Should I snip the flowers/stems on a stressed tomato to help it recover?

[beac]

Alas, I have another case of stress here in giardino de beac.

My Yukon Quest (a NNRaleighLiberl dwarf) has been growing along fine, if only a TAD slower than his dwarf buddies. But in the last week, his lower stems have gone a palish green and curled under on themselves. I didn't freak out and had confidence that whatever was stressing it, it would recover.

And it is. There are new, dark green healthy leaves forming on the top of the plant.

And there are also about six stalks full of flowers coming out as well.

So, my question is this...

Now that the plant has some healthy leaves, should I:

0 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	snip off the curled stems and allow suckers to grow in to "take their place"
	0 (0%)
	snip off the flower stalks to send energy away from making fruit and to growing more leaves
	0 (0%)
	both
	0 (0%)
	neither, crazy woman, leave your plant alone!
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. 1, kinda..

I'd snip the suckers too. The curled ones just because they will never do anything but suck energy to try and stay alive, and the suckers cause they won't produce fruit (and I live in PNW, so the less leaves near the ground, the better.)

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. I am snipping such things off - they can be a sign of impending disease...

Of my 210 plants, 10 are on health alert - some have bacterial wilt, some fusarium wilt, a few with tomato spotted wilt. Other diseases here and there are Septoria and Early Blight (usually yellowing/brown spots on lower leaves) -

Yukon Quest is from the Grumpy family, and they tend to have foliage that curls in just as a genetic trait.

Pull that lower foliage and see if the plant just keeps going fine. Check back in for the next health advisory if it continues to go south!

[beac]

3. You're the expert! Off to snip Grumpy's

bad stems now.

Should I snip the flowers too?*


**ETA: FYI, the new growth is mostly shading the flowers for now.

[NRaleighLiberal]

4. If the flowers look bad - stem yellowed, brown spotting, etc - yes. Otherwise, leave them to see

what happens.

If the plant does have a disease issue, it will likely go downhill fast. Vectors for diseases can be numerous - in the container, the soil, spores spread by wind or insects - one of my reasons for growing so many plants is to cover for the inevitable attrition/loss of some plants despite best intentions and care!

[beac]

5. I sterilize my pots and use new soil, so I'm thinking bugs

or just stress. It has been VERY hot and humid here.

So far, the flowers look normal and healthy, so I'll leave them be for now.

I'd be sad to lose Grumpy Yukon, but my eleven other pots (well, really twelve b/c I am doing an experiment with rooting a cutting) should keep me in well in toms no matter what.

The two plants to the left and right of Grumpy Yukon show no signs of distress at all. In fact, the Dwarf Mr. Snow to his right is about the healthiest lushest plant I've ever seen.

Will update you in a few days on any progress (or regress. )

[Curmudgeoness]

6. I'm with NRL on this one.

I chose #1 in the poll, but don't think you should leave the suckers on. The suckers are named suckers for a reason----they will just suck energy from the plant to grow for no purpose (at least no purpose that we are interested in).

Good luck. I have had several tomato plants over the years do this same thing (usually attributed to heat and dry), but they have still produced good tomatoes.

[beac]

7. Thanks. Your experience w/similarly afflicted toms is encouraging!

I thought the suckers might help with photosynthesis since there are now so few healthy leaves on top. Of course, the suckers are still just tiny stubs, so I'll likely wait until they are a bit bigger and easier to snip anyway.

[Javaman]

8. Pruning to force fruit...

I have both pruned and not pruned.

This year, I didn't touch my tomatoes and had one of the biggest harvests I have ever had. And for the most part, the tomatoes were huge.

I've harvested over 150 tomatoes and over 200 cherry tomatoes so far. I'm figuring when all is said and done, I will have over 200 tomatoes and well over 300 cherry tomatoes.

FYI I have 8 better boys, 2 cherry tomato, 1 patio tomato and 1 Mr. Stripy Tomato.

[beac]

9. That's a LOT of tomatoes!

I'm a sometime-pruner myself (when there aren't issues of disease, stress, etc.)

Because I grow in containers, I generally lop off stalks that are growing too far outside each pot's "zone" but by the end of the summer I still usually have an unruly mess (and plenty of tomatoes.) Will be interesting to see what happens this year as I am growing more full-size tomatoes than usual. Of course, most are NRL dwarfs so they are bred to stay manageable size and so far they are making plenty of flowers while only a few feet tall.