This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Foliage, but not fruit
AndrewRichards
Posts: 4
in Fruit & veg
This is my first post, so forgive any breaches of etiquette 
It's also my first year of growing with a greenhouse...
So, we put in 7 tomato plants, initially in the greenhouse, then planted outside. Additionally, another half-dozen or so toms in the greenhouse all summer.
On top of that, a lemon tree and a lime tree in the greenhouse.
Several chillis and a couple of sweet peppers.
A mini-cucumber.
The outdoor tomatoes grew like triffids; about 3 weeks ago, they were around 2.5m tall, and spreading well. Small side note: I noticed a little mottling on the stem of one of these monsters and thought - hmmm... that doesn't look great. A week later every one of these outdoor tomatoes had been utterly wiped out with blight. Every leaf dead. But that's a (painful) side note.
There's one thing that all the above plants, both in the greenhouse and out, have /had in common. They all had acres (? how to quantify ?) of lush foliage. But barely a fruit. The most successful of this lot has been the under cover toms, which have produced some fruit, although not as many as I've seen on other people's plants.
But not one chilli. The odd stub that might have once attempted to be a fruit, but not much. Ditto the lemons, the limes, the sweet peppers. A couple of cucumbers, but not many.
But I repeat, the plants look healthy, if that were to be judged by the foliage alone.
So, given that indoor and out, bought in the supermarket or in the nursery, the only common factor is.... er.. me, what am I doing wrong?
I've fed the plants on a (semi) regular basis, potted them on when they looked like they needed it, watered with nettle-juice sometimes, kept them moist but not drowned....
Is it just me? Should I give up the quest? What do I do differently next year?
Your advice appreciated...
Andrew
It's also my first year of growing with a greenhouse...
So, we put in 7 tomato plants, initially in the greenhouse, then planted outside. Additionally, another half-dozen or so toms in the greenhouse all summer.
On top of that, a lemon tree and a lime tree in the greenhouse.
Several chillis and a couple of sweet peppers.
A mini-cucumber.
The outdoor tomatoes grew like triffids; about 3 weeks ago, they were around 2.5m tall, and spreading well. Small side note: I noticed a little mottling on the stem of one of these monsters and thought - hmmm... that doesn't look great. A week later every one of these outdoor tomatoes had been utterly wiped out with blight. Every leaf dead. But that's a (painful) side note.
There's one thing that all the above plants, both in the greenhouse and out, have /had in common. They all had acres (? how to quantify ?) of lush foliage. But barely a fruit. The most successful of this lot has been the under cover toms, which have produced some fruit, although not as many as I've seen on other people's plants.
But not one chilli. The odd stub that might have once attempted to be a fruit, but not much. Ditto the lemons, the limes, the sweet peppers. A couple of cucumbers, but not many.
But I repeat, the plants look healthy, if that were to be judged by the foliage alone.
So, given that indoor and out, bought in the supermarket or in the nursery, the only common factor is.... er.. me, what am I doing wrong?
I've fed the plants on a (semi) regular basis, potted them on when they looked like they needed it, watered with nettle-juice sometimes, kept them moist but not drowned....
Is it just me? Should I give up the quest? What do I do differently next year?
Your advice appreciated...
Andrew
0
Posts
Commiserations re the blight … I lost a potentially amazing crop to blight a few years ago … I don’t have a greenhouse so I continue to grow tomatoes outside … this year I’ve virtually neglected them because of serious family illness, and we’re swamped with tomatoes. 🤷♀️
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I'm absolutely no expert on toms .... but one thing did strike me when reading your post.
If you've fed with nettle-juice , then you may have encouraged foliage more than fruit.
I feed with home made comfrey juice, or Tomorite if I run out of the comfrey, and get plenty of greenhouse toms and chillies even here in Scotland.
I don't try to grow any outside as the nights could be too cool most of the summer.
Concerning the lemons and limes, you can buy specialist feed for these. One is used in summer and a different one in winter. It would be worth a try with those.
Good luck with it all.
Bee x
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
We have 4 hives of honeybees in our garden at the moment ... so not really an issue here!
Bee x
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
I can't think why you've had such poor results.
Blight is just one of those things.
Some years blight takes hold other years it doesn't, but it rarely affects greenhouse grown plants unless air circulation is poor..
The blight spores are in air all the time. When conditions are right they can get started and there's no cure. That does not mean it will return the following year.
It has to do with humidity and temperature. When the right conditions happen for blight to take hold it's called a Hutton Period.
How I do it-
Mini-cucumber
I've grown Mini-Munch for the last few years and usually get 200+ from a plant.
I sowed the seed first week in april in a heated propagator then potted it up as needed.
Its final pot is 22L into which I put a mix of about
30% john innes (no 2 or 3)
20% ordinary multi purpose compost
20% perlite
30% rotted farmyard manure (sold in bags at GCs)
I use stiff clematis netting to train it up and over my greenhouse.
Feed weekly with ordinary Miracle Gro plant food.
When it's in full swing I feed twice weekly and water daily, always using rainwater.
I started harvesting them on 12 June and it's still going strong.
Tomatoes-
I grow in g/house border enriched with manure.
I sow 1st week in March in the propagator
8 plants in an 8ft x 2ft border
I feed with tomato feed once the first tiny fruits appear.
Remove the side shoots regularly if it's a cordon variety.
You mentioned acres of foliage - did you grow bush tomatoes or cordon tomatoes?
If the latter, then side-shoots should be removed, or you'll end up with acres of foliage.
Chilli - same as tomatoes - but no side shoots to remove.
Depending on the variety mine end up in 2L pots or 5L pots depending on the variety.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
I did wonder about pollinators in the greenhouse, but the thing is, both with the plants in the greenhouse and the toms putside (mixture of cordon and bush) it didn't seem like there were loads of flowers and then no fruits - there were really few flowers.
I fed alternately with home made nettle fertiliser and tomorite once there were flowers.
Nettle tea is for leafy plants like lettuce, not for something that forms fruits.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.