Topic: Strange flowers on tomatoes.

[Jeannine]

That wouldn't account for the problems with the Brandywine, they were bred in an area of America with very hot summers

[Paulines7]

I was one of the people who had strange flowers and deformed tomatoes on my Costoluto Fiorentino last year.  This year I have sowed some more from the packet and they too have the dandelion type flower heads.  I also received some Marmande on a seed swap and they are also exhibiting this strange flower.   I will have to dig out the seed packet of Costoluto Fiorentino and see who produced them.  I think it is an Italian company.

Surprised myself..........the Costoluto Fiorentino seeds were B&Q own produced.  :o

[jennym]

Marymary, these distorted flowers often produced deformed fruits, so you could leave them on & see what happens, or take them off, as you please. It's not a disease, so won't kill the plant.
Jeannine, I don't think it matters where the seed was bred, it's the growing cells in the particular flower that are affected by the cold.
Later flowers on the same plant will probably be ok, as they probably won't have been affected by the temperature so much.

[Chris Graham]

Heres another picture.

Reminds me of the film "Aliens"   ::)

[Marymary]

Looks just like several of mine, Chris.  I have removed them.

[Chris Graham]

I have noticed that the two younger plants in my kitchen have this strange flower too.

Must be bad seeds.

[Jeannine]

I think we are being invaded from another planet,today we eat funny tomatoes, tomorrow thay eat us !!!

[Chris Graham]

hehee attack of the killer tomatoes

[Larkshall]

Surprised myself..........the Costoluto Fiorentino seeds were B&Q own produced.  :o

Just because it has B&Q, Homebase or Morrisons on the packet only signifies that they ordered enough packets to have their name printed on them. Even if they appear to be from a reputable seed firm it does not mean that they grew the seed. I have noted that several bona fide seed firms have the same postcode, looks fishy to me (the postcode is quite near me).

[theothermarg]

i,v found loads of these on marmande this year also on tigerella i,v never seen them before although i,v grown marmande for years i,v taken off the side shoots before i noticed the queer flower and they do seem to have stopped growing, not sure what to do now wait for another to pop up i suppose
marg

[cherry]

Tonight I took off the side shoots of I think either Bigger Boy or Marmande and then noticed this strange looking flower.   On closer inspection there didn't seem to be any leading shoot only the flowers.    Will it grow any more or is that all the fruit I'm likely to get.
Cherry

[Larkspur]

Just a quick update on my tomatoes. Having removed the strange flowers the Cuor di Bue have carried on growing normally and indeed are setting a second truss. The jury is still out on the Cherokee Purple but they do look as if they will now grow on normally. The flowers on the Brandywine undoubtedly were a terminal bud and they have entirely stopped growing at the first truss ???. Bit of a mixed result but not too bad overall :)

[Chris Graham]

hmm so do you think i should remove the one on my Marmande plant?

[Larkspur]

Seems to have done no harm to my plants so far as I can tell.

[Jeannine]

For what it is worth I have just had an email answer re this problem from  a friend in the US who grows a lot of Heritage toms foreating and for competition.He has told me that if the flower looks like a dandelion rather than a tomato flower it has it's uses.

Apparently if you want to grow very large fruit you need to look specially for this flower then hand pollinate it by shaking the flower truss several times a day  over a few day period.If done right and at the right time the tomato grown will considerably bigger than the others. If not properly pollinated either naturally of by yourself  the fruit will  still grow but will be deformed.

 If he doesn't want to bother doing the above he removes the flower  to avoid the imperfect fruit.Other flowers on the truss will be OK.

Thought I would share this info.

XX Jeannine

[Chris Graham]

Thanks for that it helps a lot.

[theothermarg]

i cannot understand why so many of these are appearing this year i,v never seen it before and i have grown toms for years the marmande seeds are 3 years old
but the tigerella is new seed i,m going to leave a couple just to see what happens
marg

[Jeannine]

Well guess what,I have been examining my tom flowers  daily,something I don't normally do,and  I had two of the  flowers last week, I have ignored them completely , they have now opened into large tomato flowers, they are the same as any of the big flowers that grow on some of the older varieties, I have hand pollinated them as per instructions from my tomato friend in the US. When I first noticed them they were right at the growing tip but the plant has carried on growing beyond them, they were on Cherokee Purple by the way.  I think the flowers I have are just the usual large flowers from many of my heirlooms,as opposed to the delicate flowers on more modern ones. I have just never looked that closely at emerging flowers befor.XX Jeannine

[manicscousers]

is this the same sort of flower, on a supersteak ?   :)

[Jeannine]

That look exactlly like the ones I had.

It went way over my head but my friend in Canada said something about bigger tomatoes having more cells to pollinate ,and if you see the big flower hand pollinate because the fruit will grow really big,if not it will be mishapen as all the cells don't get done. That is not a very good description but I think it might portray what I am trying to say.

Anyway, it is the reason that the folks who are trying to beat records with big toms look for the dandelion flower.

 XX Jeannine

I will have a google about tomato cells, or ask my friend to register for A4A.

XX Jeannine