What causes undeveloped flowers.

pinklady5 · May 31, 2013

A few years back I had a Caspian Pink plant that produced both immature buds and undeveloped flowers that had no petals. The buds were empty inside. Is there a reason for this? Walking through my garden looking at the buds that are forming, hopefully completely, and I had a flashback to that old plant.

pinklady5 · May 31, 2013

Anyone, Anyone? I guess I should further go onto say that the plant never produced one fruit or even a blossom.

tlintx · May 31, 2013

I think it's one of those questions that has too many answers.

GreenSand117 · May 31, 2013

I have had the same thing happen to me twice. I had a Goldman's Italian American that was a beautiful plant but I did not see even one blossom. The same season I had two Pink German plants that had a few blossoms but never developed fruit. I had asked around and was told it may have been an issue of the temps being too high or possibly too much nitrogen. I had used the same fertilizer that I had used on all of my other plants and they were great so I didn't really buy the nitrogen answer but I would love to know why.

PA_Julia · June 1, 2013

Last season I had a similar problem with Uncle Mark Bagby just not producing many blooms as compared to the other varieties I had growing.

I used a high phosphate granular bloom booster fertilizer with excellent success.

Within approx two weeks the plants were producing many blooms.

dice · June 3, 2013

A total lack of blossoms is most likely a genetic defect in the seed that
plant grew from. If it is only a low number of blossoms, a high-phosphate
fertilizer may help (I would try something for foliar feeding). Some plants
naturally produce flower clusters with low numbers of flowers. Goliath,
Jetstar, and Supersonic were all like that for me. 4-5 flowers per cluster.
I figured it was some commercial thing intended to produce some
number of perfectly formed fruit of a certain minimum size.

If the flowers are there but not setting, that is usually humidity and/or
temperature. In high humidity, the pollen clumps and does not stick to
the pistil well when it falls out of the anthers (or does not fall out at all
when the flowers are vibrated by wind). Above a certain air temperature
(varies with cultivar), pollen will undergo a chemical change which makes
it infertilile ("denatured pollen").

Some bugs can interfere with fruit set, too (damage the part of
the flower that must be pollenated to set fruit, or the pollen
producing organs.)

May 31, 2013	#1
pinklady5 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2011 Location: Central NJ Posts: 234	What causes undeveloped flowers. A few years back I had a Caspian Pink plant that produced both immature buds and undeveloped flowers that had no petals. The buds were empty inside. Is there a reason for this? Walking through my garden looking at the buds that are forming, hopefully completely, and I had a flashback to that old plant.

June 1, 2013	#5
PA_Julia Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Princeton, Ky Zone 7A Posts: 2,208	Last season I had a similar problem with Uncle Mark Bagby just not producing many blooms as compared to the other varieties I had growing. I used a high phosphate granular bloom booster fertilizer with excellent success. Within approx two weeks the plants were producing many blooms. __________________ Personal Best- 4.46 LB Big Zac 2013

June 3, 2013	#6
dice Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: PNW Posts: 4,743	A total lack of blossoms is most likely a genetic defect in the seed that plant grew from. If it is only a low number of blossoms, a high-phosphate fertilizer may help (I would try something for foliar feeding). Some plants naturally produce flower clusters with low numbers of flowers. Goliath, Jetstar, and Supersonic were all like that for me. 4-5 flowers per cluster. I figured it was some commercial thing intended to produce some number of perfectly formed fruit of a certain minimum size. If the flowers are there but not setting, that is usually humidity and/or temperature. In high humidity, the pollen clumps and does not stick to the pistil well when it falls out of the anthers (or does not fall out at all when the flowers are vibrated by wind). Above a certain air temperature (varies with cultivar), pollen will undergo a chemical change which makes it infertilile ("denatured pollen"). Some bugs can interfere with fruit set, too (damage the part of the flower that must be pollenated to set fruit, or the pollen producing organs.) __________________ -- alias

May 31, 2013	#3
tlintx Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: SeTx Posts: 881	I think it's one of those questions that has too many answers.

May 31, 2013	#4
GreenSand117 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2013 Location: Kentucky Posts: 37	I have had the same thing happen to me twice. I had a Goldman's Italian American that was a beautiful plant but I did not see even one blossom. The same season I had two Pink German plants that had a few blossoms but never developed fruit. I had asked around and was told it may have been an issue of the temps being too high or possibly too much nitrogen. I had used the same fertilizer that I had used on all of my other plants and they were great so I didn't really buy the nitrogen answer but I would love to know why.