This is my first try at growing tomatoes & I cannot find info on thinning after the tomatoes themselves have appeared. There's anywhere from three to eight tomatoes on any given vine, most are the size of a dime or smaller & several are the size of a golf ball, or larger. Should I remove some (most) of the small tomatoes to give nouishment to the larger? Seattle has had record breaking heat this year & if I care for my eight tomato plants correctly, I hope to share them with neighbors. Thank you, Deanna
Do I remove the small tomatoes when thinning? Thank you Katalina25, I have seen similar videos on thinning tomato plants but my plants are beyond that as tomatoes are already growing. I need to know whether to 'thin out the tomatoes' themselves. I could just go ahead & snip off the small ones but I'd rather ask first, in case that would be harmful to the plant. Next year I'll know not to let the plants get to the more mature state & I'll watch the video early on. Thank you, Deanna
Well, On the market you can buy Tom Thumb tomatoes, very small so why not eat the smallest? Its a bit like when my late husband and I had an allottment, we used to eat the inbetweens (thinings) this made room for swelling.
I don't thin the tomato friuts themselves. I let all the tomatos ripen and pick as needed. This has always worked great for me. Good luck
I do thin my tomatoes every year and strongly believe that by thinning there have to be an improvement in quality and size. The pride in home gardening is not quantity but quality, and tomatoes are one of the best example.
Funny, I've never done anything special to my tomato plants over the years, except for regular fertilization, and I have always had bountiful yields, and rarely experience blossom end rot either, because I apply a couple of 'Tums' anti-acid tablets to the soil each week for added calcium. One of my first experiences with growing tomato plants - I had 10 plants of indeterminate cherry tomatoes in one big pot!!! : O I didn't know what I was doing at all, and the neighbour lady kept telling me I needed to thin those plants or I'd never see very many tomatoes. How wrong she was! I transplanted all 10 plants into the ground, stubbornly not thinning even one. By September, I was begging the same neighbor to take some cherry tomatoes off my hands because there were so many! I also add epsom salts to my tomato pots for bigger yields - even though argumentative types like to say it doesn't effect crop size, my experience and experiments tell me otherwise. : )
Some of the big strong varieties are better thinned. Don't know if you get Grosse Lisse (sp) grows like a runaway tree. I also thin Romas but grow them over and arch of strong fencing mesh for plenty of sun. Little Tom thumb types I just let them go. Liz
