Bush tomatoes flowering

[ChrisMath88]

Hi, my bush tomatoes are flowering already.... They are quite small still only 5-6inches tall, they look healthy and are in decent sized pots (not yet their final pot though). Should I pinch the flowers off or let them carry on. I've only grown bush types this year I would normally pinch the flowers off but with bush types I'm not sure if thats necessary to do this with bush toms?

[Thelma Sanders]

I just leave mine to get on with it

[veggiechicken]

I've never pinched a flower off any tomato. Live and let live

[Jungle Jane]

They won't grow as tall as a cordon variety.

[bramble]

Dont pinch them off, just consider them an early gift.

[Penellype]

Bush tomatoes only produce a finite number of fruit, unlike the cordon varieties which will go on growing and producing tomatoes until something kills them off. Therefore I wouldn't pinch any off as you will simply reduce your crop.

[bario1]

Leave them be. In a month you won't believe how many flowers you have!

[Potstubsdustbins]

The only thing I pinch off on my bush plants is the leading shoot as I find this encourages bushing.

As to bush toms only growing a finite number of fruit it's not something I have ever come across with the Tumbler I grow, they go on for ever until the weather sees them of.

[Penellype]

Hmm, I thought that was why they were called determinate. I certainly find that the bush varieties I have grown so far (Totem, Bajaja) tend to die off earlier than the cordon varieties but maybe that is because I do try to fit a quart into a pint pot a lot of the time!

[Potstubsdustbins]

^^^^^^^^^^Looking round it would seem you are correct, but I also read that the crop will all ripen within one to two weeks, this is something else that does not fit with my experience of Tumblers.

This year I will keep notes on first tom eaten to last tom harvested etc and report back.

[bario1]

My tumblers produced over a long period, and ripened as they went, rather than all in one go. They did seem to stop eventually though, and the plant died off quite a wile before my cordons, which were still producing more flowers. Overall though, the yield was incredible from each plant - here is one of mine at the end of last season (bear in mind I'd already had dozens and dozens of toms off it before the pic was taken)

[Valleyman]

I never touch my bush toms. However this is primarily out of ignorance or fear in what would happen if I mess with them. I will however say it's never done me any harm, and I get a bumper crop regardless of how well they appear to have been doing at the start of the season.

Mine are currently about 12 inches tall, and have stalled in height, with flowers on top and have just started throwing out lots of new healthy side shoots that are a few inches long.

These are my January sowings, and are currently in the greenhouse in their baskets awaiting the big move outside in a couple of weeks.

edit: spealong and gremar

[skeggijon]

I've always believed that if you pinch out flowers on tomato plants, that the tomato fairy of the east waves her wand and curses your entire crop

[Penellype]

^^^^^^^^^^Looking round it would seem you are correct, but I also read that the crop will all ripen within one to two weeks, this is something else that does not fit with my experience of Tumblers.

This year I will keep notes on first tom eaten to last tom harvested etc and report back.

My experience with bush varieties Totem (grown in pots) and Bajaja (grown in soil), the only bush tomatoes I have grown so far:
Totem - First fruit harvested 25 July, last fruit harvested 21 September when the plants had clearly finished.
Bajaja - First fruit harvested 13 August, last fruit harvested 18 October after which plants were removed due to blight.

It seems from this that some varieties may well carry on fruiting for much longer , while some clearly don't. I've grown both these varieties twice, the other year the Totem were planted in a much shadier place and didn't produce much edible fruit at all and the Bajaja got blight in mid September.

This year I am trying some new bush varieties - Balconi (red and yellow) and Garden Pearl, so it will be interesting to see how they compare. i will be growing Totem again, but not Bajaja as the fruits are tiny and it seems to be prone to blight.

[Potstubsdustbins]

^^^^^^I hate to say this but I think you will be disappointed with the Garden Pearl. I tried them a few years back when the first came out. Tumbler had gone off the market for some unknown reason and I was looking for a replacement, I only grew them the once.