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Old July 13, 2018   #1
b54red
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Default Late fruit low down

After years of leaving the blossom stems low down on the main stem hoping to get some decent tomatoes from the tiny set fruits left I have found it is just easier to remove the stem. Very rarely do I get a decent sized fruit from these left behind sets though sometimes I do. Since I am doing the lean and lower those old stems just create problems in handling the vines and most of the fruit they produce is small to very small. Since they are usually laying on the mulch for a long time they are frequently eaten by insects before they can ripen anyway. Once I am dealing with fruit on the clusters much further up the vines it is easier and causes less disease and pest problems to just remove everything below the ripening fruits. I used to leave the old blossom stems with small greenies on them but have finally started removing them also and despite that my production seems to have gone up. I was just wondering if anyone else has come to the same conclusion and is removing them also?

Bill
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Old July 14, 2018   #2
dustdevil
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Hi Bill. I like to encourage growth of the first flower/blossom...often "low down". Earlier fruit set is important in short season zones. I tie my tomatoes to stakes, so nothing is laying on the mulch.
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Old July 15, 2018   #3
Nan_PA_6b
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Sometimes that first cluster is smaller fruit, sometimes it's just fine. I'd be missing out on several pounds of large fruit if I had taken out the first cluster on some of mine this year.



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Old July 16, 2018   #4
Worth1
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I just ate my last late fruit, time to get rid of the plants.
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Old July 16, 2018   #5
zipcode
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I don't remove them. Sometimes they are actually my last fruit near winter. Lately my plants have been almost wiped by the russet mites, and they usually start from near the top, the very old yellowish leaves are the only ones surviving (I have 0 fungal problems) and that is enough to make some smaller but still good tasting fruit before freezing from that early 'delayed fruit'.
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Old July 18, 2018   #6
AKmark
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Quote:
Originally Posted by b54red View Post
After years of leaving the blossom stems low down on the main stem hoping to get some decent tomatoes from the tiny set fruits left I have found it is just easier to remove the stem. Very rarely do I get a decent sized fruit from these left behind sets though sometimes I do. Since I am doing the lean and lower those old stems just create problems in handling the vines and most of the fruit they produce is small to very small. Since they are usually laying on the mulch for a long time they are frequently eaten by insects before they can ripen anyway. Once I am dealing with fruit on the clusters much further up the vines it is easier and causes less disease and pest problems to just remove everything below the ripening fruits. I used to leave the old blossom stems with small greenies on them but have finally started removing them also and despite that my production seems to have gone up. I was just wondering if anyone else has come to the same conclusion and is removing them also?

Bill
I cut them off, they take away energy that tomatoes above could be using. I agree
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Old July 20, 2018   #7
b54red
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With the influx of spider mites and Early Blight lately I feel all I do every morning is prune off diseased or dying limbs. My older plants are almost all in excess of 15 feet in length but many of them have little or no foliage left on the bottom ten feet of stem and some only have healthy leaves on the upper two feet of plant; but despite this loss of foliage I still have a good number of them with a lot of fruit left on them. I believe I will start taking out most of those plants unless they have a good number of fairly decent green fruit still on them. I have already removed a few that just look liked they were about finished for the year and didn't warrant the effort to keep them going. My third planting which was done in mid and late May is really looking good right now and the spider mites aren't hitting them nearly as badly as the older plants. I am so tired of toting those big yard bags full of tomato refuse from the garden out to the street and now I have to remove all my cucumber vines and squash vines which are huge. My arms are already itching from the thought.

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