Hi All,
Cherry tomatoes are getting too hard for me to harvest with my old back. So I bought one of those 18" tall full tomato plant. It came with four green fruit. All four eventually ripened.
The plant itself is turning into a jungle. It has double or more in height and has lots of flowers on it.
Problem. The flower and not turning into fruit. They just stay flowers. Tomatoes are suppose to be self pollinating.
Now what am I doing wrong?
-T
Is the plant somewhere that's fairly protected from the wind? If so, give the flowering stems a little shake to help dislodge the pollen from the stamens.
Dan Purgert wrote: ...
yes, also if it is too hot to set fruits it might be a good thing to go out and spray it with some water to cool things off. note this also will shake the flowers.
by spraying the plant you may encourage some diseases but i'd rather have some results than none.
we stopped growing cherry tomatoes here because we ran out of time to pick them and are happy enough with the bigger beefsteak tomatoes we grow.
as of now the tomato plants we do have growing are taller than the tomato cages and it is very nice in the shade and cooler space between the plants and it smells so good to me as i've always liked the smell of tomato plants.
it won't be long before i have to start checking the plants for tomato worms.
songbird
What's the temperature like around your place?
Tomatoes won't set fruit if the temperatures are over ~95 degrees. Even with the bees working regular hours, the pollinated flowers won't do their work if it's too hot.
Nyssa, who is having problems with the evils of split cherry tomatoes from too much rain plus blossom end rot on the the Better Boys
Yet another reason I'm glad of my little hydroponic tomato garden, even if it means I only have four plants :).
I kind of want to make a bigger setup out of, I dunno, PVC pipes(?) but space is at a premium right now (mostly kids' toys ... but maybe after they grow up a bit and don't need as many things that can't break down into bins )
We have had a string of about two weeks of 98F to 102F and that explains it.
:'(
It is not protected from the wind. And we are very windy.
Lots of wind and a lot of 90+F days. It has been down to
92-94F last week, so maybe...I sprayed the plant with the shower setting on my hose head last night.
I do not get those accursed worms. I stopped growing zucchini over the squash bugs.
Not to ask to dumb a question, but are the overheated flower a loss? Or will they take now that temperatures are in the 80's?
I don't know.
I've got the same problem here with the high temperatures (and WAY too much rain). But I noticed yesterday that my neighbor has a couple of newly forming tomatoes on one of the plants I gave her, but hers have some shade, so maybe it kept the temperature a bit cooler in her back yard than mine have in full sun on my deck.
YMMV.
Nyssa, who is tired of both the squishy lawn and the too hot and too bumid conditions
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