So my tomato started fruiting, but the tomato is heavy and weighing down the branch is that OK?
by Brilliant-Locksmith4
So my tomato started fruiting, but the tomato is heavy and weighing down the branch is that OK?
by Brilliant-Locksmith4
4 Comments
The best questions I tend to ask myself are:
– what would this plant be doing in the wild? It has had millions of years of whatever that was, and
– does what it has always done cooperate with what I want it to do? What if I change that behaviour?
In your case, tomatoes left alone would always be weighing branches down, so it’s certainly supposed to happen. But it also would be fine snapping the branch because tomatoes have no issue creating new roots from broken limbs.
With our desire to keep getting fruit without much interruption (like needing new roots or to grow new branches), we dont want them to get so heavy that they snap, so although they could, humans typically would use a supporting system to lighten the load of the tomato on the plant 🙂
Tomatoes are basically a vine. You need to trellis or stake them up or they will collapse under the weight of the fruit. Even without fruit, the weight of the plant will usually knock them over. This can be an issue if it happens suddenly, which can cause the stem to snap.
Your plant needs support. Staking, trellising, etc.
Is that a dwarf or determinate plant? It looks like you have 2-3 plants in a 5 gallon container. If it’s not a dwarf or determinate plant, remove the flowers and fruit so it gets larger. Or you could just enjoy your tomatoes.