[BARNACLE BILL]

Well it appears the warm weather has arrived at last. To my mind everything seems way behind from last year. I know they say the plants will catch up. My tomatoes have grown to the second set of flowers. The peppers are about 10 inches tall , some have flowers. The average flowers is between 10 and 12. My questions is should I remove some flowers to say 5 or 6 ? The same with the tomatoes should I limit them to say 3 trusses ? To allow them to concentrate on producing fewer but larger fruit. Or should I just leave them alone and let them catch up from their slow start ? Incidentally the cucumbers are only 9 inch tall. Would they benefit from producing less fruit when they eventually flower ?

Thanks

BB

[JayG]

Your toms don't sound far behind to me, although I dare say everyone has their own ideas about that.

You haven't mentioned whether your plants are outdoors or indoors, which obviously makes a difference, but even outdoors limiting to 3 trusses seems a little drastic if we get a half decent summer.

Peppers no doubt vary in their productivity, but when I've grown them I usually find that left alone any 'excess' fruits tend to abort after setting - whether deliberately reducing the numbers further would result in a greater weight of peppers overall is hard to call without doing a side-by-side experiment.

Cucumbers are usually restricted to one fruit per side shoot, but the most important thing to keep them fruiting is to pick the fruits as soon as they are ready, or they will think they've done enough and stop flowering.

[Headgardener22]

My tomatoes are at about 3ft and some have four trusses of flowers on them. They seem much closer together than other years (mind you some also have only two trusses).

[mumofstig]

I have removed all but a few flowers from my peppers, so that the plants can grow bigger.
In the past I've left all the flowers on and the plants stayed small and never had any later fruit.

[3759allen]

i'm useless at peppers so can't really comment.

tomatoes i would leave a loan just pinch out all the side shoots (assuming they are not bush variety).

as for cucumbers i pinch out the growth tip of every side shoot after the first 2 flowers/ fruits, once i'm sure one of the fruits will set i will pinch out the smallest one. i do find some fruits seem to dry up in the early stages. from previous experience if your growing up canes or string if you leave the side shoots to it they will be a be a mess and i find drain the plant and die off early.

i wouldn't say your far behind from everyone else, well me any way.

[BARNACLE BILL]

Thanks for your input everybody. Today has been scorchio up here. Went in the greenhouse at 11.00 and it was 92 degrees in there. So I am sure the plants will put on a growth spurt. However I am going to try an experiment with 2 peppers and  2 tomato plants. That is to reduce the amount of flowers on each plant to see if they produce bigger fruit.

Thanks

[Headgardener22]

Personally, I would wait with the tomatoes. If the temperature gets too high (by which I mean above 40C) then you are likely to find that the flowers abort anyway so if you've taken some off, you may end up with none. I've never taken flowers off myself but I would do it like a grapevine, i.e. Wait until they've set and then thin them out.

[sunshineband]

Personally, I would wait with the tomatoes. If the temperature gets too high (by which I mean above 40C) then you are likely to find that the flowers abort anyway so if you've taken some off, you may end up with none. I've never taken flowers off myself but I would do it like a grapevine, i.e. Wait until they've set and then thin them out.

That might be mine scuppered today then --- I can't cool the greenhouse down any further than I have done

[Headgardener22]

The traditional methods are to water the ground and to paint the glass to keep out the sun. I've thrown an old sheet over the greenhouse instead and it brought the temperature down a bit.

[BARNACLE BILL]

I think you are probably right about the tomatoes Headgardener 22. They have certainly kicked on since the change in weather. But I think I will take Mum of Stigs advice with the peppers. Last year they just produce small fruit and none of them ripened from green fruit. I will see what method proves to be most productive.

BB

[oldgrunge]

I wouldn't worry to much about the peppers or tomatoes. There's plenty of time for everything to grow and ripen. I do spray shading on the greenhouse, but never thin out the flowers. As JayG says, they will tend to abort excess fruit anyway. Cucumbers - as I grow all female varieties in the greenhouse, I pinch out all the sideshoots as they appear. Grow them as cordons, like indeterminate tomatoes.

[Growster...]

I wouldn't worry to much about the peppers or tomatoes. There's plenty of time for everything to grow and ripen. I do spray shading on the greenhouse, but never thin out the flowers. As JayG says, they will tend to abort excess fruit anyway. Cucumbers - as I grow all female varieties in the greenhouse, I pinch out all the sideshoots as they appear. Grow them as cordons, like indeterminate tomatoes.

Toms in the greenhouse should get to six trusses, outside ones five, or less where they're Marmande, which stumble after three trusses, but you can see why when they produce such huge fruits...

We grow cuces like you, Old, and take them when they're quite thin, to keep the plants productive.

I've never really noticed flowers dropping, but this year, the Sungold are determined to beat the record for sideshoots, which grow overnight! Interestingly, the trial of Sungold Reverts we're doing down at the patch is also showing loads of sideshoots, so that's one observation which I'm not sure what to do with..;0)

[Headgardener22]

Toms in the greenhouse should get to six trusses, outside ones five, or less where they're Marmande, which stumble after three trusses, but you can see why when they produce such huge fruits...

The thing about Marmande is that they are Semi-Determinate (not Indeterminate) so they will only grow two or three trusses per vine. The technique I have seen (and seems to work best for me) with Semi-Determinate is to allow all the sideshoots on the first stem to grow (and support them) but to take off sideshoots on the "secondary" stems. That way you get two or three trusses on the first stem and two or three on the secondary stems which increases the crop overall.

[oldgrunge]

I wouldn't worry to much about the peppers or tomatoes. There's plenty of time for everything to grow and ripen. I do spray shading on the greenhouse, but never thin out the flowers. As JayG says, they will tend to abort excess fruit anyway. Cucumbers - as I grow all female varieties in the greenhouse, I pinch out all the sideshoots as they appear. Grow them as cordons, like indeterminate tomatoes.

Toms in the greenhouse should get to six trusses, outside ones five, or less where they're Marmande, which stumble after three trusses, but you can see why when they produce such huge fruits...

We grow cuces like you, Old, and take them when they're quite thin, to keep the plants productive.

I've never really noticed flowers dropping, but this year, the Sungold are determined to beat the record for sideshoots, which grow overnight! Interestingly, the trial of Sungold Reverts we're doing down at the patch is also showing loads of sideshoots, so that's one observation which I'm not sure what to do with..;0)

Noticed today, my Sungold have suddenly produced some ginormous side shoots, perhaps it's the weather.

[Growster...]

Toms in the greenhouse should get to six trusses, outside ones five, or less where they're Marmande, which stumble after three trusses, but you can see why when they produce such huge fruits...

The thing about Marmande is that they are Semi-Determinate (not Indeterminate) so they will only grow two or three trusses per vine. The technique I have seen (and seems to work best for me) with Semi-Determinate is to allow all the sideshoots on the first stem to grow (and support them) but to take off sideshoots on the "secondary" stems. That way you get two or three trusses on the first stem and two or three on the secondary stems which increases the crop overall.

Thank you, HG, that looks the right way to deal with them!

I wonder what they do commercially in France, as they'll always go for maximum yield?