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Hanson Ma

I have many tomato blooms ready to open or open. But I see that the biggest blooms have a wide stem and more blooms off of that. I'm thinking I cut the blooms or buds that don't have the wide stem to allow the bigger bloom to thrive. Is this what I should do? Or will the other blooms go big too? And is this to early for some of the weigh offs? When should I be looking for a fruit set for a weigh off say in August or October?

6/14/2014 7:48:51 PM

East Carbon, Utah

My opinion - leave all buds on a truss until they open. Use the smaller ones to collect extra pollen, which is often needed for pollinating the megabloom. Once the megabloom has set fruit, pinch or cut off all remaining blossoms or tiny fruit. When growing for size, you definitely only want one tomato per truss taking up resources, and without a doubt the biggest tomatoes come from the largest flowers - distinguished early on by the thicker pedicles.

If you are shooting for a weigh-off on a particular day, count back 40-70 days and that's when you should try to pollinate. 40 days if you have hot summer days (95+), 70 if cooler (mostly below 80 for highs). Even then, partially ripe tomatoes can be harvested 2-3 weeks in advance of a weigh-off and stored in a fridge, with good air circulation, at around 55 degrees.

I think most of us take what we can get when we can get it when it comes to setting fruit from promising megablooms. There is no guarantee there will be another on the vine. And if there is, at some point you can cull the earlier one.

There is an official submission form for early tomatoes, so with a little extra effort, even one that ripens in July can be counted as official.

Best of luck!

6/14/2014 8:41:12 PM

Allentown, PA

I agree with SEAMFASTER. I have however removed all other developing blooms from the plant unless it's another large mega bloom in order to focus the plants energy into that one bloom. This comes with some risk because like what SEAMFASTER was saying you might need additional pollen from other blooms in order to fully pollinate the mega bloom you have.
What works for me at least 90 percent of the time is to take an electric toothbrush and vibrate the open mega bloom. The vibration of the toothbrush works very well in moving the pollen from the anther to the stigma resulting in almost full pollination of the mega blooms I have.

Using this method directly resulted in achieving the 4.46 LB Big Zac I had last year as my personal best so far.

This season I have successfully set five tomatoes so far and I fully contribute that to using the toothbrush.

Also the only weigh off I enter is the early tomato weigh off that the GPC has each season. I have my tomatoes weighed and certified by using a state certified scale, fill out the appropriate paperwork, scan it and then e-mail it to the GPC. The results are tabulated here on Big Pumpkins.

6/14/2014 9:07:56 PM

Allentown, PA

Addendum; Also photographic proof showing your tomato on the scale reading the weight is also required for the GPC.

6/14/2014 9:09:34 PM

Hanson Ma

Thank you for the info.

6/15/2014 5:55:09 AM