What's wrong with my tomatoes?

The plant's are huge and healthy with plenty of flowers. There's just no tomatoes. Any ideas?

 

My tomatoes had lots and lots of flowers, but right now I have seven green tomatoes on the five plants. I planted them May 10. They just started fruiting out about last week.

 

Uh...dont the flowers turn into the fruit ? Plenty of flowers now hopefully means plenty of fruit later. Just let nature take its course.




.

 

Do the blooms fall off and tomato's take thier place? Or do the blooms fall off and nothing happens?

 

The petals should whither away, and if you look closely you should see the tiny proto-tomato in their place.

I should say that I'm no expert - trying to grow outdoor tomatoes on the north east coast of England is very much a triumph of optimism over experience.... maybe get a reasonable crop every 3 or 4 years. All depends on the weather.

 

If there are flowers and they are not setting fruit, just withering up, it is because they are not getting pollinated. If there are just flowers and no fruit YET you just have to be patient There are a couple of different things you can do.

1. Take the eraser end of a pencil and "dab" the inside of the flowers going from one flower to the other, this helps with pollination. You may not have enough bees visiting to pollinate the flowers.

2. Sometimes for whatever reason tomato plants are finicky about setting fruit, a mild liquid fertilizer mixed at half the recommended dosage sprayed on the flowers and surrounding foliage will help keep the flowers on along with allowing the plants not to drop the flowers before it is pollinated to create fruit. By doing this you are creating your own "tomato bloom set spray" sold in many nurseries.

 

My mum used to tickle the flowers with a feather to help pollinate them :sunny:

 

After trying to grow tomatoes for about 5 yrs, I quit trying...cause there isn't enough sun that consistently gets to the ground (at least 6 hrs a day full sun is needed) around the house here.
With 3 plants FULL of foilage and the occasional flower which would promptly fall off, at summer's end, I would have a total of about 6 tomatoes. I know...pitiful.

 

Plenty of water and some miracle gro!

 

Wrong plant? ha..

 

Well, I finally got one. Then a worm ate most of it.

 

One more than me, thus far. Mine have only recently been planted out. Looking strong, but no flowers yet.

We live in hope....



.

 

how much sun do the plants get?

 

Not as much as they'd like, I'm sure. We've entered the typical northern British mid-summer period...ie: its warm enough, but overcast and / or raining.

What normally happens is if we get a good late summer and autumn, then I get a crop... the last really good one, 3 years ago ? , I was picking outdoor Tomatoes into November !

I grow them more in hope than expectation... sometimes you get a result.



.

 

I dunno but it could be to much nitrogen or blossoms could b withering from some sort of blight or disease.

 

I've had mine planted in the ground for several months now, and have plenty of flowers, but no fruit. I don't see any bees flying around. Same goes for my cucumbers. Vines have to be 20 feet long, with flowers but nothing more. Flowers are not getting pollinated. Thinking of dabbing them with a q-tip.

 

That's interesting... dont know where you're located Phantom, but here there definitely seems to be far fewer Bees around this year than is normal.

I plant a lot of Bee-attracting plants, most of which are now flowering. Generally I'd expect them to be literally crawling with them at this time of year, but although there are still quite a few, its nothing like I might expect.

Very few Butterflies this year too. But more Ladybirds.

The last Winter was colder than normal here, which might partly account for it I suppose...



.

 

I'm afraid "The_Phantom" is a WARM BLOODED critter. I'm located down in Florida. You were still getting some of your WINTER WEATHER when mine were put in the ground, outside. That should have given me quite a jump on the rest of the country, but if the flowers aren't getting pollinated, that means nothing at all.

In your area, you shouldn't have "Africanized Bees" like some of the ones we have down here. I don't know that it has anything to do with it, but I don't get to see any bees flying around my plants. I've thought about "baiting" them with something sweet smelling and see if I can entice them to come around.

In the orange groves, they bring in truck loads of bees to pollinate the trees. I guess they can't spare any for those of us that have little gardens.

 

Just found the beginnings of flowers on some of my Tomatoes today !

But as for the Bees - very noticeably fewer this year. Fewer Hoverflies too...even fewer Flies ! I can live with that last one.

Things are still getting pollinated though - I picked Peas, Beans and Courgettes today, all of which start as flowers.



.

 

Well, a second tomato showed up, then a bird ate it. The whole plant died shortly thereafter.