Should I be getting rid of the flowers on my tomato plants?

We planted our first garden and have tomatoes. They are doing well but no fruit yet. I thought I remembered someone saying to pick off the flowers so that the energy goes into the food, but now I'm not so sure. Am I hurting my plants by doing this?

Should I be getting rid of the flowers on my tomato plants?
No!!! Flowers = tomatoes! If you pick your flowers, then don't count on too many tomatoes! Good Luck!
Reply:take some blooms from the bottom but not many mind the main thing you should do is keep taking the side shoot off when they are big enough to handle.Feed your toms once a wk with tom liquid food take off any really big leaves too (with a knife or secatures)if you dont you will damage the stem. Did you know that a tomatoe plant only needs at the most 3 leaves its true the less leaves you have the more energy goes into the fruit not the leaves and thats were you need it.


good luck and watch out for tomatoe blite dont get your tomatoes to wet.
Reply:If you plants are 6 inches or more tall, then dig up the whole plant and pluck off everything half way and down(not the roots) and re-plant it deep and leave 2-3 inches showing above the ground. sprinkle a teaspoon of Epsom salts around it and give it a shot of root stimulator. This will give you something to reward your efforts as a first time gardener. water in the morning, once it get warmer out water well every morning, even when it look like it wilted and died. water on a regular basis, like 7-9 am. Not at night because you will promote molds and fungus that will spread through the whole garden.
Reply:Tomato's are pollinated by the wind. Not by insects. So if their too wind protected you will have to preform this task with a artists brush. Good luck.Good question. A star is in order! Rem,ember the more flowers the more chances to pollinate.
Reply:Leave the blooms but pick off the little side shoots that keep appearing at the base of the main leaves.


Doing this means more energy goes into the blossoms and therefore the tomatoes.
Reply:Don't take off the flowers! Everywhere there is a flower, a tomato will appear. Make sure your tomato plant gets lots and lots of sunshine.
Reply:The bloom is where you get your tomatoes......You would pick some of the bloom from pumpkins.........but not tomatoes......Good Luck
Reply:I do not pick my blooms..in fact when a cluster starts opening I spray them(blooms only) with "bloom set"..I do though heavily prune my tomatoes to generate energy to the fruit...Now also is the time to feed them a bloom buster fertilizer that is high in phospherous..and next to no nitrogen....The suckers are stems that come out inbetween a leaf and the main branch and some of them will fruit out and some not..I take my suckers after they get about 5 inches long and look for any small bloom nodes forming..if they have no nodes, I cut them off, put rooting harmone on the bottom and plant them directly into the soil...They will grow if watered sufficiently..I also trim off all the side leaves except I leave at leasst 4 sets of them on for proper photosynthesis..they need some leaves.. Bees do pollinate tomatoes..as some one here said they didn't..but in the event you do not have many bees around...you can go shake each one daily , gently for about 5 sseconds and hand pollinate this way..i will give you some pictures of here from my cherry tomatoes..if you look closely you can see where I trimmed most of the side Non bearing leaves off...do not transplant the leaves but the "suckers"...These are haevily pruned..my big boy tomaroes





http://www.flickr.com/photos/pcbeachrat/...





These cherry tomatoes are pruned





http://www.flickr.com/photos/pcbeachrat/...





These are pruned and now have tomatoes all over them..





http://www.flickr.com/photos/pcbeachrat/...





Read item 8 here


http://www.growing-tomato.com/9_Importan...





http://www.njtomato.com/growtip4.html





Here is a video on it will show you..I do not pick my suckers untill they get larger as mentioned..then I can see if they will have fruit on them..and also will be strong enough to transplant





http://www.gardengal.tv/video/article.ph...