tomatoguy
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Tomatoes in Containers not Fruiting

I have six containers, two feet high and 14 inches wide, each with a tomato plant. Of the six only one is fruiting. The soil is a combination of black gold, moo-doo and fully composted soil from an old compost pile.

Meanwhile the half dozen plants I have in the backyard, in a mix of moo-doo, backyard compost soil is doing signficantly better. The plants on the balcony receive marginally more sun.

Why do you think the balcony plants aren't doing so well?

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Hi how old are the plants? Do they get at least 6 hours of sun? What are you feeding them?

Most tomatoes will take 70-80 days to start producing from germination.

Fruiting plants need a lot of sun or they won't make fruit

If you are fertilizing with a high nitrogen fertilizer you will get a lot of leaves and not much fruit.

dtizme
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Location: Port Elgin, Ontario, Canada. Zone 5a

Sounds like the containers are plenty big enough. Do they have drainage holes in them? If they were not getting enough sunlight I think you would notice. They would be stretching for the sun and would not be as big as the plants in the garden that are getting enough sun. Are they all the same kind of plants, that could possibly make a difference. Other than that the only other advice I can give it just to give it time and let nature take its course.

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rainbowgardener
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Sounds like a pretty rich mix in the containers. Are your container plants getting big and leafy but not fruiting? That would be too much nitrogen. Otherwise plants in containers dry out much faster than ones in the ground. So they could be suffering from lack of water especially if it is hot and dry where you are. If not and they are getting plenty of water, then nutrients may be getting flushed out of the soil. In that case, they might be a bit small and stunted and maybe yellowish.

Please tell us where you are located.

tomatoguy
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THANKS for the help! :)

Yes, the containers have drainage holes. I'm in New England.

They are not too dry…quite the opposite in fact. They seem to stay moister than the ones in the ground (with all this rain, anyway).

The container tomatoes flowered then fizzled out. The leaves have been as big and numerous as those no the ground. Now they seem to be turning yellowish, losing their green.

Only one container has a single fruit on it. It's the container positioned at the front, which gets marginally more sun than the rest of the containers. But all the containers receive more sun than the plants in the ground.

tomatoguy
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Any ideas?

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rainbowgardener
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Pictures help.

If the yellowing leaves are just at the bottom and are drying up, that can be normal. The oldest leaves at the bottom get used up. Otherwise if all of the leaves are not dry, but are yellowing, that can be a sign that the nutrients in the container have been used up/ flushed out and it needs fertilization. Have you been fertilizing the containers regularly?

If the leaves are yellowing, with spots, wilting, curling, that can be disease.

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

How hot does it get during the day? If the tomatoes are flowering but not making fruit, it may be because it is too hot. Unless you have heat resistant tomatoes, most tomatoes will suffer from blossom drop when it gets hotter than 90 degrees F.

Does your balcony get a little wind? Tomato flowers are wind and or bee pollinated. If heat is not an issue, maybe pollination is. Shake the plants gently when they are in bloom to encourage fruit set.



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