Giant blossom clusters

Tomatovator · June 12, 2007

I have 2 Brandy Boy plants in this year. Both have blossom clusters that are at least 8" long and have over 20 flowers on them (in one cluster). They have several other clusters as well with 8 to 12 flowers. Both my Polish and Marianna's Peace have blossom clusters about 8" long with 15 or so flowers on them (in one cluster). I wasn't expecting so many flowers on these varieties with large fruits. Anyone else noticing this this year? It will be interesting to see how many tomatoes I get from one of these large clusters.

feldon30 · June 12, 2007

A Brandy Boy with a truss of 20 fruit sounds highly unlikely. Any chance it's a different plant? Even when I'm fully awake and paying attention, I've dropped the wrong seed in the wrong hole before I realized it.

the999bbq · June 12, 2007

well the same with me on my 'citron russe' :

http://aycu15.webshots.com/image/176...1142915_rs.jpg

This is one cluster and I didn't even try to count the number of flowers on this plant - it is a 'normal' sized tomato however...
I was planning to open a similar thread so I co-operate on this one : what do we do with large numbers of flowers : let nature do what nature does best or do you have to prune to get them to mature.

personnally I am curious how this plant will react on this 'configuration' or is this normal ?

feldon30 · June 12, 2007

I was really blown away when I got 8 Jet Stars on one truss, and they were all good! But 20?

Black Cherry is giving me huge V-trusses with 8-12 fruit per truss.

Tomatovator · June 12, 2007

Morgan
I'm 99% sure they are the correct varieties. All of them except the Polish were from new commercial seed packs and the plant leaves and lower fruits look right. Here are some Pics. The tallest plant in the middle is Marianna's Peace. To its left in a Brandy Boy and to its right is a Polish. I also took some close ups of the Giant blossom cluster on one of the Brandy Boys. It may be hard to see but after the stem split into a "V" the left fork of it turned into one giant cluster of blossoms. Most but not all of the blossoms are visible in the pics. The last 2 pics are of the lower fruits. PS... Did I damage that one tomato by pulling at the flower when it was small or it it from a pest of some sort.

Vince · June 12, 2007

Tomatovator,

All three of my Brandyboys have had some flower clusters with 20-30 flowers. Only a fraction of those developed into fruits.

Vince

QAGuy · June 14, 2007

I've got a 'Mr Stripey' (maybe p it may also be a Tigerella) that has huge trusses also.

See?

QAGuy · June 14, 2007

And this sweet 100 isn't doing badly either.

the999bbq · June 14, 2007

should we (all) let them all grow or should we prune back to say 8 tomatoes - that's the question that keeps bugging me ?
It might be spectacular to have 50 or more tomatoes but not if they can't get any bigger than a cherry tomato... (when they are not cherry tomatoes that is)

Tomatovator · June 14, 2007

I was wondering the same thing about snipping some of the flowers off but I haven't. I'm hoping that the best candidates to produce fruit will do so naturally and the rest will just drop on their own???

mathfed · June 14, 2007

On the plants I have that have a lot of greenies, I plan to let them be and cull them out as they get bigger. If there are some that get BER, heavy catfacing, or split badly, those will get culled. I don't want to cull any when they are small, though, in case I end up tossing what would eventually be really nice toms.

sirtanon · June 14, 2007

I agree.. why reduce your plant's overall yield or run the risk of it getting sick early on and not yielding much?

Leave them all be, and enjoy the fruits for your labor!

gardenpaws_VA · July 25, 2007

I've got smaller clusters, on a couple of the dwarfs, but I've been wondering if I'll end up with misshapen fruit due to crowding (and possibly not as much size as they could attain). These are clusters of 5 or so, arranged in a ring rather than a V, and at 2+ inches per very green tomato, it's getting pretty cosy in there!

June 12, 2007	#1
Tomatovator Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Pennsylvania Zone 6 Posts: 461	Giant blossom clusters I have 2 Brandy Boy plants in this year. Both have blossom clusters that are at least 8" long and have over 20 flowers on them (in one cluster). They have several other clusters as well with 8 to 12 flowers. Both my Polish and Marianna's Peace have blossom clusters about 8" long with 15 or so flowers on them (in one cluster). I wasn't expecting so many flowers on these varieties with large fruits. Anyone else noticing this this year? It will be interesting to see how many tomatoes I get from one of these large clusters.

June 12, 2007	#6
Vince Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Riverside, CA Posts: 942	Tomatovator, All three of my Brandyboys have had some flower clusters with 20-30 flowers. Only a fraction of those developed into fruits. Vince __________________ Vince

June 14, 2007	#12
sirtanon Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Phoenix, AZ (zone 9b) Posts: 796	I agree.. why reduce your plant's overall yield or run the risk of it getting sick early on and not yielding much? Leave them all be, and enjoy the fruits for your labor! __________________ I could sail by on the winds of silence, and maybe they won't notice... but this time I think it would be better if I swim..

June 12, 2007	#2
feldon30 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2006 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 5,346	A Brandy Boy with a truss of 20 fruit sounds highly unlikely. Any chance it's a different plant? Even when I'm fully awake and paying attention, I've dropped the wrong seed in the wrong hole before I realized it.

June 12, 2007	#3
the999bbq Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 191	well the same with me on my 'citron russe' : http://aycu15.webshots.com/image/176...1142915_rs.jpg This is one cluster and I didn't even try to count the number of flowers on this plant - it is a 'normal' sized tomato however... I was planning to open a similar thread so I co-operate on this one : what do we do with large numbers of flowers : let nature do what nature does best or do you have to prune to get them to mature. personnally I am curious how this plant will react on this 'configuration' or is this normal ?

June 14, 2007	#11
mathfed Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Carlsbad, NM Posts: 38	On the plants I have that have a lot of greenies, I plan to let them be and cull them out as they get bigger. If there are some that get BER, heavy catfacing, or split badly, those will get culled. I don't want to cull any when they are small, though, in case I end up tossing what would eventually be really nice toms.

July 25, 2007	#13
gardenpaws_VA Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Northern Virginia, USA - zone 7+ Posts: 161	I've got smaller clusters, on a couple of the dwarfs, but I've been wondering if I'll end up with misshapen fruit due to crowding (and possibly not as much size as they could attain). These are clusters of 5 or so, arranged in a ring rather than a V, and at 2+ inches per very green tomato, it's getting pretty cosy in there!