Why Are My Tomato Plants Flowering Too Early: When Should Tomatoes Flower?

Are you looking for the reasons why are your tomato plants flowering too early? Well, no need to worry as we are going to answer all your questions in this article.

The possible reasons behind this premature tomato plant flowering might be transplanting older tomato plants to your garden or planting the seeds too early. Even some varieties of tomato plants may pop earlier than the season.

Plus, the temperature of the soil and the nutrient level may also affect the tomato plants. So, let’s check in detail, on what probably may be your tomato plant causing premature flowering.

The Main Causes of Tomato Plants Flowering Too Early Explained

Before we hop on the reasons for early flowering in tomato plants, let’s know the ideal required time to see flowers in tomato plants.

When Should Tomatoes Flower?

Tomatoes are harvested as a winter or fall crop. And they start to ripen and are ready to eat from mid-summer onwards.

Generally, tomato flowers should appear by 35 to 100 days after transplanting depending upon their variants. The early-season tomatoes flower between 35 to 60 days after transplanting, whereas, mid-season and late-season tomatoes require 60 to 80 days and 80 or more days respectively.

Once tomato trees start flowering, tomatoes will fully ripen within 25 to 60 days. During flowering time, tomato plants grow more than 12 to 18 inches long. For your information, tomato plants have five growth stages.

Image: Tomato’s five growth stage

Source: researchgate.net

Why Is Early Flowering in Tomato Plants?

Well, as said there can be many reasons behind the tomato plants flowering early. But, there is nothing serious to worry about. On the other hand, when they pop out long before the expected date, this can be a matter of concern.

Let’s know the reasons for premature flowering and how to solve these problems. First, you have identified the exact reason for premature flowering in your tomato plants. Which can generally roam near –

• Age
• Fruit size
• Variety
• Soil nutrients and

Temperature

So, let’s take a deeper look into the premature reasons and find some solutions for those problems.

1. Age of Tomato Plant

The age of tomato plants has the first and most important impact on tomato flowering. Well, there is a certain age for tomato plants for flowering. Though it may vary for several factors, such as:

• Soil pH level: Standard pH level of soil for tomato plants is 5.5 to 7.5
• Temperature: Optimum temperature for tomato plants is 12.5 to 30 degrees Celcius (55 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit)
• Variety of tomato plants: Several common variants of tomato plants are Cherry, Beefsteak, Plum, Pear, Campari, Salad, Grape, etc.

So, in this case of tomato planting, the expected time of tomato flowering may come a few days or weeks earlier. There might be some more influencing factors on the age of tomato plants. Or might say in determining the age of tomato plants.

Considering the following things, you might get rid of the early flowering of tomato plants. Let’s discuss.

Buying Tomato Plants

In the case, you bought tomato plants from nurseries or garden centers, determining the age of the tomato plant will be a big task. If you plant the transplants that are planted in the garden center earlier than the other plants, it’s pretty normal that they will flower early.

Plus, in some cases, the tomato plants you bought might be kept for one or two weeks on the store shelves. So, here the ideal solution is to buy tomato transplants that are about 15 centimeters or 6 inches tall.

Also, you should look for plants that are fully healthy. Check if there is any sign of weakness or mold in the soil and stems. Otherwise, the diseases may spread into the garden you are going to plant them. And avoid buying plants that are already popped with flowers as they are very older for transplanting.

Planting Your Own Tomato Seeds

Another reason might happen due to your own seeds indoors. If you start seeds early without realizing it and plant them in the next season early flowering in tomato plants may be seen.

University of New Hampshire Extension shows tomato plants should be planted indoors about 6 to 8 weeks prior to planting in the garden.

And plant tomato seeds in the garden on the last day of frost (like a frozen seed) in your location. So, planting tomato seeds indoors should be accurate before 8 weeks of your area’s last first date. In this case, the plants will grow taller and may flower early compared to the estimated time.

This can also happen with the fast or early maturing tomato varieties.

