Bah...great start to plants, bad timing on flowering

Anthony_Toronto · July 2, 2015

Put plants in early, made it through one night of threatening frost, and plants were about three or four weeks ahead of last year...a few greenhouse-purchased plants flowered about a week earlier than mine and are covered with fruit, but by the time mine were covered with flowers we had a streak of heat and humidity...thought they made it through ok but plants that should have 20-25 fruits on them have 3 to 5, with nothing but stumps where flowers used to be. No changes to soil this year, almost no fertilization at all compared to prior years because of how nice the early growth went. Anyone else in southern Ontario have a lot of blossom drop to date? At least the few fruits I have should be able to hog the photosynthesis and grow large and tasty.

KarenO · July 3, 2015

Fertilize, get them growing fast, they will bloom again in a week or ten days. Still plenty of time to set lots of fruit yet if they are indeterminate
KarenO

Worth1 · July 3, 2015

Welcome to Texas.
Worth

Anthony_Toronto · July 3, 2015

KO I just gave them a feeding of mega bloom but I believe the plants were already in the process of putting out bouquets of flowers in reaction to the massive blossom drop. I think I recall one beefsteak variety a few years ago putting out one flower branch with more than 30 flowers on it after a bad blossom drop.

Worth...HA! Fingers crossed timing is in my favour in the next week or two but looks like flowers are just going to be ready for pollenization just as some more heat and humidity hits early next week.

Labradors2 · July 3, 2015

I had some blossom drop here in SE Ontario, but I put it down to the high winds. A lot of the big dwarf blossoms were lost..... I noticed that the tiny tomatoes that formed on Dwarf Arctic Rose were damaged (cat faced?) and the lower leaves curled. DAR is on the end of the row, so probably received the brunt of the winds.

ddsack · July 4, 2015

Curious, I've noticed more blossom drop than usual here in northern Minnesota too. Can't quite put my finger on it. Weather has been relatively stable, not too much rain, good heat. I do have many plants, if not most, with good fruit set, some up to near tennis ball size, but still am noticing some dried up blossoms where I would not expect them. Very odd year.

Gardeneer · July 4, 2015

Blossom drop has more than one cause.
One of them is that if you let it grow whatever foliage, sucker it wants then it wont be be able to grow/suppot many fruits. If you have 12 kids probably cannot send all of them to college.
Plants have limited resources and energy to spend and it has to be shared with all parts. JMO

Gardeneer.

KarenO · July 4, 2015

disagree. foliage produces the resources a plant needs. No tomato plant sets every bloom. Some blossoms will drop regardless. Contrary to popular opinion, heavy pruning reduces, not increases the overall yield, especially n a northern climate.
KarenO

Worth1 · July 5, 2015

Prey tell how I ended up with dozens of tomatoes on one Cherokee purple plant all at once.
Without foliage you take away the energy pump needed to make things grow.

Worth

Gardeneer · July 5, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by Worth1

Prey tell how I ended up with dozens of tomatoes on one Cherokee purple plant all at once.
Without foliage you take away the energy pump needed to make things grow.

Worth

Yes, sure. No one denies the role of foliage, BUT there is a trade off point and optimum level. Before any foliage becomes a producer it is a consumer.

BTW: my well pruned CP has close to 30 tomatoes on it. YMMV

Gardeneer.

Worth1 · July 5, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

Yes, sure. No one denies the role of foliage, BUT there is a trade off point and optimum level. Before any foliage becomes a producer it is a consumer.

BTW: my well pruned CP has close to 30 tomatoes on it. YMMV

Gardeneer.

How are you guys liking your heat wave.

Worth

Gardeneer · July 6, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by Worth1

How are you guys liking your heat wave.

Worth

We like it, as tomato gardeners but others don't. Too hot for comfort.

The only hardship is watering more often.

Our heat wave is no where near what you get down in some parts of Texas.
When the day highs are in low 90s, the night lows are 60F or even lower, very low humidity ( about 40% during the day) . It is just unheard of around here. Thats all.

Gardeneer

Anthony_Toronto · July 6, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

Yes, sure. No one denies the role of foliage, BUT there is a trade off point and optimum level. Before any foliage becomes a producer it is a consumer.

