Tomatoes. (Again)

[zabado]

The tomatoes in my greenhouse are now three foot tall . I've pulled out all of the suckers cut back the leaves watered and fed the plants. But the trusses aren't growing. They have four or five buds on the truss but are refusing to develop into flowers. (some of the buds are the size of a pin head). Two weeks ago I topped two of the plants that only two trusses on to see if that made a difference, but it didn't. I'm starting to loose faith in my feeble attempt at gardening so should I call it a day and take up knitting ?.

[janbee]

Everyone has great and easy peasy success with home grown tomato plants. I NEVER have and have now given up... forever. ! I'll just get them from Waitrose in future. Good luck Zabado. xx

[stuey]

Because they're in a greenhouse, with no bees etc, perhaps they are not pollinating (if that is the correct term). Take a small paint brush and gently touch all the flowers on each plant.

[zabado]

stuey.^. I do leave the greenhouse door open and I have a few flowers in there just for the bees. But the problem is that the buds on the trusses aren't turning into flowers so I can't pollonate them.

[stuey]

Moisten the brush so that the pollen can adhere to it.

[stuey]

Ah, OK, I didn't read it correctly.

[emeritus]

You say you have fed the plants before any flowers have appeared. That could be the problem. Usually you wouldnt feed them until the first truss has set.

[emeritus]

Not sure how helpful this is but there are a number of potential reasons given here


http://perrone.blogs.com/horticultural/2006/08/why_arent_these.html

[zabado]

emeritus, ^. I only fed the plants when the first truss was set, but after reading the article you posted maybe I am guilty of "spoiling them". Thanks.

[Retrochic]

what kind of tomatoes are they? I've had the same trouble with cherry toms and have stopped growing them now.

[zabado]

Plum tomatoes.

[alavahalf]

Don't take up knitting .. I thought we had solved your tomatoe woes .. it sounds as though you have done everything right apart from one thing.
Emeritus has already mentioned it ... feeding before the flowers have appeared. If the tomatoes are fed too soon they may well sit there happily without developing further. It may sound daft but a little bit of stress may get them going ... as in, don't feed them anymore and only water them when the leaves droop through heat exhaustion.
Last year I grew a sqaush plant, it was placed in the centre of a pile of manure. Plenty greenery appeared but no fruit. When I asked a friend if I was going to get anything from it. He told me to stop watering it every day (bearing in mind this was late july and sweltering) and give it some stress which will force it to flower. It went on to give me about 10 large squashes.

I will attach some photos of my tomatoes soon and it will give you some encouragement. Tonight we will be eating the very first ones picked this year (dwarf maskotka's grown outside).

[alavahalf]

My tomato problem this year is that the fruit is barely half grown and I have already had one plant snap it's support due to the weight of the toms.
(growing inside my poly tunnel)
Not a bad problem to have I suppose .. http://i61.tinypic.com/33kvqdh.jpg

[zabado]

Wow ! alavahalf. Your tomatoes look great and I've just turned into the same colour with envy.

[abcedez]

I'm growing tomatoes now but there are still small so I haven't had experienced as same as you. Just want to say that don't give up. You probably need to research more about growing it.

[tamborine]

Grab a feather to cross pollinate by brushing it against the blossom.

[zabado]

I will pollinate them when they turn into flowers but they're only buds the size of a pin head.

[alavahalf]

zabado .. Any progress ?