the droppin' just ain't stoppin'...blossom drop

[Dewayne mater]

Couple of general things and they probably won't help, but, are worth considering. Do you have as many blossoms as is 'normal' for you? (the close up looks like plenty, but the macro shot, not nearly as many) If not, consider a phosphorous boost to get more flowers and more chances at production. I'm a convert to Texas Tomato Food and it'll give your plants what they need at this stage.

Two, check for thrips. I don't see any telltale signs of thrips, like browning flowers. However, if you have them, they'll destroy the flowers and result in no tomatoes. Put a white note card under a flower or two and vigorously tap the back of the flowers and examine closely for minuscule bugs. They've appears in major numbers the last couple of years for me, so, I'm probably overly sensitive to them, but, it is something to eliminate. We get Western Flower thrips, but, I think there are others in other parts of North America. If you have them in numbers, you'll need to deal with them.

Anyhow, your plants look really healthy to me, except for the wilt. That is something that only happens to me when the plants don't have enough water. However, that doesn't appear to be the cause for you. Good luck!

Dewayne Mater

[Labradors2]

I grow my tomatoes under black plastic as well and, as Carolyn says, the plant growth shields it from overheating.

Linda

[Anthony_Toronto]

My soaker hoses run under the plastic. But I will try to peek under there this weekend and see what's happening.

[zipcode]

Professional growers say that the first month of the plant is really important, so before getting the first flower truss, and will affect how the plant will behave even when older (to some extent). Balanced high P fertilizer is important with microelements, and also cold nights will grow a plant that is more generative inclined. Might be worth trying next year, if you can control these factors.

[Anthony_Toronto]

Plants kicked butt for the first month, and by the first week of June were where they normally are by the last week of June (*last frost date in my area is around May 24). I always start with an application of higher-P fert once I set plants out, in order to encourage root growth...i.e. Miracle-Gro Mega Bloom. Then after a few weeks when the plants are established I blast them with Miracle-Gro regular (high nitrogen), to try to encourage foliar growth and discourage blossoms from coming out before the plants are big and healthy enough to support them. Then a few weeks after comes more Mega Bloom to encourage flowering and fruit set, and then more a few weeks later/as necessary. Once I have a lot of fruit set I go back to the high nitrogen fert to encourage foliage in order to maximize photosynthesis to make the fruits big and tasty. Also attempt to keep plants themselves under control, though I have had less time for that this year so far, resulting in some thick bushy monsters that didn't have enough airflow which exacerbated fungal and other disease.

Still not sure what is causing the (a) decrease in flowers, and (b) increase in blossom drop, though from talking to others in the area this seems to be going around. Some good suggestions here though, thanks for the advice! Hopefully I can pull myself away from watching the Open Championship this weekend and spend a few hours in the garden.

[Anthony_Toronto]

I'm sure that the crazy up and down back and forth side to side weather changes up here don't help...warming trends followed by shocking cold, followed by crispy dryness, followed by days of downpours and wind, followed by extreme humidity and 90+ on the humidex, then back to cold nights, and then it all starts over again. Why can't we just have one summer of 80 during the day, 70 at night, nothing but sun, and watering controlled by me???

[Anthony_Toronto]

Just went to mom's on Sunday, her garden has fungal diseases on every plant (first time I have seen them at her place), and major blossom drop. Garden centre close by told me Sunday that fungal disease has been a real problem in our area this year. I suppose that could be a big contributor to blossom drop, or at least general plant health.

[OzoneNY]

Originally Posted by Anthony_Toronto

Just went to mom's on Sunday, her garden has fungal diseases on every plant (first time I have seen them at her place), and major blossom drop. Garden centre close by told me Sunday that fungal disease has been a real problem in our area this year. I suppose that could be a big contributor to blossom drop, or at least general plant health.

I was fighting a foliar disease for most of April and all of May. ALmost wiped out all of my San Marzano and Genovese plants. Fortunately the copper spray kept that under control and eventually got a harvest. It was rough for disease this year here in Texas as well. My parents in Queens have 2 sweet100 and 3 San Marzano plants that seem to be holding up well so far but my sister on Long Island is about to give up. Her plants look about done.

