No Tomatoes

[Jim M.]

Help! I have a number of Big Boy tomato plants growing in containers (Determinate type next year, these are too tall). I have really babied them. Problem is, I have beautifull plants with blossoms but no tomatoes. I was told "to much nitrogen", "no more miracle grow", "cut the plants down from 6 feet to 4 feet", etc. I have done all these things. I have new blossoms now but want to promote them to develop into tomatoes. Should I remove some of the lower foliage? Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks

[opabinia51]

Oh, I see you have posted your question in the tomatoe forum. Anyway, here is the information that I PM'ed to you.

Hi Jim,

You can hand pollinate the tomatoes with q tip if you like or just fertilize them with a liquid organic fertilizer like Liquid seaweed and wait for the insects to do their jobs.

In the fall when you have tomatoes, prune all the leaves off your tomatoe plants. This will not hurt your plants but, your plants will shunt all the sugars and energy to fruit ripening instead of leaf maintenance and growth.

Happy tomatoe growing!!!

Also, I would recommend not using miracle grow. Miracle grow is a synthetic fertilizer where the nutrients are in a soluble form that the plants will take up directly upon application The accelerated growth that you had was because the plants had a sudden infusion of nutrients. If you use an organic fertilizer, the plants will have a nice slow, steady supply of nutrients and be very healthy and have high yields of fruit. (And bellieve it or not, the fruit will be tastier too!)

[The Helpful Gardener]

Water copiously. (It'll help get all that blue juice out of the soil). Try disturbing the root mass a bit with a digging fork (not much and to the outside of the container). That can help trigger blooming...(but it is getting late...)

And next year, go organic! No such troubles that way, and the tomatoes will be bigger and better...

Scott

[opabinia51]

There you go Jim, within the span of a few minutes, you have answers from two people! Good luck with your tomatoes! I'm just starting to harvest mine, and they sure are delicious!

Lots of heirloom varieties out there too. In fact, at least 500 varieties of tomatoe. Might want to try a few of those next year as well.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Yeah, good point, Opa. Burppe really grows more with farmers in mind than backyard gardeners, so they breed for shippability and disease resistance rather than flavor...

My favorite tomatoe in the garden this year is an ugly thang called 'Cherokee Purple' (rumored to have come from a Cherokee reservation in Tennesee I believe). Won't see this one in stores, but the taste is absolutely incredible! My new favorite...

Scott

[grandpasrose]

Something my father taught me about growing tomatoes, and he still faithfully practices today, (as do I),is he only lets his tomatoe plants, whether determinate or indeterminate, grow to 4 tiers of flowers. He then tops them and does not let them grow any further. He also removes all "sucker" branches - the ones that sprout between the trunk and the branch.
By doing both these things, he ensures that his tomatoes will reach a good size, and ripen on the vine in the relatively short growing season we have up here.
You may want to try something like this as well.
VAL

[opabinia51]

Yes, thanks for reminding me of that Val. Suckering is very important. As your seedlings grow, pinch off any "suckers" that emerge between the main branches and the stem. This way, more energy will be put into growing tomatoes rather than growing more branches.

[The Helpful Gardener]

We need a good definition of suckers. When Val's da knocks the top off an indeterminate, do suckers just become branching? I know some folk that do that...

Also we should continue tio talk about removing those lower leaves, as most of the fungal problems I see in garden tomatoes aren't blight, but botrytis, a splash up fungus. Not a problem for me since I started mulching my 'maters with compost...

[grandpasrose]

When the tomatoes are topped after the fourth tier of flowers, the tomatoe plant is topped, whether it is a deteriminate or indeterminate. From then on, any shoots from the plant are still considered suckers and removed.

The plant totally focuses all it's energy on producing just those first four tiers of tomatoes. And they are usually large, beautiful and tasty, and vine ripened before the season end frost hits us. Yum!

This is of course, growing tomatoes out of doors, not in a green house setting. You could use the same practice in a greenhouse, even though the reason for it initially is to make sure the tomatoes ripen before frost!

Although I don't ever have a problem with blight or botrytis, even though I do plant my tomatoes in the same soil (though with amendments added every year), I end up removing the bottom leaves anyway, usually because they get so huge that I can't see what's going on. It helps the tomatoes ripen when the plant is opened up as well.
VAL

[The Helpful Gardener]

Another good reason to remove those lower leaves.

Val I'd think that those with a few more weeks of growing time (let's face it, ALL of us ) could let a tier or two more onto that tomatoe, as we'd have a few more weeks to finish them...

Scott

[grandpasrose]

This is true, but the same practice would apply......by the way, speaking of more growing time, my bleeding heart is still blooming! What do you think of them apples?
VAL