2. Size of Fruit

Larger size tomatoes take more time to flower than other varieties. So, if you have a small tomato variety it may surprise you with early flowering and fruiting. For example, pink Brandywine tomatoes need 50 to 85 days after they are transplanted whereas the Early Girl tomatoes take only 5 weeks or 35 days.

However, one benefit of small size tomato varieties is they grow and mature fast. Plus, they can avoid late springs or early frost season.

3. Varieties of Tomato Plants

There are hundreds of varieties of tomatoes to choose from, where some plants can mature early and others may take time. But the basic difference we determine among all tomato varieties is determinate and indeterminate. Let’s talk about them-

Determinate: This variety is basically shorter versions of tomato trees, shorter than 5 feet, and a bush-style growth. According to Rutgers University, determinate tomato plants generally produce fruits for a short time in the growing season but in an early period of the season.

Indeterminate: Trees of this variety tend to be taller than 6 feet where the shape generally comes into vine habit. Well, these varieties are a great deal as they tend to grow all over the season until the snow starts falling.

In that case, if you are having determined tomato plants in your garden, they will flower soon than your assumption.

4. Soil Nutrients

The amount of fertilizer like the citrus ones impacts the plant growth most. When the soil is full of high nitrogen-rich fertilizer it will stimulate the tomato flowering. So be careful about fertilizing your soil in the right amount. Otherwise, you can burn out the plants with over-fertilizing.

According to the University of Missouri–

“Nitrogen nutrition also has been demonstrated by research to influence blossom drop. At high levels of nitrogen the plant is encouraged to produce excessive vegetative growth at the expense of fruit set. There is a fine line between having adequate amounts of nitrogen for good growth and excessive amounts.”

5. Temperature

Temperatures also have a great impact on the growth of tomato plants’ flowering. Such as the tomato plants that are transplanted in the summer season may flower faster than the plants that are transplanted in cool seasons.

After all, they are subtropical in origin. And if you have planted them in a greenhouse, then the warmth will also encourage faster growth of tomato flowering. This also gets more encouraged when the temperature in spring is higher than normal.

Even the variety will also have an impact on the temperature and flower growth.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can tomato plants have too many flowers?

Yes, tomato plants can have more than necessary flowers, but there is no big problem at all. Because the plants will own drop the excess flowers and leaves those which the plant matures only.

What to do when tomatoes start flowering

When tomato plants start flowering, you can do some tasks to protect the flowers and for bountiful blossoms.

• Protect the plants from cold and frost: Greenhouse, cloches, and row covers will be perfect for that.
• Hand pollinates the tomato plants: If you see pollination isn’t happening by wind, vibration, or natural pollinators like bees, you can pollinate the plants by hand. In this case, an electric toothbrush might be a great way.
• Blossom set spray: This spray will increase production a lot.

Can I pinch early tomato flowers?

This not advisable to pinch early growing flowers. The plant itself knows how many flowers it can hold and mature into red fluffy fruits. So, whenever extra flowers pop up on the stem at a premature time, they will fall down on their own.

Especially on cool nights of below 12 degrees Celsius  (55 degrees Fahrenheit) temperature, you will see tomato plants drop the extra blossoms by themselves.

Heat can also sometimes do the same. When the temperature goes up to 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit), the tomato blossoms will fall down.

Should I remove early blooms from tomato plants?

If you want, you can remove them, so plants get more energy from the soil. But, do it before plants reach 12 to 18 inches in height.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the reason behind tomato plants flowering too early can be many. It may happen as a result of choosing older transplants, starting the seeds too early, variety of the plant, age of the plants, size of the fruit, temperature, or even fruits and nutrients.

Plus, now you know the ways to prevent the problem of early growing tomato flowers (also learn the technique to solve the splitting problem of cherry tomatoes). And if there are excess flowers, the plant will drop them on its own. So in short, there is nothing to worry about early flowering of tomato plants.