106 Should You Remove the First Tomato? White Knockout Apricot.

Another dubious garden idea is making the rounds on social media: if you prune out the first tomato you see on your plant,  you’ll get more tomatoes as a result. Fact or Myth? We explore that with retired college horticuture professor Debbie Flower.

Ed Laivo from TomorrowsHarvest.com is back on Fabulous Fruit Friday, with a white apricot variety. A white apricot? Yes. And it’s delicious, too. Plus, Ed talks about where you can find more information, including videos, about the benefits of summer pruning of your peach, nectarine, plum, apricot, apple and other deciduous fruit trees.

It’s all on episode 106 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you today by Smart Pots and Tomorrow's Harvest.  And we will do it all in under 30 minutes. Let’s go!

Pictured:
The First Tomato on a Better Boy plant today (May 27)

Links:
Smart Pots
White Knockout Apricot Tomorrow’s Harvest
Summer Pruning Videos / Tomorrow’s Harvest Nursery/ You Tube
Pruning Tomato Flowers? No! The Farmer Fred Rant

More episodes and info available at Garden Basics with Farmer Fred

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Chapters

• 1:23 Should You Remove the First Tomato?
• 8:27 Smart Pots!
• 9:28 Fabulous Fruit Friday: The White Knockout Apricot
• 22:53 How To Get In Touch with Us
• 24:18 Tomorrow's Harvest

Transcript

GB 106 Should You Prune off the 1st Tomato? Fabulous Fruit Friday: White Knockout  Apricot. 

25:58

SPEAKERS

Debbie Flower, Ed Laivo, Farmer Fred

Farmer Fred  00:00

Garden Basics with Farmer Fred is brought to you by Smart Pots, the original lightweight, long lasting fabric plant container. it's made in the USA. Visit SmartPots.com slash Fred for more information and a special discount, that's SmartPots.com/Fred.    

Farmer Fred  00:20

Welcome to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener or you want good gardening information, you've come to the right spot. 

Farmer Fred  00:32

There's another dubious garden idea making the rounds on social media: prune out that first tomato you see on your plant, and you'll get more tomatoes as a result. Fact or myth? We explore that with retired college horticulture Professor Debbie Flower. Ed Laivo from tomorrowsharvest.com is back on Fabulous Fruit Friday, with a white apricot variety. A white apricot? Yes, indeed. And it's delicious, too. Plus, Ed talks about where you can find more information, including videos, about the benefits of summer pruning of your peach, nectarine, plum, apricot, apple, and other deciduous fruit trees. It's all on episode 106 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you today by Smart Pots and TomorrowsHarvest calm. And we'll do it all in under 30 minutes. Let's go. 

Farmer Fred  01:27

We like to answer your garden questions here on the Garden Basics podcast. To help us out, Debbie Flower, retired college horticultural Professor, joins us. And Debbie, we get a question from another Debbie. Debbie M, we'll call her, and she writes in: "Is it true or is it a myth that you should pick off the first tomato you see growing on your tomato bush? Not sure where I got this information from, but I was always under the assumption that if you didn't, it would stunt the production of more fruit. Inquiring minds need to know. Thank you so much for your always excellent advice." Well, Debbie M., don't you like tomatoes? Why would you pluck  the first tomato?

Debbie Flower  02:08

Yeah, if the plants been in the ground, the plants been able to establish the root system. And tomatoes do that very quickly. They're pretty fast growers, there's no reason to take that first fruit off. If the plant is just put in the ground and it has a tomato on it, I might be inclined to remove it, just to allow that plant to establish a bigger root system. But if it's big enough to have a fruit on it, the plant I mean, then it's probably got a big enough root system to support that fruit.

Farmer Fred  02:38

We've talked in the past about doing some other juvenile tomato pruning, yay or nay. One we talked about recently was, and you can fill me in on the correct botanical names, pruning out the "armpit hairs" of little tomato plants in order to, I guess, spur more flower production.

Debbie Flower  02:58

The axillary bud. 

Farmer Fred  03:00

Thank you. 

