What do you do to help your fruit to set?

[muggs]

I have 20 tomato plants in our garden and three container plants on my deck. All plants are doing great - health wise - and are growing strong. That said, we're not setting as much fruit as I would think for plants this size (all plants are at least three feet).

I live in Ohio, so it's still early here, but I have seen dozens and dozens of blossoms dry out.

So, I began to fertilize with a mix of phosphate and potash (cutting out all nitrogen) and have sprayed that blossom set spray (the hormone spray).

I'm curious though, what specific steps do you take to help promote fruit set?

[mattie g]

If you've had dozens of blossoms already, and the weather has cooperated (I.e. no long stretches of over 90* and/or high humidity), it sounds to me like you have some sort of problem with pollination.

I just shake the plants a little and brush the blossoms with my fingers every day or so. Whether it helps to pollinate them or not, I really don't know. I do know it makes me feel better that I've at least done something to *try* to pollinate them.

I have upwards of 80 tomatoes on my ten plants right now, with more hopefully on the way (assuming the heat and humidity of the last couple days hasn't held up the pollination/fruit set). I'd like to think that's something to do with me helping them out, but I really don't know.

[rainbowgardener]

When the blossoms fall off without setting fruit, it is called blossom drop. It can be lack of pollination or it can be a stress symptom.

Here's a really nice article about tomato blossom drop:

https://njfarmfresh.rutgers.edu/documents/BlossomDropinTomatoes.pdf