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Grittyville, WA

Gonna comment on my own post here, sorry but I am compelled to try to dig this rabbit out of its hole... The xylem should be the same. The water coming from the roots... both are tapped into the same flow there and it should not be capable of favoring the smaller blossom disproportionately. I think the size restriction on the mega must be the phloem (the sugars) and for the sugars could be going into the single at an equal rate because... thats just how phloem is. It just goes from where it is produced to where its needed and its not going to go faster to where there is a greater need because it has constant flow rate and if it runs out before reaching the tip of the vine, then oh well. At least the core of the plant will get enough & survive. So phloem really depends on distance and distance depends on location. And all the energy sinks in between the fruit and where the phloem is produced, will grab what they want, to the extent that there may be little or no phloem left. The single tomato is grabbing what it wants, which in this case is about half of the total resources available. So in conclusion, I could cut the single off, yet I could hypothesize that the mega on this plant could get no bigger than a double, because its already evident that with just these two tomatoes its energy output is maxed out.

8/27/2024 7:29:31 PM

Grittyville, WA

The mega here might be a triple? But here I can expect it wouldnt reach its full potential, (which should be 6 lbs?) here it would reach 3 lbs or so at most, if it didnt BER first.

I will leave it alone. Its not going to be a competition tomato. It done a good job of jolting the 10 lb tomato atop my shoulders, and thats good enough.

[Last edit: 08/27/24 7:39:39 PM]

8/27/2024 7:37:27 PM

Colorado

So if you cut off the single the mega would get the singles worth of stuff?

8/29/2024 8:32:41 PM

Gourd Zone, WA

Probably. But at this point in the season I might start cutting off the megas. Ive already done this on some plants, favoring a nice single with no catfacing over a mega that will likely never amount to anything great.

The singles will endure the coming fall rain better, and less likely to BER. I have plenty of megas and dont need more. I've got dozens of megas I havent even pollinated. Its kinda depressing, but the ones that are already set are the higher priority.

8/29/2024 11:21:48 PM

Colorado

Fair

8/30/2024 3:20:30 AM