No tomatoes???

[lalbers]

Ok mater dudes, I have 7 mater plants (yeah, go ahead and laugh, but keep the snickering to a minimum, they might hear you:)). The foliage looks ok, some yellow leaves toward the bottom, and there are some blossoms, but 4, count them 4, tomatoes!! That's it! They are all hybrid (gasp), as all my heirlooms didn't survive my bungling attempts this year at transplanting. I till in horse manure every year, in the spring,and have just once, a month ago, given them some miracle gro. the weather here has been pretty much normal for here- 80 during the day, 60 at night, but we've had some 50's. No rain, but I water. Is there anything I can do to get some tomatoes? My first frost is usually mid October-ish. Thanks

[jeffinsgf]

How do the vines look? If they look healthy and strong, I would feed them something. I've had very good luck last year and this with Neptune's Harvest Fish and Seaweed blend. Good bang for your buck, easy to apply, doesn't smell as bad as some fish products and the plants, particularly tomatoes, seem to blossom like gangbusters a few days after an application.

[Blueaussi]

Miracle Grow is high nitrogen, and nitrogen promotes green growth at the expense of fruit production.

[BlackMudGarden]

I agree with Jeffinsgf. I sprinkled some fish fertilizer (2-4-1, I think) on some heirloom 'maters that weren't producing blossoms or fruit. That was a couple weeks ago. Now they have lots of small 'maters on them and a couple have some big ones that just boomed right up.

When the blossoms appeared, I gently shook the plants -- something I read about in these forums. Don't know if it helped pollination, but it made me feel as if I was doing something. I shook them every morning and every night and talked nicely to them. It took maybe five minutes to shake the row.

The fish fertilizer didn't smell too bad and it didn't attract animals. I had held back on using it because I thought it would bring in critters. Didn't happen.

Good luck with those recalcitrant plants!

[ContainerTed]

The manure that you add each spring, is it composted or still hot?

Your soil may be totally out of balance for tomatoes. Have you checked the pH or had a soil analysis done by your extension office?

I would dig up one plant and put it in a container of potting mix. Fertilize it and then monitor and check for differences between the potted plant and the others. This would tell you whether the problem is local weather or local soil.

Ted

[RozieDozie]

Tomatoes are self pollinating, but you can try thumping those blooms or giving the plant a good shake, too, to encourage pollination.

Rozie

[Train]

Ya!
Size of plot is never a laughing matter.
In face a gardener with only a few
plants is presented with a far more
serious matter than the gardener
The weather. Hot as it is here in
Houston, [99] daily and more it
is easy for me to think that heat
o=alone may be the reason for
poor production.
We all know by now that temps
above 90 more or less shuts
down the tomato of production.
Understand that I don't claim
that as the absolute cause but it
is a consideration.
Train

[lalbers]

Cntainerted, the manure is composted, and no, I haven't ever taken any soil into the extension agent- they're 2 hours away, but one of these days, I'll get around to it,
Jeff, I found some plant food for tomatoes laying around in the garage, I'll try it, otherwise it'll have to wait till I get down to town.
Train- oh, I feel for you 99 degree heat in that humidity? eeew, you can have it. I'd melt like a slug in a salt bath in that kind of weather. It got the hottest it's ever gotten here for a long time today- 85, and the humidity is maybe 10% . neener neener

[VBLACK]

I can't understand why you don't have tomatoes! Well, I know why I don't with the weather being sooo hot here like Train said...99 or more. Maybe you could try a different fertiziler. As the mexicans say some one gave your Plants the Evil Eye!