Tomatoes-no fruit, no flowers

[dina]

Hi,
I have been growing Tumbling Tom tomatoes from seeds since April. The plants are short,leggy and without flowers or fruit. The tallest one is only 10 inches tall! Recently I put them on more sunny place and they are growing bigger leaves now and doing better.They are all alive but I wonder if it is too late for them to produce anything this year? When shell I plant them out?
I am so ashamed of my tomatoes that I bought one Gardeners Delight from a shop with flowers but no fruit.When shell I plant that one out and can I keep it in a pot? This is a first time in my life that I am grwing tomatoes.
My mother in law is coming and I am SO ashamed of myself!
Thanks.

dina

[Kisal]

Your plants should be moved outside as soon as the night temperatures Consistently stay at or above 55º F. (I'm sorry, but I don't know what that is in Celsius, right offhand. I'll try to convert it for you if you need me to, though.) They need full sun ... as much as you can possibly give them ... during the day.

Tomatoes won't set fruit if the nights are below 55º F, or if the day temperatures are above 100º F. They're happiest when temperatures are between 70º to 80º Fahrenheit.

If you plan to grow your tomatoes in containers, make sure they have a diameter of at least 12 inches and a depth of about 15 inches deep. If your plants are leggy, due to not enough sunlight, remove the lowest 2 or 3 branches from the stem, then plant it deep in the soil. This should be done whether you plant them in containers, or in the ground.

The Virginia State University Extension Service offers this article about The Basics of Growing Tomatoes.

[rainbowgardener]

Around here short and leggy are generally opposite qualities. Leggy means that they have grown tall and spindly, with thinner stems, fewer leaves. Leggy means they haven't been getting enough light. Tomatoes need full sun. If they are not in full sun, they stretch up tall trying to find it.

Just a word for next year if you try again (having learned a lot you will be well prepared). My average last frost date where I live is in mid-April, so to do tomatoes from seed I start them mid-Feb. To do that, you have to have them under lights, a window sill won't do. You don't have to do all that to do tomatoes from seed, but you probably did get a late-ish start.

But no reason to be ashamed of being a novice, everyone was at one time.

[cynthia_h]

55 deg. F = 12 deg. C

100 deg. F = 38 deg. C

to the nearest whole degree.

Not only did we all start as novices, each time we grow a plant we haven't grown before, we're novices all over again. This is why I just love the quote from Thomas Jefferson which I've adopted as my signature line for this season.

Best wishes for a successful tomato harvest.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[dina]

Thanks for your replies.
My question is: will they still be able to produce fruit this year or is it too late?
Will the same plants have fruits next year as well or they dy and each year have new plants to be planted?

Dina

[cynthia_h]

Although the ancestral tomato was a vining perennial in the Aztec Empire, tomatoes as currently grown are treated as annuals.

I start with new plants each year, as my attempts to save tomato seed have been pretty pitiful so far.

I don't know how warm it gets in Cambridgeshire or for how long; nearby gardeners, esp. allotment gardeners, would be the best source of information on this specific question.

Are there allotments in your town? Perhaps the council which runs same has information leaflets or a website for local gardeners. Worth a try, anyway!

Cynthia