Drying Blooms on My RED BEEFSTEAK Tomatos

[tonyfirstyear79]

Can someone help? this is my first year gardening but I still want some tomatoes. I have planted 7 indeterminate red beefsteak plants in five gallon buckets... the problem is the blooms are opening up wide and the center part is drying up. This means no tomatoes right? What can I do? I read all different things here. How often should I water? I water a little everyday (enough to soak the dirt through), is this too much? they are in containers...
Are they too small? help.. thanks

[Lauraluvstomatoes]

I am a rookie too . . . it is frustrating! Mine are not even blooming so you are ahead of me. There is a container forum on this site that is helpful. Growing in containers seems a little trickier than in ground in certain ways. I have picked up that it is good to check your containers, if dry beyond a finger (I.e. dirt does not stick to your finger) you should soak it until water comes out the bottom. Do you have drainage? What kind of soil did you use? R they getting 6 hours of sun? Sorry only have questions and not many answers!

[doccat5]

What variety did you plant? And did you leave the bottom in the bucket? If they are setting bloom, you can try spraying them with some epsom salts water. It also works for peppers, the magnesium gives them an extra boost!

It's 1 teaspoon to 1 quart of warm water and mix well then drench the plants. Hope that helps.

5 gal buckets should handle the tomatoes just fine. You do have to be careful about watering in a container, but sounds like you're not having a problem with that.

[opabinia51]

Welcome! Don't water a little everyday, give the plants a good soaking (for at least an hour) once a week or more as needed. This is called deep watering.

Also, use nice organic fertilizers that will provide both Macro and micronutrients and won't burn your plants. Composted manure is alsways a good start, as is liquid fish and liquid seaweed fertilizer, kelp meal, blood meal and so on.

If you are using pots, I like to mix pottting soil with manure and compost. Add a handful of kelp or blood meal to the hole before you plant the tomatoe plant.

[tonyfirstyear79]

Great thanks for all the suggestions... I'm doing better then I thought... many of those dried flowers had tomatoes growing behind them! So I have quite a few starting now...So should I do anything differently now that the fruit has started?
They are called beefsteak. Yes they are all in the five gallon buckets with holes drilled on the bottom and drainage rock at the bottom. I actually used the organic miracle grow soil (I didn't realize until after I had done everything that your not supposed to use that in containers but its working really good!) I've been using very little miracle grow lately and Terracycle tomato food (with worm poop) which has been working really well. They get sun almost all day (can there be too much sun?) Now I just have to worry about plants.

Can I just say I never realized how awesome gardening could be. I'm 28 yrs old, just bought my first house last year, so that's why I'm just starting... and now I have a satisfying, relaxing (but sometimes frustrating) life long hobby!
Doing tom, lettuce, carrot, cucumber, squash, watermelon, broccoli, eggplant, and peppers, I love it.