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by Anthony_Toronto

Plants kicked butt for the first month, and by the first week of June were where they normally are by the last week of June (*last frost date in my area is around May 24). I always start with an application of higher-P fert once I set plants out, in order to encourage root growth...i.e. Miracle-Gro Mega Bloom. Then after a few weeks when the plants are established I blast them with Miracle-Gro regular (high nitrogen), to try to encourage foliar growth and discourage blossoms from coming out before the plants are big and healthy enough to support them. Then a few weeks after comes more Mega Bloom to encourage flowering and fruit set, and then more a few weeks later/as necessary. Once I have a lot of fruit set I go back to the high nitrogen fert to encourage foliage in order to maximize photosynthesis to make the fruits big and tasty. Also attempt to keep plants themselves under control, though I have had less time for that this year so far, resulting in some thick bushy monsters that didn't have enough airflow which exacerbated fungal and other disease.

Still not sure what is causing the (a) decrease in flowers, and (b) increase in blossom drop, though from talking to others in the area this seems to be going around. Some good suggestions here though, thanks for the advice! Hopefully I can pull myself away from watching the Open Championship this weekend and spend a few hours in the garden.

Have you checked pH? I would get a soil test. Could be something obvious like pH. The wilting is very worrisome,though. Check those stems for bacterial wilt and dig under the soil,look for white mold. I had a whole garden wilt when the manure wasn't fully composted. Everything was doing fabulous until it had a couple of very hot days, then everything wilted and died.
Thrips or spider mites would be the other possibility.

[Anthony_Toronto]

Ozone sorry to hear, good to know I'm not alone!

Tracy I'm probably long overdue for a soil test...will try to do at the end of this season so I can start amending before next season. I upped the nitrogen and upped the watering and plants themselves seem to have picked up slightly, even with the high heat and humidity we've been having...just a test at first, but plants seemed to respond ok...and between having enough foliage on the plants to make existing tomatoes taste good and further hurting pollenization by adding more nitrogen, I chose the former.

Wilting on Black Cherry shown above resolved itself, but the plants that have been hit really hard with foliage issues (cherokee purple and indian stripe...for me cherokee purple never seems to do well in hotter seasons and they are covered with tomatoes but completely stunted and losing foliage by the day) are losing more from the bottom than they are growing at the top.

One of my beds (where I grow lettuce) seems to have some sort of bacterial or viral wilt or rot problem. Grow witloof chicory a few years ago in that bed, and roots rotted starting on one side of the bed and slowly worked their way to the other side. Boston lettuce this year started out great but then one by one the ones in the bed wilted and bit the dust (and they were probably only a few weeks from harvest at that point), while the ones just outside the bed but in similar soil and drainage conditions all did great. Seems like I have some problems to identify and solve.

[SharonRossy]

Anthony, I'm jumping on your thread because I haven't gotten any responses from my post. I don't know if I am experiencing the same wilt as you. I am container growing mostly. Three plants at this point are showing similar wilt like yours, everything surround the wilted stems is healthy including the main stem that they are attached to. It appears to be new growth and it starts at the very tip of the leaves. So far three plants are showing this, Cherokee Green, Lucky and Green Tiger plants. I use a soilless mix and I have been pretty diligent about spraying for disease and insects. The plants are putting out fruit, but this is not a good thing! When I removed the stems I also started to remove the main stem it was attached to in the case of Cherokee Green, but it was perfectly healthy. I am puzzled.
I am using grow bags and promix as my growing medium. We're also having high humidity. oh, and I might add, I was gone for four days and left the watering to my husband. When I got home, all my plants were extremely dry and drooping. I'm not sure if this is related, because I had seen some of this before on GT and LT.
Thanks, Sharon

[Anthony_Toronto]

Tomatoes can be so demanding at times, I have seen the wilting come and go at times over the years, but this year was the first year that one plant started to wilt and then completely bit the dust. Others start to wilt and come back, but the leaves that are wilting are generally newer growth at the top of the plants (and wilting happens with high heat and humidity of course, but also in the absence of high heat also), while the foliar diseases are generally smacking the heck out of them from the bottom up. Sorry to hear that you're having these issues. Maybe the heat, the pots, the growing medium, and oversized roots are combining to cause some issues?

[SharonRossy]

Hi I can't figure it out. But it is the newer growth near the top. The rest of plant looks healthy. It's so weird. Of course today it's raining so I can't go check. I'm hoping it's a temporary thing. Plus I got hit with BER probably from the dehydration, but it isn't those plants that are showing the wilting. I just pray the whole plant doesn't go down. It's probably a combination of factors - we've had some weird weather. I also wondered if the rapid growth had anything to do with it and although I pruned a bit, I wasn't very rigorous, so I thought maybe the plant couldn't keep up with the growth.