Full tomato plants but no tomatoes? And squash die early

[agwalt]

My tomato plants are growing big and full (to my surprise) but there is yet to be a single tomato. My neighbor planted a week after me and already has a few small tomatoes starting. However, she does not have very big plants with many leaves. Do I just need to pluck off a lot of the leaves/branches so the plant can use it's energy to produce fruit and not more leaves?
Any suggestions?

Also, my yellow squash aren't growing more than a few inches. I have a lot of blossoms (mostly male, but some female). The fruit gets up to several inches long, stays that way for several days to a week, and then falls off. Does this mean they need more pollination? I don't quite understand how you pollinate the female with the male blossom.

And my sweet pepper plants aren't doing anything except surviving. They've barely grown larger than when I bought the plant in the store (over a month or so ago).

[petalfuzz]

Hmmm, you may do better posting in the tomato forum for that question. If you have blossoms, you may try gently shaking the plant or using an electric toothbrush (the back, not the bristles) to vibrate the blossoms for pollination. If you don't yet have blooms, try watering with epsom salts (1 tbsp per 1 gal water).

For the squash, take a regular paint brush (small artist brush) and go from male to female flower to spread the pollen.

Don't know about the pepper, but if it is getting too little sun, too much water those conditions can stunt the growth. The epsom salt solution can't hurt those either. If you do end up getting blossoms, you can do the same toothbrush treatment as the tomatoes.

[Kisal]

Are you feeding the tomatoes with a high nitrogen fertilzer? High nitrogen fertilizers will promote leaf/stem growth rather than the production of fruit.

[agwalt]

Thanks for the tips. I checked out how much water the plants were getting from the drip line and it was twice as much as I intended. Ack! So I cut the time in half and voila, two days later I have tons of little green tomatoes growing! I wasn't using any type of fertilizer or nitrogen additives. I add liquid miracle grow every once in awhile, but that's about it.

The squash seem to be getting bigger than their original 3 inches, so maybe the water was the problem with the squash, but I am excited to try to pollinate them with the paintbrush method.

And the peppers get full sun, but probably too much water because the water from my sprinklers hits them when there is a breeze, along with the water from the dripline. I will try the epsom salt solution and see how that works. I do have a few blossoms on some of the plants.

[agwalt]

Oh, I have another question. I found this forum on accident and bookmarked it, so I don't know the original websites address. Does anyone have that link?

[Kisal]

Oh, I have another question. I found this forum on accident and bookmarked it, so I don't know the original websites address. Does anyone have that link?

Yes ...

http://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/

[agwalt]

Great thanks. I guess I have been to that page, I just wasn't sure if that was the sites home page. This site is awesome. Thanks for your help.