Planted an Heirloom tomato starter on 6/1 (back right, pic 3) and here is our plant today 7/3 (pic 1/2) .
Zone 6, 6-7 hours of full sun a day and we keep the soil consistently moist. Planted marigolds around it. Are we doing something wrong? We are getting lots of flowers, but no producing. Maybe it’s the heat? But our other peppers right next to it are producing. We did not feed them as the soil and compost we bought said it had 3 months of fertilizer in it.
by Odd_Society1166
13 Comments
Having the same issue, flowers but no fruit. I think it’s the heat. I’m in the Midwest. It’s been 85-90s for 2 weeks now.
I am in Ohio. We had a cooler spring than usual which put our season a little behind- plants are def telling us that. Then we basically went straight into heat wave after heat wave and intense sun. U will get there. If u r or were having weather like that- it just needs to level off. U could put up some shade cloth to see if that helps. Otherwise, just have to wait. Easier said than done- believe me I know. I am watching all these other gardens and harvests jealous!! lol. Once they start producing tho- u won’t even remember this wait. I always forget it every year! Happy gardening!
Many tomato varieties (in fact most) won’t set fruit if the daytime highs exceed 95 or so and the nighttime highs exceed 75 or so. The pollen gets too sticky to move the way it needs to inside the flower, among other less mechanical, more biochemical factors.
Sometimes shade cloth will help.
Hand pollinate your plants with a cheap vibrating toothbrush. Just buzz the toothbrush next to the flowers. This imitates a bee buzzing near the flower and causes the self pollination to occur.
The flowers will turn into tomatoes in time. It has been a cool wet summer in the midwest so a lot of plants that need sun and heat are behind schedule. Just keep consistent fertilization with higher P and K.
I can see flowers on them, so did you FRUITSET?
You are more than a month behind me and I have not harvested my first tomato this year yet. I think I will pick my first fruit this weekend.
Give it time 🙂
Try pruning the plant. Looks like it has alot going on.
I’d still give it some light fertilization, honestly. It doesn’t seem to be setting up as many flowers as it should be at this size. Maybe a half strength feeding of some Espoma liquid tomato tone. But that’s just me.
Maybe it is going to take a little longer meanwhile here are some tips…. Only put compost on as a top dressing and if you mixed it into the soil the plant may be dealing with gasses of decomposition and fighting off root rot as beneficial mycelium struggle to take hold and slow down the plants ability to take up nutrients. The plant does not look like it is unhealthy, but anything that slows down it’s ability to take up nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and minerals, may delay it’s ability to produce fruit. Also, you need good airflow. It helps the plant respirate, but more importantly it helps the flowers pollinate by shaking the flowers and releasing pollen, although bees also pollinate the flowers so if you see bees pollinating the flowers, that is great. Being against a fence may be reducing air flow. And lastly, the soil should go from kinda dry to wet to dry to wet which also helps reduce the chance of bad microbes from developing in the soil that cause rot. That said tomatoes are one of the most resistant plants to rot, but that does not mean they like it. If you’ve grown in the same spot previous seasons, then you can compare performance, but if this is a first time garden location you may have to learn what works best here with trial and error.
It may also depend on the variety you have. I have heirloom slicers, cherry, and paste. My cherries and paste exploded and in my experience, the cherry tomatoes I’ve grown will produce even in the 90s whereas my slicers threw out a few I’m still waiting on ripening and flowers have been drying and falling off since. All in the same bed, same water, same fertilizer. /Shrug
Gotta cut the sucker shoots