Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: gavin. on June 11, 2006, 22:09:55
-
This is the first year I have grown tomatoes (3 varieties - Costoluto, Palla di Fuoco and a cherry similar to Gardeners delight I'm told.) On about half of the plants a flower has developed at the top that looks a bit similar to a dandelion flower. The plants have normal flowers on too. Could this be anything to do with male and female plants? Should I treat these plants any differently? These flowers seem to have brought an 'end' to the cordon - do I just let one of the sideshoots next to the top truss take over. Any advice would be much appreciated.
-
Know exactly what you mean when you say "similar to a dandelion", have experienced this myself on Gardeners Delight and Marmande. I did read some research on this a while back, and I believe that this is an indication that the plant has been affected by cold, and the triggers within the plant that form the flowers haven't worked properly in some cases. I would pick off the flowers, as I believe that any fruit resulting my be malformed too.
Not sure about the cordon "ending", it may just be temporarily halted, maybe again due to cold, or maybe a shock if they have been planted out recently. I see no problem with letting one sideshoot take over, but perhaps someone else can answer this one more confidently.
-
I've had a few of those startling flowers too gavin, and picked them off. Mine haven't stopped the cordons though ???
-
Yes! - This is happening on my 'purple calabash' plants, all my other varieties are fine- I thought it was variety specific, but obviously not....
-
I haven't experienced this oddity on any of my plants. Any pictures?
-
My Marmande do this every year.
I let a side shoot take over as the leader and things are normally fine. I leave the flower as you get some interesting shaped fruit!
Jerry
-
I haven't experienced this oddity on any of my plants. Any pictures?
Arghh - wish I'd taken some now, but dandelion-like is a very good description - hopefully Gavin can post a pic?
-
Its the first time I have grown Marmande and mine have the dandelion flower, I will leave it now to see what shaped fruit I get
-
We have had these flowers in the past, and the 'odd shaped' fruit, referred to by sandersj89, are probably suffering from what is known as 'catfacing'. I think that is caused by the plant being colder than it would really like, at some time in its development. The fruits are peculiarly shaped, but the 'taste' is still there!
valmarg
-
right, I've taken these photos. I'm hoping that this works:
(http://www.historyathome.co.uk/tomflower3.jpg)
(http://www.historyathome.co.uk/tomflower4.jpg)
just realised that the files are massive - nearly 1mb each. I'll leave these here for a few mins while i make them smaller.
n.b. in reply to the last post - it is only one single flower on each plant.
-
Brilliant, got it working at last. Anyway, I can't see it being down to a cold snap. One theory I have (and this is based on rather superficial knowledge) is that it is something to do with male and female flowers. The seed I bought were not F1 hybrids (unlike most in the shops) - I can save the seed from these plants and they will come true agan the following year. I may be barking up the wrong tree here though ......
-
Look very much like my Marmande, will try to post a picture tomorrow to compare.
Jerry
-
it is something to do with male and female flowers
No, tomatoes don't have separate male & female flowers, like most Solanaceae each flower is usually pollinated by itself as the stigma emerges.
It is very common to see these deformed flowers, it's almost like fasciation, most probably it's a reaction to something cultural, temperature, watering, insect attack etc. Don't worry though the tomatoes produced by these flowers are fine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasciation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasciation)
-
Older varieties are the most likely to produce such flowers. Most of the heritage varieties I'm growing have them this year. There must be conditions that make them more common though, as last year I had none and a fellow heritage grower had one, and this year we've both got them on most plants spanning around 25 varieties.
-
I get these flowers too and it does affect the fruit. See the tom on the right!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/myrtle60/Marmande.jpg)
I've lost the growing tip too, but that was due to slugs abseiling down the cords!!
-
They may be a strange shape but they are fine to eat ;)
-
I get these flowers too and it does affect the fruit. See the tom on the right!
I've lost the growing tip too, but that was due to slugs abseiling down the cords!!
Blimey!
You could enter the National Rust's Ugly Veg competition with one of those!
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-global/w-special_projects/w-plot_to_plate/w-ugly_veg_competition.htm
moonbells (flowers so far on San Marzano and Cream Sausage are horribly normal)
-
I have the 'odd' flower on all my Costoluto Fiorentino but not on any other variety, though I remember having it on the one Marmande plant I bought at a garden centre last year. Like you all, I shall let a side shoot take over and hope it will produce a good crop. The Marmande didn't do too well so I gave it a miss this year and have Harbinger, Harzfeuer, New Yorker (seeds from the States) and Dombito as well as the CF. More than enough for my 1, sometimes 2, household.
