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JoJames 
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Joined: 11 August 2008
Location: Te Puke
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 Topic: Tomato Flowers
Posted: 16 November 2010 at 1:16pm |
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Should I be picking the flowers off at this point to help the plant grow bigger, rather than just letting it grow fruit?
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Gardengirl
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Joined: 28 October 2008
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Posted: 16 November 2010 at 2:41pm |
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I've never heard of picking the flowers off, just to pinch out the laterals.
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happymumma
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Posted: 16 November 2010 at 2:45pm |
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I wouldn't bother I don't think. I hadn't heard of doing it either (but I am a garden novice really) but I always remove the laterals and that seems to work for plant growth.
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LadyBee
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Posted: 16 November 2010 at 2:49pm |
Im new to vege gardening too and have two tomato plants that have come into flower now and was wondering the same thing jojames 
Silly me, but what does it mean when you say "just pinch out the laterals"?
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TTC for 4 1/2 years IVF #1 - April 2012 short BFP, no frosties IVF #2 - August 2012, BFP!! 3 frosties! 
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Gardengirl
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Posted: 16 November 2010 at 2:53pm |
Not silly at all
I'm rubbish at explaining this sort of thing, but where you have your main branches on the plant, you will see new leaves starting to grow right in the 'join'. Those are your laterals and if you leave them on there will be lot more branches and leaves for the plant to put it's energy into and the plant can become really big and unweildy. So by pinching them out the plant can put it's energy into it's fruit. With most types of tomato you don't want lots and lots of branches.
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LadyBee
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Posted: 16 November 2010 at 2:59pm |
Ahhh got ya 
Just had a peek at my plants and see what you mean.
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TTC for 4 1/2 years IVF #1 - April 2012 short BFP, no frosties IVF #2 - August 2012, BFP!! 3 frosties!
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Gardengirl
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Posted: 16 November 2010 at 3:02pm |
And apparently (I haven't tried this) if you pinch them out carefully and put them in a good potting mix, they can grow into a new tomato plant. Worth a try (except I already have 20 tomato plants on the go  )
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JoJames
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Posted: 17 November 2010 at 9:50pm |
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Last year we had heaps of plants and I didn't pinch the laterals and they crept all over the garden and didn't grow very well, This year I've been taking off the lower leaves so they can grow up instead of out. I took off a couple flowers on a really little plant that I think needs the energy to grow bigger before it can attempt fruit. i'm also hoping that I won't have the blight debacle my poor tomatos succumbed to last year, now that they aren't so close.
I started out with 6 this year, then my husband decide to plant heritage seeds and we now have 12, Also we have seedlings popping up from last years fruit, We will see what happens I'm hoping for a bumper crop FXed
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Nothing
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Posted: 18 November 2010 at 11:12am |
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When the plant is a reasnable size, take out the bottom leaves up to the first branch of fruit, it encourages the fruit to ripen better and stops the plant wasting its energy on those leaves- it gets concentrated to the fruit. You can continue up the plant as the lower fruit ripens with taking the leaves off. Our plant last year got up to 2m high and about 1m had no leaves in the end.
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Tomato Flowers
