25 March 2009

A Question For My Gardening Readers...

In the last two days, my little garden patch has seen as much growth as in its first five weeks.

Honest Abe! The crookneck squash is determined to shade every other close-by greenery out of existence. The tomato plants-- every living one-- have DOUBLED in size, as have the green bean stalks. And one of the green beans has decided to mimic the tomato seedling and sprout BLOSSOMS!!! (Too late in the eve for photos-- soon, I promise!)

It is about the blossoms that I proffer question: my gut says pinch them off and allow the energy to fuel new vegetative growth...

The other thought is to let them remain, to let the plants and Mother Nature do their bidding.

I'm gonna pinch, I think.

But I'll wait until I've (first) photographed the proof, and until I hear back from fellow green thumbs and thumbettes...

Thanks for the help, folks!

Gads, I love watching labor pay off! :D

More soon, folks...

Slainte!

Cygnus

21 comments:

Bullseye said...

Well Brother, if it were me, I'd leave them. It's not nice to fool with mother nature, she's pretty hard to fool too. I would just let nature do it's thing. But, that's just me. Good luck.

Dawn Parsons Smith said...

I find that when I am trying to help Nature do it's thing, it's because I don't trust the process! lol...hmmmm....ponder that one for a bit! (but then again, a good pinch might be exciting...)

Rod said...

Now on beans you probably don't want to pinch them off as they only have 2 sets of flowers. Tomatoes I would not know have never done that as we don't have as long of growing season as you do there. I personally would leave them alone.

Rod

Ken said...

...tuff question Brother,we always left'em...they'll fall off in a couple days...make an experiment out of it...pinch some,leave some...see if it matters...

Cygnus MacLlyr said...

Thanks, Bullseye-- Hermit suggested the same; only reason I'd chose to 'interfere' is as Bee and Rose said.

And recall, growing in boreal or plains, au natural is the way, but Gardening is man's intervention.. I feel I can get more current veg. growth-- which will aide in later feeding (the whole photosynth thingie) the food-producing blossoms, I'll pinch.

But... but I still waver.
Will producing early if miniscule fruit strengthen the sprout later?
Mayhap.
And the very possibility...

probably pinch.

next weekend. if they ain't fell off of their own.

:D Thanks, you two!

C.

Cygnus MacLlyr said...

Hey Rod-- didn't know that about the beans... thanx for the heads-up...

Ken, Ye read my mind, Brother! Or is it the old adage "Great Minds Think Alike"?

Must be the latter! HA! Gotta love cross-commenting! :D

Beer run! back in 20! (it's 2223 hrs local, H-town...)

Ken said...

...hey Cygnus...where's the frothy one huh ?...serve it up my Brother...and go check previous post comments...i'm playin catch up tonite...

Livia Indica said...

I'm with Ken, pinch a few, leave a few alone. I'm so jealous; we're expecting snow later this week.

Cygnus MacLlyr said...

Liv-- SNOW?!? and to think, I coulda been it tent up there seven days ago!

Good to see you back, Lovely Livia...

thanks...

Cygnus MacLlyr said...

Ken-- your posts' , I guess/ Will Do, Dude!
Playing a bit o' the Ketchup game here, too; My Song's been a bit more egocentric of late...

:P

Thanks, Man!

Cygnus MacLlyr said...

Bee, My Lady, then a Good Pinch I Send!! ;P

Lydia said...

I'm jealous too! We can't plant until June sometime. Well I don't even do it here, all the animals eat everything.

I agree too, pinch some and leave some. Experiment and see which way is best, then you can tell all of us what works :)

lydia

Phelan said...

Leave 'em.

Maitreya said...

Yeah, I'd leave 'em. Tomatoes and beans don't seem to have a problem with growing and flowering at the same time.
If they start to look stunted, give 'em some manure (or other nitrogen)
Let nature take it's course.

Edain said...

I agree, let nature do her thing! :)

Stephanie in AR said...

Don't pick the bean blossoms, if there isn't enough to support a seed they'll just fall off. As for tomatoes - if they are determinate then you will pick off most of your crop (roma, paste type). They tend to make a big flush of a crop and the dribble out the rest of the season. Those first tomatoes might not be as big as later ones because they won't have all the leaves to support them. Let some go and pick some off (not too many just in case) and see what happens.

Now my dad tried an experiment last summer that all the Illinois rains just ruined. He had read a man who grew prize winning tomatoes & lots of them. He claimed that all a plant needed was a few leaves at the top to support the fruit. If you left too many leaves the plant put its energy into growing leaves and not fruit. He wanted to know if it was true - but those rains & odd weather.

I just wouldn't experiment on the whole patch kwim.

Cygnus MacLlyr said...

Phelan, Edain, Lydia and Stephanie--
one solo male would be plum dumm to go against so many women's word...

The blossoms stay, until they fall off or feed me, Seymore!

After all, this is a good experimental patch; the true one will begin to shape up in about, oh... early aught and eleven, I reckon..

Thanks for the visit and comments, beauties...

Stephanie in AR said...

Well we can't have you starving to death - who would recite poetry?

Cygnus MacLlyr said...

Maitreya-- always an extreme pleasure to get a new commenter here on My Song...

I'll let her do just that, Lady!

Thanks again for your interest!

Cygnus MacLlyr said...

Stephanie-- who, indeed! HA!

Thanks for the best retort the day has proffered! Seriously, Girl!!!

:D

Stephanie in AR said...

And you are wired for two twenty also aren't you? ; )