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Early tomato buds

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saddad:
Magic!

small:
I've got fruit set on the first truss on my early tomatoes in the conservatory, seems like a waste to take them off! Tomatoes grow so strongly if you can keep blight off them, I don't really understand this suggestion. Maybe it's stopping the tops for bush varieties?

Paulh:
Looking at the various internet articles and discussions, the argument seems to be that doing this when transplanting allows the plant to build a better root system and grow more strongly in the medium term. It may reduce stress on the plant and as the first truss often does not pollinate because the temperature is too low, it is no loss.

These seem to be mostly US sites, so may be it reflects different weather patterns. The RHS site does not mention it.

For most of us, getting some sort of crop before blight sets in is the priority! But if you have a spindly plant which is in flower in its pot, it might be worth trying.

Obelixx:
I've never heard of this either but confess to being something of a tomato novice as, in our last garden, we were surrounded by potato fields rotated with sugar beet, winter wheat and maize for cattle so never a summer without blight.  I gave up.

In our first spring here I planted loads of different tomatoes, bought as seedlings, and inside a polytunnel as well as outside in a border.  I now only grow them in the polytunnel as it makes watering easier, especially now I have seep hoses.   Others in the gardening club I joined do both and none of them has ever mentioned removing the first flowers.  They're all far more concerned about blossom end rot.   

Tiny Clanger:
I don't remove buds on "English" style tomatoes, but I do remove on the "Oxheart" and other "Continental style" varieties.  I have found that I get a lot of first flowers can produce very malformed fruit.  last year I did not remove the first buds and one plant grew a tomato weighing aroung 1lb in weight and formed of around 150 small tomatoes.  It seems to happen on Heirloom varieties more.  :blob7:

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