This morning I finally saw the beginnings of sugar pea pods on the vines. We had seen countless purple blossoms open in the past couple days. One blossom on Wednesday turned to three on Thursday, seven on Friday, and almost two dozen by this morning. I only assumed the pods were soon to follow. Sure enough, two pods have begun to form next to each other. If I had to guess, there are probably other pods tucked away in the vines that I have yet to discover.
The fingernail-sized pods join a handful of celebrity tomatoes to make their debut in the garden this week. I had been pinching blossoms for the past week or two on the tomatoes and peppers in order to prevent fruit from forming so early. I know that seems a tad counter-intuitive to be stopping the plant from growing fruit. But early on in the season it's a good idea to do so and allow the plant to focus on growing bigger. I guess the celebrity tomato got a couple past me. But the good news is the celebrity plant is the largest and healthiest in the garden, so I think it can handle fruit development.
In the case of peppers, the plant adapts to pinching the first generation of blossoms and the next round will produce peppers with stronger walls and more flavor.
After Pinching the White Blossom on The Romanian Pepper Plant
For all those gardeners out there, I stress the importance of looking over the plants and keeping them well groomed right now as they grow. That means pinching suckers off the tomato plants, cutting small branches less than an inch or two from ground level, and pinching blossoms on very young plants.
Happy Memorial Day!!!
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