Tricia
-
Yes, I've got it on Costoluto Fiorentina and no other variety too. Looking to take the same solution as tricia.
-
Interesting, so it looks like this is more common on the more mis-shapen and old beefstake varieties..
Has anyone had it on a 'normal' variety?
-
hi
Myrtle, what variety are the toms in the picture.....is that this years? certainly a very unusual tomato. ;D I am growing CF for the first time this year and they are just flowering now. I have noticed that they have one very large flower bud surrounded by smaller ones that are just opeining and are normal, i wonder if the large flower bud is a funny one??? I have never hd this before with toms so i will be keeping an even closer eye on them.
this is OT but i notice that you use string to support your toms how do you do this, wind the tom round the string as it grows or visa versa?
Paula
-
I feel left out.
-
My Costoluto seems to have developed double flowers--be interesting to see what grows.
(http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f148/deboydoyd/allotmentMay2006033-1.jpg)
-
That flower actually looks mildly cristate. SDo a search for my thread on 'Cristate Dandelion' from a while back if you're not sure what that is. I've ben wondering if these were monstrous or cristate flowers (a monstrous plant is where the growing poing constantly divides; a cristate is where it develops into a line).
-
Interesting--its only one flower on one truss (I think) so hopefully it won't have much of an effect (hopefully)
-
(a monstrous plant is where the growing poing constantly divides; a cristate is where it develops into a line).
A monstrous plant that would be a massive scary one, I think you mean monstrose ;)
-
I have one wierd flower on my Lostolotto Florantino (I think I have got that right) I have not grown this variety before so don't know if it's an old variety or anything about it. The other 12 varieties in my greenhouse are all making normal flowers. I look forward to seeing if it makes a super tomato !
Tinkie_Bear
-
I've got one too!
Just noticed a large flower bud developing on one of my Costoluto Fiorentino plants.
Remembered the title of this thread, came in for a look see, and 'yup', descriptions seem to match.
-
I too now have some of these weird flowers, including a triple one.
-
All my Black from Tula plants have strange flower bud too. They haven't changed for a good few weeks now, there's no sign of them flowering.
-
I've got them on my Costoluto Fiorentina too. ;D They look very much like a Coltsfoot flower.
-
I've got them on Costoluto Fiorentina, and also on Black Krim - common feature of (almost) all the varieties mentioned so far is that they are beefsteak types.
Maybe as they are so beefsteaked up it is a hormonal ( ??? or steroidal ??? ;D) thing?
I've allowed them to fruit and got weird shaped toms from them, but having that I have also had to allow a side shoot to grow on to achieve further vertical growth.
-
Hi
Some of my odd flowers on CF have fallen off, the others are producing funny shaped toms, should i pick these off.... I have plenty of other toms set, infact i am wondering how the plant is going to support so much fruit on one truss, especially as they are beefsteak.
paula
-
I've got them on my Costoluto Fiorentina too. ;D They look very much like a Coltsfoot flower.
Here is a picture of one of the tomatoes which developed from one of the weird flowers. I picked it off as the others on the same truss were normal and large so I thought it would give them more room to develop.
-
Has anyone else experienced this: the main stem has terminated at a truss, topped with one of the odd flowers, but one of the trusses little shoots has produced new stem instead of a flower. On one of my Gregory Altai the main stem is briefly a truss, before becoming the main stem again.
-
Put it all down to GM??
-
My Gregori Altai has developped one of the strange flowers at the end of a perfectly normal truss. Should I remove it....or wait for the strange fruit to develop?
-
Picked my first ripe Costoluto Fiorentina of the year yesterday, and it was one of those wierd shaped ones from the big flower...... carved it and boned it (well took out all the strange green stems) and it tasted luvverly.
p.s. Amphibian
quite a few of my toms have grown new shoots from the end of trusses, I just snip them off. With the big flower, if it does terminate the main stem, just allow a side-shoot to develop & train it up a cane.
-
Funnily enough my "ugly" CF is the first one to start ripening. It has started a trend though, there are 5 more varieties that have started to change colour today.
(http://img373.imageshack.us/img373/9949/uglytomlt8.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
Is there anything (other than food + water) that I can do to help them ripen quicker - I am getting impatient to start trying the different varieties!
Helen