lots of flowers on the plants, they are not dropping;if I look into the ones that "dry" I can see a fruits the size of a peppercorn, for some reason which I don't understand, the fruits seem to be in suspended animation--they're not growing.
Is this normal?
We've had quite a heat spell this past week or so with 3-digit temps. I've been "sheltering" my 2 potted plants during the last few days and they seem to be doing alright now. There is still leaf curl, but they're holding on to more moisture since I pulled them out from full sun.
Will fruits resume growing once the plants are recovered from heat stress?
I hope so, there are so many flower blossoms, it would be a shame not to have them fruit.
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
tomatoes just really do not like triple digit temps. Shading them from the heat of the day is a good plan. If that's your usual climate, then for next year you might want to try growing more heat resistant varieties. They have names like sunmaster, solar set, etc. But yes, if you keep the plant surviving through this, then once the heat breaks they should go back into production.
Well to be honest, whether anybody here agrees with me or not, that has happened to me before. It is happening now where the flowers are dying or shrivelling and there is a tiny tomato. All I do is help the flower along by just taking it off the tiny tomato. Sometimes they do stay on the end and can rot the fruit. I have done it many a time and it has never hurt the fruit itself.
It happens all the time, especially with buds that have been bagged for saving seed, and trusses with a lot of blossoms that have set many fruit. for instance I had a Cherokee Purple with over 20 blossoms on the first truss, seven or so grew tomatoes with several remaining peppercorns. After I picked the fruits later in the season some of the little peppercorns woke up and grew, so it seems like there is some sort of hormonal inhibition going on.
I'm inclined to agree that record heat during the past 2 weeks has put my 2 plants on survival mode--I.e, leaf curl, and no new fruit. Flowers are staying on the plant, and like the previousposter "Pebbles" I've 'helped" it along but pinching off a few of the dried blossoms to reveal the little green peppercorns. temps are more "normal" now ... it's currently 91 degrees close to 5PM which is just about the hottest part of the day here.
I continue to spray both from a full water bottle at least once daily, plus check for moisture in the soil, and pull them from the full sun around noon; I'm just glad I don't have 20 plants (like many here do) to "baby" this way.
I figure, I surely can put out the effort to keep 2 plants going.
The plants must indeed be conserving energy (and trying to recover from heat stress) there's minimal new leaf growth, no new flowers (but plenty enough already on the plant) so the fruits continue to flourish. They grow in size each day with no blemish, but no sign yet of ripening either.
One of the benefits of "coddling" the plants, I see exactly what's going on with them. I discovered new baby caterpillars so tiny they're nearly invisible except light green color against dark soil gives them away--two today, and two yesterday--no doubt younglings from the three humongous adults that nearly chewed off all the foliage from both plants late last week.
I continue to spray both from a full water bottle at least once daily, plus check for moisture in the soil, and pull them from the full sun around noon; I'm just glad I don't have 20 plants (like many here do) to "baby" this way.
I figure, I surely can put out the effort to keep 2 plants going. The plants must indeed be conserving energy (and trying to recover from heat stress) there's minimal new leaf growth, no new flowers (but plenty enough already on the plant) so the fruits continue to flourish. They grow in size each day with no blemish, but no sign yet of ripening either.
One of the benefits of "coddling" the plants, I see exactly what's going on with them. I discovered new baby caterpillars so tiny they're nearly invisible except light green color against dark soil gives them away--two today, and two yesterday--no doubt younglings from the three humongous adults that nearly chewed off all the foliage from both plants late last week.
They' pretty sad looking right now.
They are both from Costco and there's time release pebble type fertilizer mixed with the soil. Other than that, I've not "fed" them since I brought them home about 3 weeks ago, maybe 4.
Moreover, Will the leaf curl ever "uncurl"? One poster wrote that tomatoes get stressed above 87 degrees or thereabouts. Sacramento temps hit 90 degrees just after 12 noon and climb steadily through early evening. Does this mean that the plants should be permanently in the shaded part of the patio. I'm giving them sun through noon, and shade the rest of the day.
I"m "handling" these 2 plants a lot. Good or bad? On the plus side, I'm finding and getting rid of pests before they can further damage the plants. Today I added coffee grounds to the soil (I read that here somewhere) and found 4 light green eggs the size of pinheads. Found two that had obviously hatched open--most likely these are the two I caught and destroyed yesterday.
I'm just concerned that the plant seems "unhappy".
They are both from Costco and there's time release pebble type fertilizer mixed with the soil. Other than that, I've not "fed" them since I brought them home about 3 weeks ago, maybe 4.
Moreover, Will the leaf curl ever "uncurl"? One poster wrote that tomatoes get stressed above 87 degrees or thereabouts. Sacramento temps hit 90 degrees just after 12 noon and climb steadily through early evening. Does this mean that the plants should be permanently in the shaded part of the patio. I'm giving them sun through noon, and shade the rest of the day.
I"m "handling" these 2 plants a lot. Good or bad? On the plus side, I'm finding and getting rid of pests before they can further damage the plants. Today I added coffee grounds to the soil (I read that here somewhere) and found 4 light green eggs the size of pinheads. Found two that had obviously hatched open--most likely these are the two I caught and destroyed yesterday.
I'm just concerned that the plant seems "unhappy".