Tomato Flowers Not Setting

[D.D. Palmer]

My tomato plants look terrific this year, but many flowers are falling off and not setting. Never had this problem before. Help!

[Larry]

[D.D. Palmer]

Is it a spray?

[Mike H.]

Try flickin' 'em.

[Warren]

Flowers not setting is a symptom of a problem. How do you know that "Blossom setter" is the right solution to the underlying problem? It may be a solution to *a* problem that has a symptom of flowers falling off, but the problem DD is having might not be that problem.

More information is needed before a diagnosis can be done, and an accurate diagnosis is needed before one can declare a particular product to be the solution to the problem. It doesn't make sense to start spraying some random chemical on plants growing what will eventually be food.

[Timothy]

Good day D.D. As I read above, I'm asuming that your plants are otherwise healthy. There are two possibilities that I can think of, one being over fertilization. If you used a high nitrogen fertilizer this can retard flower and / or fruit set.

The other possibility could be some sort of insect. Earwigs come to mind for me. I've seen them do great damage to apple trees. They tend to cut the blooms off.

If you over fertilized, then you can leech it outof the soil with a few good waterings. For earwigs, look for any insect activity during the early morning and late evening. Then always the third possibility... I wrong on the first two 80(

Good luck

[D.D. Palmer]

What else do you want to know? The plants look great otherwise. It's been hot and humid although there were long days where there was no rain and I was careful to only water around the roots. Perhaps the lack of physical stimulation (pollination?) was the problem? I don't know what else to tell you.

[D.D. Palmer]

I am growing both in the ground with mushroom manure as the only fertilizer and in EARTHBOXES. The setting problem (or, lack thereof) is seen in BOTH.

[Larry]

[Pat Kiewicz]

Exactly how hot and humid? Night-time low temperatures much above

70-75 deg. F or daytime highs in the 90s can cause blossom drop. High humidity can also interfere with pollination.

There are specific varieties selected to tolerate high temperatures.

[Doug Kanter]

Where are you located?

[D.D. Palmer]

[D.D. Palmer]

Pittsburgh

[G Henslee]

I get the same results using Miracle Grow for Tomatoes and a teaspoon of sugar to the gallon. Yes, sprayed on.

[Stubby]

I had a friend who fertilized frequently with Miracle Grow (I believe). He wound up with 8' high green tomato plants but no tomatoes because of all the nitrogen. Use a little fertilizer after planting and then stop unless there is some reason. Plants need to starve a little to make them set fruit.

[G Henslee]

With tomatoes I found it best to stress them with respect to watering infrequently. That's common knowledge. It avoids splits, spongy fruit and blossom drop. However in my experience a spray of Miracle Grow and a tespoon of sugar to the gallon once a week has done nothing but help produce, produce, produce, tomatoes.

Your friend's problems with his plants could be a result of other issues as well.

[<nowhere]

I'm in the eastern part of PA about a 6-hour drive from Pittsburgh where the OP is located. I have plenty of buds on my plants and many are falling off. I have two plants in containers and two directly in the ground. The container plants were at one point about 4 times the size of the ground ones. Now the container plants are getting yellow leaves around the bottom of the plants and the in-ground plants are all nice and green. The plants are the "Big Boy" variety. I water the container plants quite a bit because I'm assuming the soil will dry out more because the sun shines on the side of the containers increasing the soil temperature higher than those in the ground would experience. No signs of little maters on any of the four plants at this point.

Anxious in PA

[nnnnn]

I have a 6 foot cherry tomato and same problem as yours. It's not setting fruits. I started having flowers since 2 months ago. Now I have about 100 flowers and the plant is very healthy. The problem is as of now there are only 4 tiny fruits. The flowers are not falling off. They are dry after a while.

I guess my mistake was that I used too much Micracle-Grow when I transplanted it back in April. Is there anything I can do now to solve this problem ? I have just removed a lot of suckers and sideshoots. Hopefully all nutrients are now going to setting fruits, rather than producing ton of leaves. Will that help? I live in Seattle, WA and we haven't really got our summer yet. Maybe the lack of consistent sunshire is my problem here. [e-mail]

[G Henslee]

Overwater and you'll get blossom drop. Don't overwater the tomatoes.

[G Henslee]

Don't overwater. 'Stress' the plant a bit. Mucho sunhine is mas bueno.