fasciation is an event out of the ordinary, yet somewhat common.[/FONT]

[URL]https://www.unce.unr.edu/areas/southern/files/pdf/columns/Fasciation.pdf[/URL]


[/FONT]

After having more time to read about fasciation, seems everyone was right about cold stress or any sort of stress possibly being a factor. Also mentioned was promoting fast growth of the plant which I think we all do.

But the main reason is genetics where some sort of mutation occurred. Thanks for all the replies. It helped in the search.:)

Edit to say if Carolyn's links pointed to fasciation I didn't see it because I have Google blocked in my hosts file :)

I have about a dozen of these megablooms on my Cherokee Purple right now, but none of the other varieties right next to it has even one.

[QUOTE=seaeagle;636415]After having more time to read about fasciation, seems everyone was right about cold stress or any sort of stress possibly being a factor. Also mentioned was promoting fast growth of the plant which I think we all do.

But the main reason is genetics where some sort of mutation occurred. Thanks for all the replies. It helped in the search.:)

Edit to say if Carolyn's links pointed to fasciation I didn't see it because I have Google blocked in my hosts file :)[/QUOTE]

The last link I put up was the result of a Google search, not google itself and there were many links listed,here's one from Tville, which I know you can read.

[url]http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=32478[/url]

Carolyn

[QUOTE=OzoneNY;636457]I have about a dozen of these megablooms on my Cherokee Purple right now, but none of the other varieties right next to it has even one.[/QUOTE]
Last year all my CP tomatoes were from megabloom and few cat faced

Cold weather would certainly explain why we have a lot of fused blossoms on our tomato plants! I don't mind though - I never pinch them. If we vibrate the blossoms we usually get a nice shaped large tomato. A lot of them are boat shaped too. They still slice up nice for a sandwich!

Nice shaped CP - Gardeneer - you should win something for that!

I'm not convinced the cold theory is foolproof. Sure, certain conditions accentuate the problem, like humidity, but the first bloom is a megabloom on certain varieties no matter what.
I had late plants that spent their life in great temperatures and they all had it.

[QUOTE=b54red;636133]I usually clip them off if I have a good fruit set because the tomatoes they produce though usually larger than normal are not great slicers and are just plain messy to deal with. They frequently ripen very unevenly so one or two lobes will be over ripe and another may be still green. Of course I miss a few and I also like to get an occasional monster for showing off.



Bill[/QUOTE]



Same here. Plus I've noticed that if I leave them, it tends to stall or slow the fruit set on the plant until the monster has been harvested. I'd rather have fewer more uniform smaller tomatoes than an ugly, catfaced, partially useable large one.

[QUOTE=zipcode;636663]I'm not convinced the cold theory is foolproof. Sure, certain conditions accentuate the problem, like humidity, but the first bloom is a megabloom on certain varieties no matter what.
I had late plants that spent their life in great temperatures and they all had it.[/QUOTE]

I am not convinced either. The article said it was possible that environmental stress
such as cool weather may contribute to fused blossoms but the main cause was genetics. I tend to believe it is genetics but I have never started a tomato plant in July so I'm not sure.

Was actually thinking about starting a couple of Cherokee Purple in 5 inch pots in late June to find out.But then I would want to plant them. If you see these fused blossoms starting in warm weather then it is probably mostly due to genetics and I agree with everyone, Cherokee Purple seems to always have them.

I didn't even consider cutting those off,they always produce huge tomatoes,though they're offten ugly.The cause is largely genetic,I'm growing an F1 cross from last year,one parent has extreme tendency for fused flowers,the other is [I]S.pimpinellifolium[/I] which [B]always [/B]has only single flowers.The F1 shows no signs of fused flowers whatsoever.Last year cross between 2 lines that have this tendency resulted in F1 that had exclusively fused flowers,it was quite a monster,and tomatoes were huge,though only the 1st flower truss made it to ripening before my mite infestation got them.

Genetics plays a role as so does growing condition/climate:

CASE IN POINT
I have grown Silvery Fir Tree, for 3 season in PNW and every year I had cat faced fruits.
But this year , growing in NC, my 2 plant have about 20 tomatoes, none is cat faced.

