Novice tomato gardener here

[Anonymous]

It seems like my tomatoes came really late in the summer. I'm getting some now, which is good. I'm also noticing a ton of tiny baby ones plus a lot of flowers. I'm wondering if I should pluck the tiny babies and/or the flowers to increase the chances that the bigger ones will ripen before the end of frost. Is that a good idea? If so, when should I start doing that? Thank you

[Anonymous]

Are you in the DC area? You have a long time before first frost! And, honestly, my solution to first frost is usually to pick any remaining tomatoes at that time and try to ripen them inside on the counter. (or make fried green tomatoes.)

But, pruning extra vines and small fruits will increase the size of the remaining produce. for indeterminate tomato plants, most experts recommend pruning aggressively to ensure sizeable fruit and manageable plants. it diverts the plants energy to the fruit instead of more greenery, or something like that. I've never been terribly good about it (and so, usually buy determinate plants which won't keep growing unlimited numbers of vines).

[Anonymous]

And watch for animals nibbling your fruit. This year we have rats. Lovely.

[Anonymous]

Don't pick immature tomatoes or flowers; tomatoes go from flower to fruit to ripe very quickly and unless you're in Maine or something the first frost will have nothing to do with the tomatoes or flowers setting now.

[Anonymous]

Yep, around DC we've got a couple of months until frost, most likely, though there are fluke years where one early frost hits and then it goes back to being warm.