Fused blooms - what to do?

[SharonRossy]

So this year I am finding more mega blooms - which I have removed when I see them, but I’ve noticed on my Rebel Yell quite a few that look like they are fused but didn’t look like mega blooms initially. They are lower down on the stem and probably escaped notice because of the foliage.

I do have a lot of fruit set on the plant and I did remove two small ones today, but there is another one that is getting large and I can see the bottom where you can see the split. My question is: do I leave this tomato and the others and see how they grow? I’m really loathe to remove any more and there are several more tomatoes forming so it doesn’t look like the plant has slowed down.

Given my short growing season, my instinct is to leave them and see how they do.

Thoughts? Opinions? Any advice would be welcome!

Of the beefsteaks that I’m growing: ISPL, Not Purple Strawberry, EBP, NAR, Rebel Yell and Momotaro, RY seems to be the most prone to fusing or maybe they are just going to be huge tomatoes. We have had a weird summer. Lots of rain, some cool nights, then really hot, then rain, etc etc.

Thanks,
Sharon

[ddsack]

Personally, I never remove them. I don't need my fruit to be perfectly formed, some catfacing and bulging doesn't bother me a bit. I just trim off the inedible parts, big tomatoes have plenty of flesh left for a salad or fresh salsa. Now, if you are growing for farmer's market sales or plan to donate to a food pantry, that would be different as folks there look for a perfect handsome tomato.

It has been said that bees are more attracted to mega blossoms, so if you save unbagged seed you may have more chance of an unwanted cross. Of course bagging would solve that.

It's a personal choice, no right or wrong. I'm short season too, so I don't want to waste any time in getting a ripe tomato no matter what it looks like.

[SharonRossy]

Hi Dee,
Thanks for your help. I’m going to leave them on. I just don’t have the heart to remove anymore. I have never bagged blossoms, so I wouldn’t even know what to do! Like I said, where I found mega blooms early - those were removed. So far, all seeds I have saved have been true to form.
This was a weird year - my first round of sowing, nothing germinated. I had to restart, so my plants were rather late - mid-April - before I had any seedlings to speak of.
Then Montreal had a wicked heat wave in May and I put my seedlings out every day all day. Actually, I thought I had killed them. When I went to bring them in for the night, every single one of them had their leaves folded towards the Center pointing up like they were praying. I realized it was their way of preserving moisture (I forgot they were outside). They were fine once they came back inside. But I’m pretty sure that week helped to boost my plants because they set fruit faster than usual. It was at least 3 weeks after plant out, but considering they weren’t that big, they have done ok.

[KarenO]

Unless severely malformed I think it’s fine to let them be
KarenO

[slugworth]

I never remove them
bigger the better

[Balr14]

Another vote for letting them be.

[PaulF]

Record giant tomatoes seem to come from fused blooms, so I say let them be and see what happens.

[biscuitridge]

That's all that I'm looking for! If I don't get a WR potential on the first truss I discard the plant to the compost pile. You can grow plenty of 6 and 7 pounders higher up but I've never had a WR higher up,not saying it isn't possible but I don't have the patience, I'd rather remove it and plant something else in it's place.

[MrsJustice]

Originally Posted by ddsack

Personally, I never remove them. I don't need my fruit to be perfectly formed, some catfacing and bulging doesn't bother me a bit. I just trim off the inedible parts, big tomatoes have plenty of flesh left for a salad or fresh salsa. Now, if you are growing for farmer's market sales or plan to donate to a food pantry, that would be different as folks there look for a perfect handsome tomato.

It has been said that bees are more attracted to mega blossoms, so if you save unbagged seed you may have more chance of an unwanted cross. Of course bagging would solve that.

It's a personal choice, no right or wrong. I'm short season too, so I don't want to waste any time in getting a ripe tomato no matter what it looks like.

I completely agree with your Statement, Aemn!!

I thought about your statement while saving seeds from my Dieners Heirloom Tomato this morning as they are very big and 20% of them with very odd shapes, but taste great like the rest of them.

[NarnianGarden]

I have done both. Allow them, and see what they become.. Often they indeed grow into a deformed tomato that is unevenly ripened, but that is not the main problem.
It has happened a few times that a mega bloom seems to take unreasonably much energy from the plant (or rather, the plant tends to give too much attention to it and neglect other fruits...thus, mega blooms to me are energy vampires that suck precious resources from others)..
So this year, I removed all monstrous looking blossoms, and am witnessing much more constant fruit development.

[slugworth]

Some tomatoes will have a lot of scar tissue and will be tough to slice

[Koala Doug]

I used to let my fused/fasciated blooms develop into (somewhat) usable tomatoes, but now I just pinch off those flowers before they pollinate. Doing so allows the plant to allocate more precious and limited resources to other fruit that ripens evenly. And I really don't want to have to 'carve' a tomato - I'd rather just slice it.

[SharonRossy]

Well because this year seemed to have more than usual - even though I thought I would leave them, I ended up removing most of them because it seemed like things were slowing down. A few snuck by me. But it’s been a weird season. I’m noticing a fair amount of blossom drop, which is probably due to having very high temperatures and high humidity recently. I’ve also pinched off blossoms because several of my plants have so many flowers that there is no way they will all develop in this short season. So I’m culling the plants.

[Andrey_BY]

Always allow them to grow

[Labradors2]

I'm very surprised at all the people that leave them. I have no idea why people would want enormous mal-formed, unevenly ripened tomatoes that zap the energy of the plant and have no use. I say "Off with their heads!"

Linda