[QUOTE=Gardeneer;637847]Genetics plays a role as so does growing condition/climate:

CASE IN POINT
I have grown Silvery Fir Tree, for 3 season in PNW and every year I had cat faced fruits.
But this year , growing in NC, my 2 plant have about 20 tomatoes, none is cat faced.[/QUOTE]
The dog comes from the wolf, the wolf has few genetic problems nor do dogs that look like wolves.
Many breeds of dogs do, bad back, bad hips, ear mites due to floppy ears, cancer you name it.
The tomatoes we see come from smaller types like cherry tomatoes.
Cherry tomatoes have few problems the closer they get to the ones that evolved through time like wild cherry.
Worth.

Here is a variety that produces almost exclusively single megablooms on the 1st truss.I have 4 plants of this variety and all did it.Unfortunately I lost it's lebel and now I have no idea what's it called.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/4lw5ybQ.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=Gardeneer;637847]Genetics plays a role as so does growing condition/climate:

CASE IN POINT
I have grown Silvery Fir Tree, for 3 season in PNW and every year I had cat faced fruits.
But this year , growing in NC, my 2 plant have about 20 tomatoes, none is cat faced.[/QUOTE]
Indeed, for catfacing, environment plays a huge role, especially humidity, imo. But you can have catfacing on normal non-fused blooms.

Temperature doesn't have anything to do with it,I've had mega blooms all season long, from 40 degrees to 105 ,no difference in quantity or size.

There are now TWO threads in about megablooms, etc.,this one ended in May

The more recent one is in another place and I suggest that you start reading on this page,for anyone interested

[url]http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=38899&page=19[/url]

Carolyn

[QUOTE=biscuitridge;671074]Temperature doesn't have anything to do with it,I've had mega blooms all season long, from 40 degrees to 105 ,no difference in quantity or size.[/QUOTE]


Have to call BS on this one... what's your motive here? You are like jack and the beanstalk, with magic seeds?

No magic, that's just been my experience, so that is what I base my opinions on,I have no other choice, seeing is believing.

[QUOTE=pmcgrady;671104]Have to call BS on this one... what's your motive here? You are like jack and the beanstalk, with magic seeds?[/QUOTE]

A couple of people are treating the world record holder like an outlaw. He is in a group of growers who have ALL of the top largest tomatoes that have been grown, and they are a large group of many growers. I am not happy about the way this man has been treated at all, and actually think he is owed an apology by a couple of people.

I was wrong and do apologize to all. I just found it extremely hard to believe the world record was broken, let alone a person with 50 posts here, did it. I was schooled by one of the PRO's today and am humbled by it. Please again accept my apology. Hope you grow a 10 pounder next year!

[QUOTE=AKmark;671151]A couple of people are treating the world record holder like an outlaw. He is in a group of growers who have ALL of the top largest tomatoes that have been grown, and they are a large group of many growers. I am not happy about the way this man has been treated at all, and actually think he is owed an apology by a couple of people.[/QUOTE]

Thank you Mark. So disrespectful. Not cool and no way to treat someone we could all learn something from and who has accomplished a world record tomato (and not by accident obviously!)
I for one appreciate anyone who shares knowledge about tomato culture and breeding here on this site as there is getting to be less and less of it in Favor of other topics it seems and fewer visits or posts by experienced tomato growers and “pros” I have admired compared to past years. This perhaps illustrates why that might be.
Respect.

KarenO

[QUOTE=AKmark;671151]A couple of people are treating the world record holder like an outlaw. He is in a group of growers who have ALL of the top largest tomatoes that have been grown, and they are a large group of many growers. I am not happy about the way this man has been treated at all, and actually think he is owed an apology by a couple of people.[/QUOTE]

I wouldn't use the word outlaw myself, but yes,there's been some strong back and forth disagreements about the formation of megablooms, etc.

Yes, Dan does post at the Big Pumpkin site, I just linked to that at the longer site and congratulated him for his winner tomato and showed a picture of it.

With almost anything having to do with tomatoes there will be different opinions on how to do it,see saving seeds for just one,or what environmental conditions are best for this or that variety. Or which fertilizers should I use and when and how much,etc.

And there's always that helpful phrase...lets agree to disagree....,which I think should be used more often IMO.

Carolyn