In article ,
"Suzanne D." wrote:

I bought a bunch of tomato and pepper plants yesterday, and some of them
have flowers and/or fruit on them already. I asked the people at the stores
if I should pinch them off when planting in order to put more energy toward
root-building, and three different people said I didn't have to. I'd LOVE
for this to be true, but I could swear I heard somewhere that you are
supposed to pinch off the flowers and fruit when you plant. Can anyone
enlighten me once and for all?
--S.

I planted a Stupice with 3 small fruit on it in late April. Stupice is
supposed to get to be 4' to 6' tall. Mine presently is 4' and growing,
and we had our first tomato last saturday. Two more should be ready by
this week-end. If I'd pinched them off, I'd still be waiting for my
first tomato. Oh, it had tomato flavor without the store-bought acidity
that my sweety doesn't like.

Two days of 90°F and the garden is rockin'. The peppers put on 2"-4" in
height, the summer squash all expanded by about a foot, and the melon
has started cranking out flowers.

A parsnip from last year, that was overlooked, due to a rampaging
raccoon, who also took out the majority of the carrots, is 5 feet tall,
1 foot shorter than my tallest sunflower. Is this normal? Is there any
chance that the parsnip is still edible? I'm presuming that it's past
its "best used by" date and I'm waiting to see its floral side.
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/HZinn_page.html