Cool... When did your plants go in?

I have a bunch of "MEGA BLOOMS" on my Mortgage Lifters. What causes this? I have never had one pollinate though. Most just drop off.

I'm not going to wish you luck b/c fruits from most fused blossoms are pretty darn ugly. LOL

I know some folks who will even remove such fruits when they're small, but I don't.

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What causes this?

What you folks are calling mega blooms are usually several blossoms clustered to gether and that can often lead to fruits that fuse from those clustered blossoms that get pollenized.

I see it much more often with PL varieties and most folks see it primarily with just the earliest blossoms on a plant, as I do.

Not exactly rare, but not that common for all varieties.

Carolyn

gardenscout,

I live in Williamsburg, VA and put my tomatoes into a small raised bed on May 3. I started them all from seed March 30, much later than I wanted to. I have Mortgage Lifter VFN, Black from Tula, German Johnson, Hillbilly, Mule Team, and Cherokee Purple. All doing well. I recently mulched with 3-4" of hay/straw and am using Espoma organic fertilizers. My Tula is the only one currently in bloom.

Carolyn, thank you for the information on fused blooms. As always you are an invaluable resource for a younger gardener devoted to heirloom tomatoes.

Vaplantman

I always remove fused blossoms. Because they are misshapen/tend to be catfaced, I find that once I cut off all of the woodiness/unripened parts I am not left with much tomato. Sure they are big, but size does not pay off in terms of edible tomato flesh, at least not for me. Would rather have the plant working to grow/mature normal tomatoes than fused tomatoes.