Help - Plant's top leaves turned into a mutated flower??!!

TheRainyGarden

This happened a while ago, while I noticed my first mini rose flower was weird, the flower stem is much thicker than normal, and it struggled to bloom. It even had a darker than usual petal colour.
Last week, I potted up my 4 indeterminate tomato seedings in their permanent pots. 3 days ago they had first set of flowers. Today, I noticed that for 3 plants, there are no new leaves on top of the stem, instead, like the rose, they each turned to a mutated flower?! Again, much bigger than the usual ones, on a much thicker stem. 

What is going on?!! As silly as it sounds I am panicking. I don't want my tomatoes to die only after first set of flowers.

Please see photos. I would appreciate if anyone can share similar experience or know what this is. Thank you!

Blue Onion

I had a indeterminate tomato self terminate on a few branches last year.  Don't worry about your plant though, I can see the suckers ready to grow in the pit of the lower leaves.  You can either pinch out that flower bunch and encourage a sucker as a new leader.. or you can wait until a sucker naturally emerges and use that as a new leader.  

What variety of tomato?

pippip

It looks like ‘fasciation’ - it’s not harmful. I can’t see in the picture if yours has a typically flattened, fused stem.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=525

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/environmental/fasciation-in-flowers.htm

Pete.8

I had something similar happen on 2 of my tomato plants this year.
I grow 2 each of 4 varieties and it was just the 2 Stupice plants (seed a year out of date).
For whatever reason both plants produced a terminal leaf at the top of the stem when they were about 6", so neither would grow any taller.
When side shoots appeared I removed all but the strongest, and that is now the new leader.

BobTheGardener

They are sometimes known as 'cristate' or 'king' flowers and are common on beefsteak types.  When the growing tip turns into one, you need to select a side shoot to become the new main stem as Pete.8 says.

This is a bit scientific, but this article explains that it's a combination of 2 gene mutations which result in a terminal flower at the growth tip.

https://www.reflexions.uliege.be/cms/c_42356/en/when-tomatoes-flower?part=1

TheRainyGarden

Thanks all for the helpful information and great to know that they can be saved. I will go cut off the flower to let the suckers grow.  Much appreciated! It’s a strain of Cherokee purple really not suited for UK climate I guess.