Debbie Flower  03:00

So yes, that's the armpit hairs you're referring to. But  they arise actually above where the point where a branch meets the stem. And it becomes another stem that has the ability to grow leaves and flowers and fruit on its own. And plants. Depending on how you're pruning your tomato they can get very bushy. If you have it in a cage and you allow all of these axillary buds to form they can get very bushy. When I was a student at Rutgers University in New Jersey, and that was a long time ago. So Rutgers' advice may have changed, I haven't checked, but we were taught to remove all of those axillary stems, and we trained our tomatoes to a single stick. And the evidence suggested that we got earlier fruit production. However, we did not get more fruit production because we've removed a lot of fruiting wood and a lot of green stuff that makes the food that fills the fruit. So it was for early production. And we had a much shorter growing season in New Jersey, especially all those years ago than they do today, or we do in other parts of the country. And so the goal was to get tomatoes fast. But other than trying to get your very first tomato very fast, which we we did by staking it to a single, pruning it to a single stem, and staking it to a stake or thinning out what's inside your tomato cage. Those are the  only two reasons I would remove the axillary buds.

Farmer Fred  04:37

All right. Then another very popular tomato removing idea is to prune out the flowers that first appear on a tomato plant. I get those questions every year. Along the lines of, "Should I prune off or snip off or pinch out the first tomato flowers that appear in order to get more tomatoes later?" The thing is, those early flowers, because of fluctuating weather, usually fall off by themselves. You don't need to help.

Debbie Flower  05:05

Yeah, and if the plant is is big enough and healthy enough to produce flowers, I wouldn't remove them. There. I am not aware of any scientific evidence that says removing early flowers, or early fruit leads to more fruit or flower production later in the season.

Farmer Fred  05:23

Cornell University, Dr. Philip Mingus of Cornell says "tomato yields per plant may be lowered by pruning, removing the leaves or shoots does not conserve food for the crop, it tends to reduce the total food supply, use training methods that require little pruning." So basically, what he's saying is what you don't like tomatoes,

Debbie Flower  05:45

it's not worth doing.

Farmer Fred  05:46

Yeah, I attempted to try to track down where this myth of pruning tomato flowers came from. And you know how it is when it's like the seven blind guys trying to identify an elephant, or the grade school game of "pass it on" where somebody starts a story. And that person's supposed to tell another person and then you compare story A with story Q or however far down the line it gets, and they're usually radically different stories.

Debbie Flower  06:18

Right? We called that "telephone" when I was a kid. 

Farmer Fred  06:21

Okay, that's good. Yeah, that's right, you had telephones as a child. But Texas a&m University had a paper on greenhouse hydroponic tomato culture in the winter, and pointed out that the growing point is allowed to grow for at least five to seven leaves above the last fruit truss to help prevent sunburned fruit, remove the flower buds above the last fruit truss, to ensure no additional fruit set. So I can easily see some gardener reading that and then trying to recall that story, maybe to the next gardener he meets. And, he talks about that one sentence: "remove flower buds above the last fruit trust to ensure no additional fruit set," but leaves out the fact that it was a greenhouse tomato grown hydroponically in the wintertime. 

Debbie Flower  07:15

That's a very specific situation and probably a very specific type of tomato that's being grown in that situation.

Farmer Fred  07:23

Gardener B then tells Gardener C, Hey, I just heard pruning tomato flower buds is recommended by Texas a&m. And  then gardener C goes online and writes something along the line of, "remove flower buds on tomato plants to increase the number of tomatoes" or something like that.

Debbie Flower  07:41

If you take the flowers off, you're not increasing the number of flowers or fruit. You're decreasing the number of fruit by removing flowers. Exactly.

Farmer Fred  07:52

Language is a virus, as I'm fond of saying. To get back to Debbie M's question, no, Debbie, you don't have to take off that first luscious tomato. You've worked so hard to earn that first tomato. Keep it, let it grow. There will be more. Yes, I can think of no reason to prune tomatoes unless they're, as we mentioned earlier, running outside of the cage that they're in or their boundaries and are threatening to strangle your toy poodle,

Debbie Flower  08:17

right? They can get big

Farmer Fred  08:19

Yeah, that they can. Well, I hope that helps, Debbie. Thanks for your help. I appreciate it.

Debbie Flower  08:25

Oh, you're welcome, Fred. Thank you.

Farmer Fred  08:31

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Farmer Fred  09:30

it's Fabulous Fruit Friday. What does Ed Laivo from tomorrowsharvest.com, have for us tonight? I think it just might be an apricot because late May - early June, it could be apricot time where you live and Ed, what do you have for us?

Ed Laivo  09:44

Man, do I have an apricot. A unique apricot, as well. Because it's not that typical yellow apricot. It is a white apricot, and it's got a great name, White Knockout.

Farmer Fred  09:57

A White Knockout apricot. Yeah, white apricot. When you think apricot you don't usually think of a white piece of fruit?

