[Pollard]

I just happened to be doing a little experiment along those lines. I bought three plants from the Amish store. Red Deuce hybrid and all were a little over 12" tall with flowers on them. I pulled the flowers off of one and the other two ended up with three fruits on them.

Here's the one I pulled the flowers off of.

The two outer ones here are the two I didn't pull flowers from and they each made three fruits but I've since pulled the fruit off of one to further experiment. Don't know if it will reboot or not.

The one I pulled flowers off of when I first got it is nearly twice as tall, a couple of shades darker green, grew two new main stems and has 6 fruits, 20 flowers and half a dozen buds. That's a potential 30 maters compared to 3.

I'll be removing flowers from any mater plant that seems too small to be producing from now on. Let the plant get some size and then let it go.

[Paul R.]

Most interesting and does make a lot of sense!