I wanted to get a sense of what different folks do with early flower sets. My plants are all less than a foot tall, and a few (CP, Eva Purple Ball, Prudens, Big Beef) have started to produce their first flower cluster. CP is working on a mega-blossom. What do you all do with your tomato plants in this scenario?
Obviously I'd like to let them be, but I can be persuaded to snip them off if the benefits of doing so are a real thing and not simply gardening folklore.

Never! I want all the tomatoes I can get .

Linda

Me too. Never picked off a blossom.
There's a good rationale for picking off megablooms - or little fruit that are seriously catfaced - just to get the plant to focus on growing up the more perfect fruit. I have actually picked off a few really bad catfaces when really small, because those ones don't ripen evenly for me. That is where only one part of the tomato seems to be pollinated and growing. OTOH you might always win the 'ugliest tomato' contest, so as long as you have lots to eat... why not a big ugly fella?

No, I never pick them off either. I love seeing those lovely little yellow flowers!

Historically, I haven't done it much, if ever. However, that doesn't mean it's a bad idea.

I would let them grow, and turn into fruit, and only take them off if the plant stops growing/fruiting, if you're confident it would help it to fruit and grow more.

I personally wouldn't take off a megabloom. Megablooms are a sign of vigor. It can probably handle early fruit. In my experience, megablooms can take a while to fruit, anyway, and flowers without fruit don't seem to slow tomato plants down.

No, I don't remove any blossoms. But I have a short season and don't have time to wait an extra two weeks for the next new set of blossoms to form. I can just barely squeeze in long season tomatoes as it is. I want my tomatoes as soon as possible.

But people in warmer southern areas where they have a long season for tomatoes may get better long term production by removing early blossoms to encourage more root and vegetative development, especially if the plant is root bound and not in great shape when it goes into the ground.

No right or wrong answer, depends on your growing zone and goals.

What about plants that haven’t been planted out yet? I have a couple forming buds but they are very tall and the weather was so crazy I didn’t dare plant them out until this weekend. Last Friday morning we had frost in parts of our area, now it’s 80 with high humidity! I have left any forming blossoms on the transferred ones for the moment because I was not sure what to do. Have always been told to remove so the plant could gain strength after the transfer shock but some of these are two feet tall and like others above I too want all the tomatoes I can get! I planted as deep as possible and angled others.

Personally, I would not bother. I've noticed that a few tomatoes will drop blossoms all by themselves after they go into the ground. Whether it's due to cold nights, poor pollination for some reason, or competition with root development, I don't know. But I like to let the plant decide if it wants to produce that tomato. Why don't you remove some and leave some and then compare the plants to see if it makes a difference? Plants continue to set blossoms and grow roots all season, so it's not like they can't do both at the same time.

However, if the plant is really super stringy and totally root bound and going into last ditch seed production mode because it thinks it's end of life is near, it might be wise to remove the blossoms.

Thanks for all of your replies. I was hoping that the consensus would be to leave them in place, and I'm glad I can leave them be!

[mention]Gardadore[/mention] I transplant plants with buds on them all the time. I consider it a plus if they already have buds, and I've never seen any kind of competition with rooting. The key to transplanting is to choose a three day window of ideal weather when they won't be subjected to cold stress at the same time as transplant stress. After a couple of days they can take some less perfect weather but it makes a big difference to give the a three day illusion (in our case) that it's a perfect world.

I never pull off tomato buds , but I definitely pull pepper buds, while still in the pots - some of those varieties are prone to budding early, and I have planted some with the buds (and even small peppers), and they were definitely stunted, compared to the ones that I picked the buds from. I don't get tomatoes budding in the pots, and once outside, I'm another one that anything on them I'm keeping! I've never had any tomatoes stunted from early flowers outside.

Thanks Bower for your helpful opinion. I found it ironic that in recommending planting in a good three day window mine turns out to be heat and humidity. But I could not wait any longer for “ideal” since we now will halve three days of rain and then cooler weather. One minute covering plants against frost warning and now against possible sunburn! Regardless leaving buds on!!! Most plants are in a straw bale cocoon because I had to plant so deep due to their height. Nature is in charge now!

I like the sound of a straw bale cocoon.