Ed Laivo  10:04

No, you don't. And then  this is kind of a white with a yellow hue to it. But it's got a nice white flesh. Boy oh  boy, is it sweet. I mean, it is great. It has all the the apricot flavors that you would expect. But it's just the sugar content that just can't be beat.

Farmer Fred  10:25

I was searching the internet getting some information about this particular apricot and I noticed recipes for a white apricot popsicle. Whoa. Yeah, apricot is one of the first major fruits to be harvested, at least here in USDA zone nine. I think this one sort of ripens in late May or early June, right? 

Ed Laivo  10:47

It does. Yeah, it to be exact, right now. It is late May and  it's ripe right now. That's what I probably will be doing tomorrow, as a matter of fact, is going out harvesting some and taking some additional pictures for the Tomorrow's Harvest website because I think I only have one up right now.

Farmer Fred  11:06

And you'll probably be sampling some fruit too.

Ed Laivo  11:09

Always, man. I tell you what, one of the most fun things about being in the fruit industry. And this part of the fruit industry is that I get to sample literally hundreds of varieties of fruit. You know, Isn't it neat that we start off the beginning of the year with two of the most fabulous types of fruit and that is the apricot and the cherry? 

Farmer Fred  11:30

That's right. Hey, don't forget blueberries, blueberries as well. 

Ed Laivo  11:33

Yeah, but apricots and cherries. I mean, my blueberries are just not there yet. They're close, but they're probably another two weeks away.  It's late this year.

Farmer Fred  11:42

Maybe for you. I'm having fun. 

Ed Laivo  11:45

Oh, are you already eating blueberries? 

Farmer Fred  11:46

Yeah. Yeah. "All gardening is local" that guy on the radio used to say.

Ed Laivo  11:51

He did, and he was correct as well. It is and I'll tell you what, the apricot set this year is tremendous. Because we didn't have a lot of weather here in California during the apricot bloom period, which is typical. A lot of times apricots are iffy in terms of being real productive. And late winter weather, early spring weather that actually can interfere with your  bloom. And so sometimes apricots can be kind of challenging in terms of you know, getting a consistent crop off them.

Farmer Fred  12:22

I do hear from a lot of gardeners here in California that they do have difficulties growing apricots. Is it because they're not as competitive as other fruits as far as growing quickly, or is it that they need really good drainage?

Ed Laivo  12:39

They need excellent drainage. As a matter of fact,  almost all fruit trees require excellent drainage. But apricot, in particular, don't tolerate wet feet at all. So they should have an elevated planting. I think that the biggest concern with apricots actually has to do with their early blooming, They're very early blooming. And so because they bloom so early, they're subject to late winter rains. They are subject to a little bit of cold in the late winter time, early spring. Also a late frost. And there's some varieties that have some ability to be able to weather that so to speak, such as Tomcot, or Harcot. Those two varieties actually almost stop blooming if the weather gets bad, and then continue blooming when the weather gets good. Again, I can't tell you honestly whether or not White Knockout has that capability. But my good friend, Andy Mariani, down in Morgan Hill, who grows them, speaks incredibly highly of them. He says they're his favorite. And he is a commercial grower. And so I would think that productivity would be paramount in his concerns. And so to him, for him to speak so highly of any fruit variety would have to have two attributes and one would definitely be excellent flavor, because Andy is just a master at choosing wonderful flavored fruits. And secondly, it would have to be productive because Andy depends on fruit to make a living.

Farmer Fred  14:09

I think white apricots kind of fall on that category of why you never see them in the supermarket as much for the same reason you never see mulberries in the supermarket: they don't have a long shelf life. The white apricot, like mulberries, are best enjoyed fresh from the tree. 

Ed Laivo  14:24

This is a perfect reason to have one in the home garden. And that is because you probably will never see them in the grocery store. You may occasionally see them at a farmers market where they can be picked fresh that day and then brought to market. But even in that regard, you probably don't need to buy you know, a full bag  of them unless you're bringing them home to a party because you probably are not going to be able to eat them all before they start to crash. So yeah, that's really tends to be a characteristic of a lot of white fleshed fruits. But yeah, in the case of the White Knockout apricots, no, no long shelf life at all.

Farmer Fred  15:04

But a white apricot, that would be a conversation starter if you had one in your yard. 