BTW: my well pruned CP has close to 30 tomatoes on it. YMMV

Gardeneer.

They would taste a lot better if you hadn't pruned. Photosynthesis!!! And pruning can also allow tomatoes to be exposed to sun, which is not good.

Anthony_Toronto · July 6, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

We like it, as tomato gardeners but others don't. Too hot for comfort.

The only hardship is watering more often.

Our heat wave is no where near what you get down in some parts of Texas.
When the day highs are in low 90s, the night lows are 60F or even lower, very low humidity ( about 40% during the day) . It is just unheard of around here. Thats all.

Gardeneer

Weather here is all over the place, hot humid 85-90 with humidex one day, lows in the 50's or 60's a night later, week of rain, week of sun, poor little plants must be confused...in any event my plants look as if they have been treated to excessive nitrogen, but this year they have less fertilization than in any prior year. Who knows, maybe last year's new soil (with improperly composted manure) and plenty of rain making the N mobile in the soil has been smacking the blossoms around more than they can take.

July 7, 2015

We just set a record of 11 consecutive days with temps over 100--one day it was 111. It will stay that way at least until Friday when maybe we will be in the upper 90's- a cool wave! All my plants- vegetables and flowers are burning up, and we are on water restriction on top of that.

July 2, 2015	#1
Anthony_Toronto Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Toronto Posts: 413	Bah...great start to plants, bad timing on flowering Put plants in early, made it through one night of threatening frost, and plants were about three or four weeks ahead of last year...a few greenhouse-purchased plants flowered about a week earlier than mine and are covered with fruit, but by the time mine were covered with flowers we had a streak of heat and humidity...thought they made it through ok but plants that should have 20-25 fruits on them have 3 to 5, with nothing but stumps where flowers used to be. No changes to soil this year, almost no fertilization at all compared to prior years because of how nice the early growth went. Anyone else in southern Ontario have a lot of blossom drop to date? At least the few fruits I have should be able to hog the photosynthesis and grow large and tasty.

July 4, 2015	#6
ddsack Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Northern Minnesota - zone 3 Posts: 3,231	Curious, I've noticed more blossom drop than usual here in northern Minnesota too. Can't quite put my finger on it. Weather has been relatively stable, not too much rain, good heat. I do have many plants, if not most, with good fruit set, some up to near tennis ball size, but still am noticing some dried up blossoms where I would not expect them. Very odd year. __________________ Dee **************

July 3, 2015	#2
KarenO Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Vancouver Island Posts: 5,931	Fertilize, get them growing fast, they will bloom again in a week or ten days. Still plenty of time to set lots of fruit yet if they are indeterminate KarenO

July 3, 2015	#3
Worth1 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Den of Drunken Fools Posts: 38,539	Welcome to Texas. Worth

July 3, 2015	#5
Labradors2 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Ontario Posts: 3,895	I had some blossom drop here in SE Ontario, but I put it down to the high winds. A lot of the big dwarf blossoms were lost..... I noticed that the tiny tomatoes that formed on Dwarf Arctic Rose were damaged (cat faced?) and the lower leaves curled. DAR is on the end of the row, so probably received the brunt of the winds.

July 4, 2015	#7
Gardeneer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: NC - zone 8a - heat zone 7 Posts: 4,916	Blossom drop has more than one cause. One of them is that if you let it grow whatever foliage, sucker it wants then it wont be be able to grow/suppot many fruits. If you have 12 kids probably cannot send all of them to college. Plants have limited resources and energy to spend and it has to be shared with all parts. JMO Gardeneer.

July 5, 2015	#9
Worth1 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Den of Drunken Fools Posts: 38,539	Prey tell how I ended up with dozens of tomatoes on one Cherokee purple plant all at once. Without foliage you take away the energy pump needed to make things grow. Worth

July 7, 2015	#15
JoParrott Guest Posts: n/a	We just set a record of 11 consecutive days with temps over 100--one day it was 111. It will stay that way at least until Friday when maybe we will be in the upper 90's- a cool wave! All my plants- vegetables and flowers are burning up, and we are on water restriction on top of that.