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 Post subject: tomatoes
PostPosted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 6:58 am 
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Location: Whitesboro,TX
We have great new garden. I moved garden to new location from last year. We tilled and added natural admentents - compost, little lime, soil mix from Rhode's, Alliance mix with wheat, corn meal, and lava sand. Squash is wonderful and producing almost "tons", and tomatoes are 4 ' tall - all vine and few blooms and few tomatoes. Why soo much plant and not much fruit? What did we leave out?
Robert D Bard


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 3:34 pm 
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You may have treated them too well. Fruit will set when the plant is under a little stress. If it is fertilized too much, only the green tends to grow.

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 Post subject: tomatoes
PostPosted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 11:40 pm 
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I forgot to mention that I didn't use any fertilizer except soil amendments. I had a person tell me today that her mother said if you donb't have any bees to speak of that pollenation may not be occuring and that taking a stick and beat the tops of the plants (not enough to destroy vines). Any thoughts on this?
Robert D Bard


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 11, 2003 12:27 pm 
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You know, I almost suggested that! I have heard of beating rose bushes to get more blooms, so I do not see why it would not work for tomatoes as well. By the way, I did get more blooms on my rose bushes with this method. I just wonder what my neighbors thought. :lol:
You may also want to try planting some roses beside the tomatoes. Roses love tomatoes. Companion planting is interesting and it seems to work quite well.

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 Post subject: Tomatoe flowering
PostPosted: Thu Jun 12, 2003 7:08 am 
Robert - A simple shaking of the plants by hand usually does the trick. It always makes me giggle when I imagine an overzealous gardener beating the tar out of their tomatoes with a broom!! It can be a good technique however if you have so many plants that you just can't reach them - then grab a broom and tap them all.

So, pollination is an important factor, but so is temperature. Now that we are getting into summer, you plants probably won't set fruit. Despite the fact that tomatoes evolved in the tropics, flowering in tomato is sensitive to temperature. When day temperatures exceed 85° F and night temperatures exceed 72° F, tomato flowers will abort and set no fruit (blossom drop). This is why we usually plant two sets of tomatoes here - spring and fall. An important factor involved with temperature is time of exposure. The longer the plants are exposed to those high temperatures, the longer the condition will last and the more serious the effect on flowering. Short exposures such as a week or less should not cause much of a problem. It is interesting to note that although the combination of high day and night temperature causes blossom drop, high night temperatures alone can be detrimental to flowering even if day temperatures are not over 85° F.

Older or heirloom, home garden varieties are more sensitive to high temperatures than many of the newer hybrids that are presently available. When the fruit do not set and all other conditions are otherwise favorable (sufficient water and fertilizer, appropriate pH, etc.) plants generally become vigorous and dark green and produce lots of foliage. Even new hybrids, however, are susceptible to blossom drop.

There are some new "heat set" tomato varieties. These varieties have been bred for tolerance to high day and night temperatures common in the summer and early fall. In fact, many of these varieties set fruit under poor growing conditions – extended cool, rainy periods as well as during extended periods of hot weather. Some examples are ‘Sunbeam’, ‘Sunmaster’, ‘Suncrest’, and ‘Sun Leaper’. If you've the patience, you can nurse your plants along and hope for a fall harvest. Or you can always replant a fall crop of tomatoes in July.


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 10:37 am 
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Tomatoes are self-fertile, so you don't need bees or other pollinators. What I do if they don't seem to be setting fruit from the flowers is tap their cages with a stick to make them vibrate a little bit. Also, if you are too high on nitrogen and not getting much for flowers, try adding some bone meal around the bases of your plants, or use a foliar feeding of Seaweed emulsion. I started using the Biogro and liquid Humate made by Enviromate a couple of weeks ago, and I can't believe all the flowers on the tomatoes now. Fortunately, with these cooler temperatures, many of them are setting fruit.


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 16, 2003 1:50 pm 
Tomato flowers are self-pollinating, but bumble bees are a common tomato pollinator and definitely help the process along. In fact some commercial tomato growers use bumble bee populations to ensure successful pollination. If you've got a healthy popluation of bees, you can usually let them do the work for you. But, if you don't seem to have any, then just follow the all the other good tips listed here.


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 10:17 am 
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Robert,

You comment on so much plant, and so few blooms, and you have recieved some really great info. :) I wondered while reading this thread, do you "sucker" your tomato plants? Do you remove the sucker branches on your tomato plants as they grow? This really thins the "bushyness" of the plants, which gives you a better view in the plant, and improves air circulation. It also allows the plant to conentrate on root growth and fruiting, rather than sustaining these free-loaders. It's rumored that they do not provide fruit, and I have been doing this for a couple years, and love the results. Follow up the "trunk" of your plant from the ground. At the base of each main branch leaving the trunk, there can be a new branch growing up in the "crutch". Snap these extra crutch-growers carefully off, (I've even done this on mature plants and it's helped!) and you will have less bushy plants, and more fruit, given there is still ample growing season left. I recommend that you try this at least on a few plants if you are reluctant. At the very least, you will get some more fruit doing this and the gentle shaking. Please let us know what you think of your results. :D

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 Post subject: tomato plant beating
PostPosted: Wed Jul 02, 2003 5:18 pm 
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Location: denton,TEXAS
i heard this not too long ago from our local maintenance man and I thought he was nuts! But shoot! I tried it (away from any neighbors eyes) and it really seems to work! I've got tomatoes like crazy! Now if someone could just tell me how to get them to ripen I'd be all set. I do like fried green tomatoes though but a red one just for a hoot would be nice!


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 Post subject: beating plants
PostPosted: Thu Jul 03, 2003 11:08 am 
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:?: would the same work for, say, corn?
I'm told it's tough to get good ears to set with fewer than 3 rows of plants, but i've only got room for one row. Can you help pollination with most vegetable plants this way?
My dad used to hand-pollinate our yellow squash sometimes, but I never saw him "beat" any plants...


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