Ed Laivo  15:09

Oh, wouldn't it. Brigid, that's my companion at work who takes care of our social media and takes care of the e-commerce website. She's excited about working with the White Knockout, simply because she loves the fruit. But on the same token, there's all kinds of things that we can say about it. Because we do know a lot about its its flavor characteristics and how special it is in that regard.

Farmer Fred  15:33

It has a long history. I was reading about it goes back to Northwest China, like 3000 years.

Ed Laivo  15:41

Well not White Knockout, though.

Farmer Fred  15:43

No, white apricot in general. 

Ed Laivo  15:46

White knockout is a Burchell Nursery and TomorrowsHarvest exclusive. But yeah, white apricots actually do trace themselves back. And white apricots are just a normal occurrence. In the crossing of apricot varieties, you'll get a certain percentage that are white, I don't know that the flavor is always guaranteed to be exact. In many cases, white flesh fruit, when you're hybridizing, white flesh fruit, they can be very, very bland, or they can be terribly acidic. But typically they can be bland. So when you get a special flavored one, like one of the first ones that I recall being introduced to was Moniqui. And that was probably back in the late 70s. It was great variety. Flavor was excellent, not real dependable, productive wise. And then another very popular one, an excellent flavor is also called the Canadian White Blenheim. But it's definitely a difficult one to get fruit to sit on. So the White Knockout, I think, kind of takes the best of the Moniqui and the best of the Canadian White Blenheim and packs them all together and gives you something that you can depend on and really enjoy.

Farmer Fred  16:59

All right, it's the white apricot, specifically the White Knockout apricot. And if you want more information about the White Knockout apricot just visit TomorrowsHarvest.com. You know, we haven't done apricots as far as succession goes. And if people wanted a succession of apricot ripening in their yard for zones five through nine or six through nine, the White Knockout sounds like a perfect early apricot.

Ed Laivo  17:33

Yeah, yeah, that would be a great one to start with. Then I probably would go with Golden Sweet. That'll come in next. That's kind of a midseason variety. And then you could go with something like Autumn Glo, which is a late ripening variety, really great flavored apricot,

Farmer Fred  17:52

What is late for an apricot?

Ed Laivo  17:53

Well, in the case of Autumn Glo, it's late July early August. Okay.  It's late. In the case of Golden Sweet, that would be mid to late June.

Farmer Fred  18:05

All right. But check out the White Knockout apricot at TomorrowsHarvest.com. Last week, you mentioned that when we were done chatting that you were going to go out and do some summer pruning. It's May, and it's it's spring. What do you mean summer pruning in May?

Ed Laivo  18:23

We just we just launched a YouTube page and it's called Tomorrow's Harvest Nursery. That's the only one we can do it under. And the first video we put up was a video I made last week of me pruning my multiple plants in my high density planting of three plum trees in one hole. So 24 inches on center, planted in a triangle. These trees are probably about eight years old, nine years old, and all kept at my height, with my hands extended above my head. And that's what I did last week, I had done some thinning (of fruit) the week before. And when you summer prune you always do a little bit more thinning (of fruit). So I just did the basic thinning to get the majority of stuff off and then I went in this last weekend and I pruned the tree to control the size, the height, and then I went inside the tree, opened up the canopy of the multiple budded tree, but multiple  to allow air penetration and sunlight penetration into the canopy. And I just kind of showed how to do that.

Farmer Fred  19:30

There you go. It's a summer pruning and high density planning how-to with Ed Laivo.

Ed Laivo  19:37

Subscribe. You'll be the second, I was the first. Okay. And then everybody else who listens to this podcast, go and subscribe. We'll be doing a lot more videos. I'm really looking to launch this YouTube page more as a how-to page. So we'll be focusing on things like this, How-to, and a lot of the things that I recommend which are sometimes what would  be considered, avant garde?

Farmer Fred  20:03

Okay, yeah. All right. Fair enough. Yeah.

Ed Laivo  20:06

And you know, and that's the first portion of this video is showing how to summer prune, a high density planting of three plum trees in one hole. And then there'll be the second part will be pruning a multiple budded fruit tree. So the other tree I have next to it is a multiple budded pluot. It should be up by the weekend.

Farmer Fred  20:30

All right, so you can learn a lot about summer pruning, if you go to the YouTube page called tomorrow's harvest (nursery). On today's podcast, I will provide a link directly to this YouTube video. Oh, that's cool. And that way people can watch Ed prune his fruit trees and learn what summer pruning is all about.

