Who does this?

[Sako]

I was talking with a fellow gardener last week and the subject of "early fruit" came up. I stated that I always pick off early fruit when the plants are small... i.e. I have had tomato plants in the ground for over a month and I am still picking off the tomato blossoms. I have just last week stopped picking off all of the small squash and zucchini that started on the plants. I have always been taught that this helped the plant to grow stronger in the early stages and thus supplies you will more "fruit" later in the year. I see tomato plants at the stores that have small tomatoes on them and the plant is not even a foot tall.... It seems logical to me to do this. If the plant is real small and trying to set fruit a lot of nutrients go into making the fruit instead of going into making the plant stronger first.... Kind of like a 11 year old having a baby.... She is not "grown" yet and thus it has to take some tole on her.... in comparison to say a 23 year old having a child... (strange analogy I know but it gets my point across)



So, who else does this? thoughts on it?

 

[TX300mag]

I do it while my pepper plants are small. I'll pull everything off and then hit them with a nigh nitrogen fertilizer.

I've tried it with tomatoes before trying to grow bigger ones, but I never noticed a difference.

Squash and zuchini get picked small all the time.

 

[Chapman]

I would pick off the tomato blossoms if the plants were stunted and not doing well. If you start off with healthy,strong tomato plants and they are growing good with enough moisture and nutrients, I see no need in removing blooms. Same thing with a squash plant.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

I do that for all fruit trees for several years for the reasons you stated. Now veggies, I dont know lol

 

[Sako]

Well all I can say is that is seems to work really well for me. If you think about it logically it makes sence. Most of the time we are only talking about pulling the blossums for a few weeks. It seems to me I have larger plants, earlier that other people around me who garden. I have also pulled on some and not on others.... the ones I pull from, I noticed that the plants are bigger and tend to last longer into the summer (i.e. stand up better to the heat, which I guess the size of the root system)