Snipping First Tomato Blossoms

Question

I just planted my tomatoes, and on the advice of my neighbor, I snipped the first blossoms. After reading other's advice, I think I made a mistake. Will my plants still bear fruit?

Answer 1

I suspect you'll be fine. There are lots of opinions about these things and I'm not sure that any of them is the definitive answer. What I do know is that tomatoes do really well if they have enough warm sunny days and a consistent watering in a healthy soil. Sometimes those first blossoms fall off anyway so I don't think it much matters. I believe the theory is that pinching those off will result in bigger fruit or a stronger plant. I've had big fruit and strong plants before and didn't pinch them off. There are a lot of variables with plants.

I plant my tomato plants sideways in a shallow trench like so:

I remove all the leaves except the topmost and plant most of that stem in the ground. Sideways allow the plant to heat up more and that will spur the growth. All that stem under the ground will create more roots (beyond those in the original seedling planting medium) and will make the plant grow even better.