Ed Laivo  20:52

Right. It's about size control. And in this case, it's about high density planting and then why and how you prune a tree that's been planted in a high density situation.

Farmer Fred  21:05

I noticed on YouTube, that after this video, they are recommending that I watch Jeff Beck demonstrating Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix. 

Ed Laivo  21:12

Oh, that's great. That's worth it. I would do it. Jeff Beck is my one of my all time favorite guitarists.

Farmer Fred  21:23

Alright, summer pruning. It's something if you want fruit trees, and you need the room for fruit trees. Well, you may not need as much room as you think if you keep them small, just keep them as tall as you are. And you'll still have plenty of fruit. And it's all called backyard orchard culture. Summer pruning is a big part of that. And you can find out more when you visit the YouTube page with Ed Laivo, called "Summer pruning and high density planting" how to with Ed Laivo at tomorrow's harvest nursery on YouTube. And I'm sure someday there'll be a link at tomorrow's harvest dot com to this page.

Ed Laivo  21:54

Oh, there will be, absolutely, if there isn't already. I don't know. I'm not sure that Brigid's got to that yet. 

Farmer Fred  22:00

Oh, that's right: Blame Brigid. 

Ed Laivo  22:02

Yeah. It's easy enough.

Farmer Fred  22:08

All right, fine. We've learned a lot again. So be sure to check out the White Knockout apricot tree at TomorrowsHarvest.com It's a delicious, sweet piece of fruit that ripens early. You just might want one.

Farmer Fred  22:23

Was that a doorbell?

Ed Laivo  22:25

Yeah. You know what? I'll bet.

Farmer Fred  22:27

I bet it's a package.

Ed Laivo  22:28

Yeah, that's it. I think we got a package, Gloria. And the doorbell now is going to be on Fred's podcast for years to come..

Farmer Fred  22:35

Yes. Ed Laivo, we learned a lot again. Thanks for another great episode of Fabulous Fruit Friday.

Ed Laivo  22:41

Always love it, Fred, and we'll look forward to our next visit, man.

Farmer Fred  22:55

The Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast has a lot of information posted at each episode: transcripts, links to any products or books mentioned during the show, and other helpful links for even more information. Plus, you can listen to just the portions of the show that interest you, it’s been divided into easily accessible chapters.  Plus you’ll find more information about how to get in touch with us. Leave an audio question without making a phone call via Speakpipe, at speak pipe dot com slash gardenbasics. it’s easy, give it a try. And you just might hear your voice on the Garden Basics podcast! If you’re listening to us via Apple podcasts, put your question in the Ratings and Reviews section. Text us the question and pictures, or leave us your question at: 916-292-8964.916-292-8964. E-mail: fred@farmerfred.com . If you tell us where you’re from, that will help us greatly to accurately answer your garden questions. Because all gardening is local. In the show notes you’ll find links to all our social media outlets, including facebook, instagram, twitter, and youtube. Also, a link to the farmerfred.com website. And thanks for listening.

Farmer Fred  24:12

The warmer weather means that fruit trees and berry bushes will soon spring to life with the promise of tasty, nutritious fresh fruit for you and your family. So what are you waiting for, a website with more information? Okay, you've got it. It's tomorrow's harvest.com. That's your go-to site for a complete line of backyard fruit trees and bushes. Tomorrow's Harvest fine line of fruit trees is the result of 75 years of developing, testing and growing. Three generations of the Burchell family have been at the forefront of research and development of plants of the highest quality and all of these beautiful, edible plants have been carefully cultivated for your home garden. Look for tomorrow's harvest fruit trees at better retail nurseries. And if your favorite nursery doesn't carry any of tomorrow's harvest fruit, nut and berry varieties, you can order them directly from tomorrow's harvest.com. And they'll come to you in Plantable Paper Pots, ready for you to stick directly in the ground, pot and all. Let the Burchell family's three generations of experience take root in your home orchard, Landscape and Garden. Tomorrow's harvest. It's goodness, you can grow. If you want to find out more about their nutritious and delicious fruit and nut varieties, visit tomorrow's harvest.com.

Farmer Fred  25:32

Garden Basics comes out every Tuesday and Friday and is brought to you by Smart Pots. It’s available just about anywhere podcasts are handed out. And that includes Apple podcasts, I Heart Radio, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, Podcast Addict, CastBox and Google podcasts. And for Northern California gardeners, check out this podcast: the Green Acres Garden Podcast with Farmer Fred, also available wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for listening, subscribing and leaving comments. We appreciate it.