More flowers on tomatoes

Tapout · July 17, 2012

How can I increase the amount of flowers on my tomatoes, as of right now my tomatoes have very few flowers. More phosphorous?

Tapout · July 18, 2012

any suggestions?

Henri · July 18, 2012

May be you should give your tomato plants more time to get a little bit older? I only use 4-6-3, and my plants get at least 150 flowers/each, only 10% would become fruit though.

Henri.

meadowyck · July 18, 2012

tapout if your temps have been high, then give them more time, although in your zone you might not have enough time before your first frost. If your temps have been ok, then yes maybe some some fert.

Tapout · July 18, 2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by meadowyck

tapout if your temps have been high, then give them more time, although in your zone you might not have enough time before your first frost. If your temps have been ok, then yes maybe some some fert.

Ya its been very hot we broke a 147 year record this year. It's just so frustrating I feel like I should be doing something for my babies.

zipcode · July 18, 2012

How many flowers are you getting per truss? Depending on varieties, some just don't make many flowers. I found that most black varieties tend to have quite a lot of flowers (indian stripe, chernomor, etc), and the large pinks. Of course, the large pinks drop most of those flowers (like 95%), which is disturbing.
In my experience, outside the variety, most impact has the amount of sun. Full day sun gives really high amount of flowers, sometimes even the ones that don't drop flowers will drop them, because the plants don't have enough power to make that many tomatoes.

Al@NC · July 19, 2012

I'm new at this but I'm thinking that if you use Miracle Grow Bloom booster, you would increase your blooms, fruit... I'm noticing some BB at only 15-30-15 but if you look around you can find the one I got which is 10-52-10!

**carolyn137** · July 19, 2012

I just let nature take its course and don't try to use different fertilizers for growth, for blossom formation, for this or that b'c in the long run it's the weather that pretty much controls everything, along with specific varieties being grown and the genes they have.

Zipcode, you say large pinks show 95% blossom drop, but that sure hasn't been my experience in growing several hundreds of large pink varieties.

zipcode · July 19, 2012

I'm blessed with humid weather, and low amount of sun. It's pathetic how bad all the large pinks I tried do (beefsteaks, hearts are a different matter). I tried a few and I don't get more than 2-3 fruits, so I don't grow them anymore.
For high amount of flowers I forgot to mention L. cheesmanii. If you don't get a few thousands of flowers per truss, you're doing something wrong. All the power goes to making flowers, which is a bad thing, that's why I trim the ends of the flower branches, leaving around 1-200 per truss.

TightenUp · July 19, 2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by zipcode

I'm blessed with humid weather, and low amount of sun. It's pathetic how bad all the large pinks I tried do (beefsteaks, hearts are a different matter). I tried a few and I don't get more than 2-3 fruits, so I don't grow them anymore.
For high amount of flowers I forgot to mention L. cheesmanii. If you don't get a few thousands of flowers per truss, you're doing something wrong. All the power goes to making flowers, which is a bad thing, that's why I trim the ends of the flower branches, leaving around 1-200 per truss.

im in a new location along the beach. ocean spray hits my tomatoes. i'm lucky to have a few fruit on each plant right now

**carolyn137** · July 19, 2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by zipcode

I'm blessed with humid weather, and low amount of sun. It's pathetic how bad all the large pinks I tried do (beefsteaks, hearts are a different matter). I tried a few and I don't get more than 2-3 fruits, so I don't grow them anymore.
For high amount of flowers I forgot to mention L. cheesmanii. If you don't get a few thousands of flowers per truss, you're doing something wrong. All the power goes to making flowers, which is a bad thing, that's why I trim the ends of the flower branches, leaving around 1-200 per truss.

I've grown Solanum ( that's the new genus name) cheesmanii but don't remember lots of blossoms, just small orange fruits that I didn't like the taste of.

If anyone wants to see lots and lots of blossoms, grow one of the multiflora types where on one blossom stalk there can be up to a couple of hundred blossoms, but usually only 50-60 set fruits.

My favorite of that type is Riesentraube but Ildi is good also.

Tapout · July 20, 2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by zipcode

How many flowers are you getting per truss? Depending on varieties, some just don't make many flowers. I found that most black varieties tend to have quite a lot of flowers (indian stripe, chernomor, etc), and the large pinks. Of course, the large pinks drop most of those flowers (like 95%), which is disturbing.
In my experience, outside the variety, most impact has the amount of sun. Full day sun gives really high amount of flowers, sometimes even the ones that don't drop flowers will drop them, because the plants don't have enough power to make that many tomatoes.

The flower production per truss was normal pre-storm pre-heatwave after it was all said and done I had massive flower drop and since then I can count the flowers on each non Cherry type (plant) from 5-10. I was hoping to boost flower production to get back on track, but I think I will let nature take its course like carolyn137 says to do. It's frustraiting when mother nature hates you.

Sun City Linda · July 20, 2012

In answer to your question, Yes I have used bloom boosters to get more blossoms. All my first container plant outs were done with a very weak fert and NOTHING was happening. I ended up getting pretty decent fruit set, despite the bad fert.

July 17, 2012	#1
Tapout Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2012 Location: NW Indiana Posts: 355	More flowers on tomatoes How can I increase the amount of flowers on my tomatoes, as of right now my tomatoes have very few flowers. More phosphorous?

July 18, 2012	#4
meadowyck Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2012 Location: Brooksville, FL Posts: 1,001	tapout if your temps have been high, then give them more time, although in your zone you might not have enough time before your first frost. If your temps have been ok, then yes maybe some some fert. __________________ Jan “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” -Theodore Roosevelt

July 19, 2012	#8
carolyn137 Moderator Emeritus Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a Posts: 21,169	I just let nature take its course and don't try to use different fertilizers for growth, for blossom formation, for this or that b'c in the long run it's the weather that pretty much controls everything, along with specific varieties being grown and the genes they have. Zipcode, you say large pinks show 95% blossom drop, but that sure hasn't been my experience in growing several hundreds of large pink varieties. __________________ Carolyn

July 18, 2012	#3
Henri Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Santa Ana, CA Posts: 16	May be you should give your tomato plants more time to get a little bit older? I only use 4-6-3, and my plants get at least 150 flowers/each, only 10% would become fruit though. Henri.

July 18, 2012	#6
zipcode Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Romania/Germany , z 4-6 Posts: 1,582	How many flowers are you getting per truss? Depending on varieties, some just don't make many flowers. I found that most black varieties tend to have quite a lot of flowers (indian stripe, chernomor, etc), and the large pinks. Of course, the large pinks drop most of those flowers (like 95%), which is disturbing. In my experience, outside the variety, most impact has the amount of sun. Full day sun gives really high amount of flowers, sometimes even the ones that don't drop flowers will drop them, because the plants don't have enough power to make that many tomatoes.

July 19, 2012	#7
Al@NC Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Vernon, BC Posts: 720	I'm new at this but I'm thinking that if you use Miracle Grow Bloom booster, you would increase your blooms, fruit... I'm noticing some BB at only 15-30-15 but if you look around you can find the one I got which is 10-52-10!

July 20, 2012	#13
Sun City Linda Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: SoCal Inland Posts: 2,705	In answer to your question, Yes I have used bloom boosters to get more blossoms. All my first container plant outs were done with a very weak fert and NOTHING was happening. I ended up getting pretty decent fruit set, despite the bad fert.