What are the teeny flowers coming off a main stem?

cleo88 · July 12, 2009

Hi,
On this forum or perhaps another, I vaguely remember a discussion of flowers coming off a main stem and this being sort of an abberation. (Was it Carolyn?) I'm wondering if I have the same thing...

On several of my plants, I have very short and small flower branches coming off the stem at a weird place with tiny little flowers, and they just don't look normal or like they will ever produce fruit. Does this have a name? Is it a result of cool/wet weather? I know this is happening on my Anna Russian and I think on my Marianna's Peace. If it is caused by a nutritional deficit, is it one I can rectify?

I will try to post a picture - right now it's pitch black out or I would go snap one.

jcmorse33 · July 12, 2009

I noticed the same thing on many of my brandywine and related varieties earlier this year... BWS, Earl's Faux, Ed's Millenium, Stump of the World. In all cases it seemed to clear up with the weather once we got out of the almost constant rainy days we were having earlier in the year. I think it was related to the amount of sunlight and not nutrients as I fertilized one of the plants (in a container) with a complete water soluable fertilizer with micro nutrients on a weekly basis. The others were all in ground in a well supplimented planting hole (5 gallons of homemade compost, half a bag of composted manure, a handful of greensand, a cup or so of plant-tone with myco innoculants.

Hope it clears up for you!

--Justin

cleo88 · July 13, 2009

Here are some pics:

1) On my German Head
2) On my Earl's Faux
3) On my Marianna's Peace
4) A long shot of Marianna's Peace, so you can see that this isn't just an emerging normal flower branch - it's about a foot from the growing tip and it isn't getting any bigger.

Does anyone know the technical name for this and can confirm it can be caused by cool/wet weather?

Thanks.

TomNJ · July 13, 2009

I've got the same thing on my German Heads and Brandywines - never noticed them in past years. Very curious.

TomNJ

barkeater · July 14, 2009

I got them on my Brandywines too, and a couple others. I suspect it is weather releated as I've been using the same BW seed since 2004 and never noticed it before. This season has been extremely cool, wet, and cloudy, more than ever before.

hasshoes · July 15, 2009

Some of mine did that too. With all the crazy weather we've had. . . I'm sure our plants think its the end of days. :-D

Fert1 · July 15, 2009

I posted about this last year. I call it "vestigial blooms," but that's just my own name for it, (best I could come up with at the time). They tend to just never develop and eventually shrivel up. I have no idea what causes them, but they do tend to pop up in odd places on the plant as you have mentioned.

July 12, 2009	#1
cleo88 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Sharon, MA Zone 6 Posts: 225	What are the teeny flowers coming off a main stem? Hi, On this forum or perhaps another, I vaguely remember a discussion of flowers coming off a main stem and this being sort of an abberation. (Was it Carolyn?) I'm wondering if I have the same thing... On several of my plants, I have very short and small flower branches coming off the stem at a weird place with tiny little flowers, and they just don't look normal or like they will ever produce fruit. Does this have a name? Is it a result of cool/wet weather? I know this is happening on my Anna Russian and I think on my Marianna's Peace. If it is caused by a nutritional deficit, is it one I can rectify? I will try to post a picture - right now it's pitch black out or I would go snap one.

July 15, 2009	#6
hasshoes Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: MT Posts: 438	Some of mine did that too. With all the crazy weather we've had. . . I'm sure our plants think its the end of days. :-D __________________ Sara

July 15, 2009	#7
Fert1 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2006 Location: Upstate SC, Zone 7 Posts: 543	I posted about this last year. I call it "vestigial blooms," but that's just my own name for it, (best I could come up with at the time). They tend to just never develop and eventually shrivel up. I have no idea what causes them, but they do tend to pop up in odd places on the plant as you have mentioned. __________________ Holly

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July 12, 2009	#2
jcmorse33 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Central Virginia Posts: 242	I noticed the same thing on many of my brandywine and related varieties earlier this year... BWS, Earl's Faux, Ed's Millenium, Stump of the World. In all cases it seemed to clear up with the weather once we got out of the almost constant rainy days we were having earlier in the year. I think it was related to the amount of sunlight and not nutrients as I fertilized one of the plants (in a container) with a complete water soluable fertilizer with micro nutrients on a weekly basis. The others were all in ground in a well supplimented planting hole (5 gallons of homemade compost, half a bag of composted manure, a handful of greensand, a cup or so of plant-tone with myco innoculants. Hope it clears up for you! --Justin

July 13, 2009	#4
TomNJ Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2009 Location: Floyd VA Posts: 767	I've got the same thing on my German Heads and Brandywines - never noticed them in past years. Very curious. TomNJ

July 14, 2009	#5
barkeater Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: NE Kingdom, VT - Zone 3b Posts: 1,439	I got them on my Brandywines too, and a couple others. I suspect it is weather releated as I've been using the same BW seed since 2004 and never noticed it before. This season has been extremely cool, wet, and cloudy, more than ever before.