Should I be panicking?

[tarheelchick]

I'm doing my first garden ever and barely know what I'm doing. My tomato plants seem to have taken off, look healthy and green, but I'm worried that I haven't seen any beginnings of fruit yet. I get small blooms but they don't seem to last and they are infrequent. Shouldn't I have tons of blooms by now? My cucumbers (which are planted in the row next to them), seem to have tons of blooms.

I had my fence built in February and I'm waiting another month or so to stain it. Its literally in the front corner of my yard as that's the only sunny part of my property. (Sorry, neighbors!)

I live in North Carolina if that helps to know. Its been plenty hot and humid lately.



Sent from my SCH-I925 using Tapatalk

[Al@NC]

When you say you get small blooms but they don't seem to last, are you saying that they fall off and die? You'll have to give more details for help such as the varieties growing, fertilizer used (if any) and soil, etc.

You can motivate the plant to create more blooms by feeding it something high in P-K (fertilizer is measured as N-P-K, with N=nitrogen which promotes plant growth but not tomatoes). So if your feeding the plants some fertilizer, make sure the N ratio to P-K is low. Such as a ratio of 10-52-10 (miracle gro bloom booster).

To get fruit set you may have to vibrate the blooms, you may not have any bees to pollinate them and so if they don't get pollinated they simply die. Some people use a vibrating tooth brush, I simply take a finger and gently rub the stem holding the bloom to create vibration. I do this daily until I notice the bloom discoloring and fruit set beginning. This is why people grow other flowers and herbs around their tomato plants; to lure bees to come pollinate their tomato plants.

So you can use fertilizer to motivate more blooms, you have to get the blooms pollinated and then as long as your nights are over ~55f and your days aren't over ~95f and you don't have thrips (probably not), you should start to see fruit set.


Hope this helps, keep reading the site it's full of helpful advice!

Allen

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Al@NC

When you say you get small blooms but they don't seem to last, are you saying that they fall off and die? You'll have to give more details for help such as the varieties growing, fertilizer used (if any) and soil, etc.

You can motivate the plant to create more blooms by feeding it something high in P-K (fertilizer is measured as N-P-K, with N=nitrogen which promotes plant growth but not tomatoes). So if your feeding the plants some fertilizer, make sure the N ratio to P-K is low. Such as a ratio of 10-52-10 (miracle gro bloom booster).

To get fruit set you may have to vibrate the blooms, you may not have any bees to pollinate them and so if they don't get pollinated they simply die. Some people use a vibrating tooth brush, I simply take a finger and gently rub the stem holding the bloom to create vibration. I do this daily until I notice the bloom discoloring and fruit set beginning. This is why people grow other flowers and herbs around their tomato plants; to lure bees to come pollinate their tomato plants.

Hope this helps, keep reading the site it's full of helpful advice!

Allen

Allen you dont need bees to pollinate tomatoes.
Bees aren't even native to the Americas where tomatoes originated from.
Outside tomatoes will do just fine with a little breeze.
This year I had great results with fruit set without a pollinator in site.

I would suspect it is a little too hot for bloom set, there may be too much nitrogen, they could be verities that dont produce that many blooms.

To date I have put so much nitrogen on tomato plants they almost burned and still had great amounts of blooms and fruit set.

You just need to make sure you have the other two (P and K) in the soil.

As for the fence I have but one thong to say.
It looks fantastic and when the neighbors start paying your taxes then they can complain.


Worth

[tarheelchick]

Thanks for the quick replies. I haven't fertilized at all. Last fall, I had some soil hauled in from a landscaper in anticipation for planting my garden. I tilled it up prior to planting this spring and had a soil test done. The soil test came back with a pH of of 6.9. I know that's a little high, but was told that it is somewhat difficult to lower pH and that over time it should come back down naturally. Is that correct? And do you think that is my problem with blooms?

I go out and look over my plants everyday. I will see a couple of tiny blooms one day and then the next day they are gone. My other plants have seemingly plenty blooms.....squash and cucumbers. I planted 4 beefsteak tomato plants and 4 better boy plants. They were about 5 inches high when they were planted.


Sent from my SCH-I925 using Tapatalk

[Worth1]

I also want to express that in these forums you will get all sorts of replies and some are contradictory.
I would also like to say I hate disagreeing with someone, sorry.

Worth

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by tarheelchick

Thanks for the quick replies. I haven't fertilized at all. Last fall, I had some soil hauled in from a landscaper in anticipation for planting my garden. I tilled it up prior to planting this spring and had a soil test done. The soil test came back with a pH of of 6.9. I know that's a little high, but was told that it is somewhat difficult to lower pH and that over time it should come back down naturally. Is that correct? And do you think that is my problem with blooms?

I go out and look over my plants everyday. I will see a couple of tiny blooms one day and then the next day they are gone. My other plants have seemingly plenty blooms.....squash and cucumbers. I planted 4 beefsteak tomato plants and 4 better boy plants. They were about 5 inches high when they were planted.


