Few flowers on tomotoes
forget-me-not
Posts: 52
I used to grow my tomatoes in a plastic greenhouse or outside, both with good results. I no longer have the greenhouse so started them in my porch. We get very strong winds here now so I have been putting the tomatoes outside only when I was sure the weather would be ok for them which hasn't been very often. One day, I forgot to bring them in for the night, it got windy and they got roughed up a bit. They have now grown to about 4 feet, have lots of leaves but only a few flowers. I've put them outside now to take their chances but should I take the top off to try to encourage more flowers?
Also one Gardeners Delight (I have 6) has only grown to 1 foot, although it has been treated the same as the others. Any ideas, please? Thank you in advance.
Christine
Posts
Well the wind has decided for me and snapped the tops off 2 of my tomatoes. Now wondering if they need to be in the sun as I can tie them against a fence but they won't get any sun at all. I've been out today looking for longer canes but can't find any, any size, anywhere.
They need sun, as much as possible. Ultimately, it's hardly worth bothering if they get no sun at all.
How big are their containers? The stake (cane) not only has to support itself but also the weight of the plant tied to it. In windy conditions you need to bury the stake as deeply as you can in the container to stabilise it. This means as deep a container as you can get relative to its overall size.
As to the flowers, they will come. How often are you feeding and watering? Overfeeding and overwatering work against flowers developing.
Some plants don't produce flowers until they are quite tall. I have three varieties in the greenhouse and the same three outside as well. The greenhouse ones are very tall but only one variety has produced anything of note so far (one tomato ripening) and the outdoor ones are barely knee high. Your plants will fruit when they are ready.
Thank you. The stakes do seem to be doing their job. They just aren't tall enough (my plants are about a foot taller) and I can't find any of any size anywhere. Someone suggested I call in at the nearby allotments to see if I can borrow some. The tubs are quite deep, deeper than I've used before. Sounds as if I don't need to worry about the lack of flowers just yet.
Have you tried garden centres? They usually have stakes of all sizes.
Yaay, I've found some tall stakes. I was passing a shop on the High Street and they had a few packets of 8 foot ones and a packet of 6 foot ones in the window. I don't have transport so difficult to get to any garden centres. Only one on a bus route.
Well done! Subject to your varieties I'd go as tall as possible. You have to subtract the depth of the pot from the length of the stake to get the practical height of the stake. Get them as deep as possible, touching the bottom of the pot, and bed them in as well as you can with the soil around them.
Any staked tom will be vulnerable in very strong wind. One of my Anna Russian plants and my Camp Joy have both already passed about 7 feet. They don't make stakes long enough to cope with that sort of height so I've added second stakes to each plant for extra security in strong winds.
Thanks Italophile. I've been out and put the stakes in but left the ones that were already there. Managed to pull off a bunch of flowers as I did it.
At this rate, I'll be lucky to get anything.
I am watering well every other day but finding the pots are drying out quite quickly. I've only fed once but not sure if I should have done as only a few flowers at the moment. maybe I should leave it till some tomatoes are showing.
The best test for watering in pots is to stick your finger down into the soil as deeply as you can. While the surface might be dry, there can be moisture deeper down where the roots are.
Another test is simply to watch the plants. If they droop during the day when it's warm, wait till the sun goes down. If they perk up again, they're fine. If not, water.
I'd've thought every other day was a bit much unless you've got pretty warm weather.
I'd also lay off the fertiliser. Let the plants get going under their own steam. A lot of people fertilise after the first couple of trusses appear, which is fair enough, but it's the feeding regime after that that's more important. Certainly toms in pots need more fertiliser than plants in the ground because watering leeches out the nutrients from the confined space of the pot. On the other hand, toms don't need a lot of fertiliser to prosper. They respond better to "tough love". Too much fertiliser - and water, for that matter - only leaves them bloated and less likely to produce fruit.
On the couple of occasions that I've grown toms in pots, I didn't feed more than once a month.
i'd try the allotments shop and they will be cheaper also they will give you info about local growing conditions and what to grow