Our lovely, stocky, but only foot to 18 inch high tomato plants are putting out blossoms. Wouldn't we love to have tomatoes by July 1st, but is it too early given the size of the plants? Does the blossoming slow the growth of the main stem? Should I pinch them off? Its been in the nineties the past 3 or 4 days.

If you can call this a problem :^O I have it too.It's been really hot here too.I'll be waiting for the smart people to show up and put us both on the track to great tomatoes.
mavis

Ditto for me, and I'm in KY, a bit south of y'all. Most of my 12 varieties that I'm growing are doing this...in fact, the red currant and cherry tomatoes are even smaller and starting to bloom.

I have had this to happen in the past. I couldn't bear to pinch off the flowers...so I didn't. My plants just continued to grow & produce more tomatoes. Didn't seem to be a problem.

I'm envisioning the pound and a half brandywines we get on these little troopers and the picture looks like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree. I don't want to cut down on the lifetime production of the plant. I'm hoping for tomato sandwiches 'til December!!! What do you think about these overall strength and productivity questions?

Hey guys and dolls, do a search using the words "tomato blooms" on this forum. apparently its already been discussed. its an ongoing debate. ?:|

I actually have little tiny tomatoes on sone of my plants!! The rest of the plants are loaded in blooms. Some of my plants are only 12-18 inches tall, others are nearing 3 feet. I started my very early indoors though.

What to do depends on the type of tomato. Early varieties like first lady, early girl and arctic plenty bloom and set fruit earier and should be left alone. My rule is to pinch off any flowers that show up for the first two weeks after transplanting, as they could be a result of the plant being in the pot too long. This gives the plant time to form a good root system and to leaf out. Without this in place, there will be fewer and smaller tomatoes. After that,they can flower anytime they are ready.

What is the number of days from fruit set to ripe fruit for your cultivar?
If the plant does not produce blossoms now will you have enough frost free days for it to ripen the fruit it sets?
How many forst free days do you normally have to grow frost sensitive plants?