Sent from my SCH-I925 using Tapatalk

In (my experience) the so called Beef steak and Better boy tomatoes are some of the worst offenders for blossom drop.

As for the soil PH it is easy to lower the PH but your plants look like they aere doing fine so I wouldn't mess with it.

What I do to temporarily lower the PH is to run 5% acidity vinegar in an Ortho dial and spray at around 8 to 6 ounces per gallon.
That is because mine had a PH of 8.
Just wet the soil down. from the looks of your garden and the PH it is I would suggest around 4 ounces per gallon.
Right after the spraying then wet the pants down with fresh water.

Worth

[AlittleSalt]

Allen and Worth both wrote what I would suggest. I would like to add that you have a beautiful garden.

[tarheelchick]

Wow. I already love this forum. Such quick help offered. Thanks all for your replies. I usually just water with the soaker hose system that I put in... (again, never done that before!). If I understand you Worth, I should soak the ground good, then water the leaves as well? I thought the plants didn't like water on their leaves....I'm trying to learn...sorry for dumb questions.

Sent from my SCH-I925 using Tapatalk

[RayR]

That's pretty nice growth, you must have got some pretty fertile soil.
6.9 PH is OK, it has nothing to do with blooms.
It's probably the humidity that is causing the lack of pollination and aborted flowers.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by tarheelchick

Wow. I already love this forum. Such quick help offered. Thanks all for your replies. I usually just water with the soaker hose system that I put in... (again, never done that before!). If I understand you Worth, I should soak the ground good, then water the leaves as well? I thought the plants didn't like water on their leaves....I'm trying to learn...sorry for dumb questions.

Sent from my SCH-I925 using Tapatalk

As was said above and again now I wouldn't mess with the PH.
A high PH will not allow the plant to grow at all as many types of plants cant take up nutrients with a high PH.

The watering of the leaves would be cautionary to wash any vinegar from them as a strong vinegar is also an herbicide.
When I first experimented with vinegar it was a live or die situation and everything worked out great.

Your garden is growing fine and as was said above it is the humidity and or heat.

Worth

[Al@NC]

It's ok to disagree worth, that's what makes us all unique! I was simply saying that if she didn't have bees going around her plants that there were other ways to try and pollinate them.

Interestingly enough though, there have been some studies (sungold tomato plant test) which suggest that you get up to 45% better fruit set by native bees!

http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/upl...ollination.pdf

And another link about pollination:

http://cecentralsierra.ucanr.edu/new...dates38506.pdf

Allen

[Deborah]

That is a gorgeous "corral" and looks humanely critter-proof.

[b54red]

In our heat and humidity down here in the south you need to make sure the plants are getting more than enough water while in the early blooming stage. Lack of proper soil moisture will exacerbate blossom drop in high heat. Mulching the soil with a good heavy mulch like cypress will help keep the soil moisture more even and the soil cooler which also helps. I would clip out some of the extra stems and limit the plant to no more than 4 or 5 stems. This will aid in air flow and encourage fruit set. If you can get some Texas Tomato Food start feeding the plants weekly at the rate of one tablespoon to the gallon and give each plant at least a gallon of mixture. Vibrating the flowers that are open and ready to pollinate in the mornings will help some also. I started a thread on getting tomatoes to set in high temperatures and high humidity and the link is below.

http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=36624

I follow the little tricks in this thread and limit my plants to only two stems and have fruit set all summer. No doubt it is always lighter in the heat of summer but still a goodly amount.

Bill

[Keiththibodeaux]

Every year will be different. Enjoy every one and learn the nuances as the seasons pass. Never panic, but rejoice in each experience to learn. One day you will understand Thomas Jefferson's quote, ”I am still devoted to the garden. but tho’ an old man, I am but a young gardener.”

[Gerardo]

Your garden looks great. I really like the flowers all around, which undoubtedly attract the right players to do their business on your tomato flowers.

As many have mentioned, pollinators are not necessary, but it's sure nice to have them around.

I feel your pain. It is very frustrating to identify loads of flowers, monitor their development, and then see their progression to brown, finally to the dreaded flowerless stump.

As others have mentioned, a lot of variables come into play. From the overall appearance of your plants it seems you're doing the right things. Give 'em some time and I'll bet as conditions become more favorable you'll get some fruit set.

You can push them into producing flowers by simple manipulation of the NPK ratio of what you feed them. Products that says "bloom" in it will liKely help.

Here in my garden, I see a bunch of pollinators that are not bees around my plants. Granted, my tomatoes reside next to two 30 y.o. citrus trees that bloom pretty much all the time. Plus I insure the NPK ratio promotes flowering.

Today I saw 5 different species of butterflies, a variety of hoverflies, hummingbirds, and lots of moths as the sun went down. I also saw some bees, not at lot, but at least some.

In the face of this cornucopia of proboscis and appropriate nutrients, I still get a fair amount of blossom drop. For now, I'm gonna blame the particular strain and the weather, and of course myself for not holding the truss' hand throughout the pollination process.

In short, it's just part of growing tomatoes.