The tomato plant in the living room came through with another vine ripened tomato today, this one is going on my Bacon Duck Egg Tomato Sandwich for breakfast.
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Question by Larry: What’s wrong with my tomato plants?
I have 3 tomato plants that I am growing (wasting my time?) in separate 5 gallon buckets, which are drilled out in the bottom to allow drainage. They were planted in Miracle Grow potting soil. They get approximately 2 gallons of water among the 3 plants everyday and are in full sun. They have flowered like crazy, but are not producing any tomatoes. I prune them as needed. They were about 8″ tall when bought and are currently 3′ tall. Any and all advice is much appreciated
Best answer:
Answer by Hondu
Tomatoes that bloom but fail to set fruit are suffering some type of stress or lack a pollinating insect. Consistent daytime temperatures above the low nineties or nighttime temps in the low fifties will both cause no blossoms or if the blossoms grow they will fail to set fruit. Excessive heat will affect the early/cold set varieties even more. Lack of water or enough hours of sun can also cause it but you mentioned your plants are in full sun and get plenty of water. You can hand pollinate your tomatoes by gently tapping each blossom with a fingernail to loosen and move the pollen around inside the blossom. Tomatoes have both male and female parts in each blossom so the pollen doesn’t have to moved from one flower to another.
What do you think? Answer below!
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Wow, impressive plant! :)
The indoor tomato plant is coming through with more tomatoes for me
I am sorry. But the last Tomato you showed was ROTTEN! Beware.
How do they taste? I would assist with some artificial light so it gets at
least 8 hours of light, but is is amazing that it is producing with just
four hours of direct light.
Your tomato’s need some fertilizer to bear fruit, Too much will cause the plants to delay production of fruit, too little fertilizer will cause no fruit.
Fertilizer is water soluble and can be washed from the soil. This is a real problem with potted plants as there will be very little residual fertilizer after a month or so of watering. I suggest some low nitrogen Tomato fertilizer. You can purchase some small containers of Tomato Fertilizer at the garden shop.
Tomato’s are self pollinating. The breeze gently shakes the flowers and pollinates them. As a general rule, most pollinating insects don’t like the smell or taste of Tomato plants and will not pollinate them if other flowers are present.
If pollination is a problem, purchase some pollinating spray at the garden shop. It comes in a squirt bottle and you give the tomato flower a small squirt and it will be pollinated. It will also cause the fruit to be a sterile tomato with few seeds.
This sounds ridiculous and it is but a good few years back my sister complained to me of the same thing. When I went to look at them she had really pruned them including all the flowers!! I’m not suggesting but any chance? A new gardener might not know.
Have you been fertilizing? Plants, especially ones grown in buckets, need to be fertilized often. Run down to Home Depot or Wal-Mart and pick up some tomato fertilizer. You should be fertilizing very weakly on a weekly basis.
You shouldn’t need to worry about pollinating, though. Tomato plants usually take care of that themselves. If not, however, gently flick the branches containing the flowers. This will spread the pollen and should take care of the problem.