Tomatoes getting smaller

[jmhewitt]

I grow only in self watering containers.....I have had a very big harvest this year, starting on 3 June with Fourth of July.

of all my vines that are still living and producing, the tomatoes seem to get smaller as the season goes on.

does this happen to everyone? is there any way to avoid this?

I didn't notice this so much in past years because my vines never got older....they usually died before this point. this year I used perlite and pine bark fines as everyone recommends for containers, and I still have a lot of healthy looking plants, even though they are all more than 90 days old.

Michael Hewitt
Hampstead, NC in the swamp.....

fyi my census:
5 big beef (2 on grafted root stock from Territorial)
4 Parks Whopper (BER problems this year)
1 Big Boy (deceased)
2 Goose Creek
1 Rowdy Red
1 Paul Robeson (deceased)
1 Brandy Boy
1 Koralik Cherry (deceased)
1 San Marzano (grafted, from Territorial)
1 Brandywine (grafted, from Territorial) - never had one of these survive so long
1 Landis Valley Red Brandywine
5 Jet Star (lots of BER this year)
4 Moreton (lots of BER this year)
5 Supersonic (lots of BER this year), just starting to produce nicely
1 Momotaro (deceased)
4 Bucks County Hybrid (lots of BER this year)
3 Fourth of July
1 Blondkopchen Cherry (deceaseed)
1 Territorial Grafted Cherry with Sweet Million and Sungold (notably larger fruit at beginning of season, still producing

my mantra for next year - MORE LIME MORE LIME MORE LIME

[ContainerTed]

With that much BER in containers, I would suggest a more consistant watering schedule that will stabilize the moisture level of the growing medium. The vast majority of BER is due to the plant being stressed in one way or another. The list of stress causes is pretty long and varies some from one location to another. However, at the top of the list is irregular watering and watering that doesn't allow for rain accumulation.

Adding calcium via dolomite lime to the growing mix will help some, but it's not the magic bullet to get rid of all BER forever.

I would recommend adding some composted manure or mushroom compost to the mix. This would help with trace minerals and help stabilize the moisture levels.

[jmhewitt]

actually, BER in containers was not my reason for posting......I did put enough Lime in most of my big containers, such that there was little problem there with BER. some of the smaller 7-8 gallon containers did not get enough lime, and there lay my major BER problems.

I had NO BER problems on the Big Beef tomatoes, whether they were in large or small containers.

the initial size of the Big Beef on the grafted plants was much larger than I am used to seeing.

basically, my plants survived the season well, but now are giving me small tomatoes where they produced much larger ones initially.

I did not put compost in any of the pots this year, because of comments that compost didn't really function in SWC. is that not true?

as to irregular watering, I thought the use of SWCs actually prevented that? I almost always filled up the pots every 2 days, unless there was major rain. one thing that I did not do this year that I will do next is cover the pots with some sort of the plastic covers, like they do with the Earthboxs.....I got some of the silver material mentioned here to go on the containers nest year. still haven't completely deciphered how to keep it in place.

Michael

[Stepheninky]

Here in the south at least for me and I have seen others comment on it as well. (pretty sure there was a post about this last year) is that yes in the hottest months, the plants get stressed and produce smaller fruits. Last year mine did this as well. Others say that the first fruits are the largest and as the plants get older they will produce smaller fruits as the season goes on. This could also be true. I have noticed it this year myself as I have some plants setting with non ripe yet and the first ones on the plants that set are huge in comparison.

Either way yes others have noticed what you are seeing before.

My guess like a lot of the eastern half of the US you too are experiencing extreme heat and humidity

[ContainerTed]

I guess my old eyes went right past the first sentence in your original post. My brain did not register the SWC part. (Another Senior Moment)

With that said, I still use the same mix in containers, including SWC's. I feel that the plants need a certain recipe of nutrients, water, and sunlight. I don't feel like there is a great deal of significance in how that recipe is presented, whether in pots, SWC's, or the ground (for that matter).

Ray Newstead and some other folks have presented SWC formulas that can work for anyone in just about any environment. It is so effective that it can tolerate numerous variations and still deliver.

So, my apologies for that "senior moment". However, I agree with Stephinky that most of the largest tomatoes come with the first ones. After that, the plants seem to settle down and just produce toms which is "average sized" for a particular variety. Occasionately, there will be another big one or two, usually from a megabloom. I've seen this year after year regardless of the growing medium.

The best thing about the tomatoes not being huge any more is that the flavor tends to be better in the "production" mode.

[Dewayne mater]

Michael - I've not ever had a year that the tomatoes didn't get smaller as it got hotter and hotter. I really thought that was just the normal response of tomatoes to really high heat. 95 or hotter highs and lows over 80 is how I define that. This has been true in both in ground and earthtainer growing for me. Are you having a hotter than normal summer?

FYI on your BER - check out a post from last season that is currently revived wherein much discussion of calcium nitrate liquid fertilizers added to the water in an SWC have virtually eliminate BER. Good luck!

Dewayne Mater.