The pollenless blossom syndrom

[z_willus_d]

Last year, I had one plant (well almost two), a Lucky Strike, that while robust, healthy as any of its peers, and full of beautiful blossoms failed to set fruit even once. It was within a couple feet of two other vines in the same bed that were some of my heaviest producers. I use a vibrating toothbrush to aid in pollination, and that LS received just as much if not more special vibes as any of my other plants. So why did it never set fruit? That I never learned.

Now this year I'm growing one mystery plant that my father told me was his favorite tomato ever, an orange but that's all he knows about it. The seeds were sitting in his garage for a couple years, and I was only able to germinate this one plant. Well this vine has been a beautiful potato leaf with strong green growth and loads of blossoms. It's surrounded on all sides by plants that are setting fruit just fine. I fear that this mystery orange, the last I will ever find, may end up childless like my Lucky strike from last year, and I really was looking forward to trying it and saving seeds for my Dad.

It's blossoms seem just fine, but when I vibrate them with the toothbrush (even when I know they're prime for mating), I never see the expected pollen swish out the flower tip. I can't account for this. As you can see from the pic with the barren truss and final blossom ready to drop, I am loosing the battle here. I'm curious if there is some known condition where a plant will just be barren. Maybe a genetic defect or some other condition? I wonder if there's anything more I can do to help this beautiful mystery plant along. I'm also wondering if I should pull the thing out and make this prime space available for a mule that can hull?

Appreciate any insight folks might have.
Thanks,
Naysen

[sprtsguy76]

Not sure about the pollen but I've seen flowers fail to produce any significant pollen early in the season thus no fruit set. Maybe by chance you have Aunt Gerties Gold (a personal favorite of mine) there which is late to set and ripen fruit. If it were me I would give it some more time.

Damon

[b54red]

Try giving it a really heavy watering. You have no danger of splitting fruit now and I have found it to be most helpful on plants refusing to set. You might also want to consider cutting out some of your stems and limiting the number of growth tips. I had a Gary O' Sena one year that by mid summer had only set two fruit while making hundreds of blooms. I got frustrated with the enormous plant and cut it back severely and watered it heavily since it was very hot at the time. Two weeks later there were fruit set on the remaining stems so I kept it pruned and it produced well until frost.

Bill

[kurt]

I am sure you did your research but maybe something in this document might shed some more input.I was noticing the mention of the temps also the fact of the blossom pollinization works best when facing down.Since I grow in a pool enclosed area I have had to resort to sacrificing a blossom on determinates and hand mating them since a lot of the determinates seem to open up in the upward position. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs1195

[Heritage]

Naysen,

The first year I grew heirloom tomatoes I planted a Brandywine in the most fertile corner of my garden - I understood it was difficult to get fruit set on Brandywines and I wanted to give my plant the best chance possible. The plant grew into a 10' X 10' blue-green monster, with hundreds of blossoms. But not a single fruit set during the entire season. The adage "too much nitrogen inhibits fruit set" seemed to apply to my Brandywine plant. Since then I have observed that my greenest, healthiest-looking tomato plants often produce the fewest (and least tasty) tomatoes. The picky varieties, especially, seem to prefer some neglect and stress for optimum fruit set and best flavor.

I don't know if my experience with Brandywine applies to your father's plant or not. As an experiment, you might try taking a few cuttings from your father's plant and grow them out in a different, less fertile, location of your garden.

btw... overall, your garden is looking great! Good to see your efforts rewarded!

Steve

[tlintx]

You might consider rooting a sucker, putting in a pot, and babying it. It just needs to make one viable fruit, after all.


Tl

[z_willus_d]

Hi All-

I appreciate the responses. It sounds like no one has encountered a plant that just isn't producing pollen. I know all the usual reasons for blossom-drop, poor fruit set:
- Temps too high (>95F) causing pollen to denature
- Humidity too high causing pollen to clump
- Nighttime temps too low (<50F) causing stress on the plant, ec.
- Nighttime temps too high (>75-80F) causing stress on the plant
- Lack of water or drought causing stress on the plant
- pollen or flower-eating pest issues, damaging the blossoms (this one I have to some degree)
- Over-fertilization, particularly high-N, causing lots of green growth and no flowers or fruiting
- Some nutrient or pH imbalance
- Some systemic issue, but the disease would likely be apparent in the foliage
- Some foliage issue -- fungus, bacteria, mold, etc.

So what gets me is this plant is in a new bed surrounded by other similar vines that aren't having the same fruit set problems. I did a good job of mixing up all the soil/grow-media, so I can't believe there's something different about this location in the bed.

I question whether the problem could be the age of the seeds. Can old seeds possibly lead to a sterile plant?

To Steve's question on over-nitrogenization, I am not fertilizing the plants. The grow media did however have somewhat fresh rabbit manure mixed into it, and at the bottom of each planting hole, I dropped a clump of rabbit pellets. I understand from numerous sources that rabbit manure is one of a few animal manures that you can use without composting. It also has the highest concentration of N and P (not sure about the K). It is therefore possible that I've hit my plants with more N than I should with the rabbit poo. I got the impression from those online who use it that you can do no wrong with it.

Bill, yep, I'm watering regularly right now. I prefer to do the once a week deep soak, but I don't have a good mulch in place now that I'm grafting. I don't want to cover the graft union with the mulch and risk the scion taking root somehow. So, I'm watering every 2nd to 3rd day w/out the mulch.

The plants been in the ground for near on 2 months now, so I expect if it was going to set fruit it should have by now. We've had some great tomato-growing weather these past several weeks.

I guess I'll give it another month and if it continues to fail me, I'll pull it up and throw in some basil. I could try rooting a branch, but I would really have any different soil to put it in. I'm using a fairly basic mix. I might try heavy pruning to see if I can kick the plant into survival mode.

Thanks,
Naysen