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Problem with toms

tepee the trolltepee the troll Posts: 35
in Problem solving

Can anyone suggest whats happening here, and if they have a solution so much the better?

I have three cherry tomato plants,all of which are of the "Gardeners Delight" variety, taken from my own seed bank. One of these is in a hanging basket which is doing just about ok, and two others are in pots on the veranda. These two pots are the same size, are filled with my own home brewed compost, and because the pots are positioned next to each other in dappled shade have been subjected to the same watering and feeding regimes.

Now to the bit that has me puzzled.

One of these pots has a mass of toms growing and ripening well but the other has produced (and continues to produce) a lot of flowers that don't appear to be pollinated. I have been pinching off a number of these flowers but still only seem to have two toms that are growing on it, and even those two don't appear to be ripening at all.

Any clues? Thanks in advance.

Posts

  • WelshonionWelshonion Posts: 3,114
    Why are you pinching off the flowers? You don't give a reason. Depending where you are, I think they would prefer full light, especially at this time of year.
  • Steve 309Steve 309 Posts: 2,753

    Bit late now, but tapping the flowers sometomes helps them to self-pollinate (which is what they do).  No idea why the two plants are behaving differently though.  I'm sure GD is not an F1 variety, so the seeds should be true to type,

  • tepee the trolltepee the troll Posts: 35

    Thanks for your replies, though I am still none the wiser.

    Welshonion - I am in Gloucestershire, a few miles southeast of Cheltenham. The reason for pinching our some (about 50%) of the flowers was to try to encourage pollination of  the remainder. As I mentioned in my OP, the pots are close together on the veranda, so they achieve the same degree of sunlight.

    Pansyface - the two plants in question are seeds from a single tomato that I put aside last year for the very purpose of propogation. I rarely buy packets of seed, though the missus buys quite a few flower and herb seeds that way, especially at the end of the season when the prices are much reduced. As you quite rightly say, some seed packets can't be trusted - she bought a packet of Rocket seed last year  that turned out to be Spinachimage

    Steve309 - I will try your suggestion of tapping the flower heads, though as you say its probably a tad late for that now. As you also quite rightly say GD is not a hybrid and I have grown them in this way for many years now.

    I suppose I should feel lucky that the one that is producing has so many toms on it that the second is superfluous anyway.image

  • WelshonionWelshonion Posts: 3,114
    May be time to buy a new packet of seed for next year and keep the plants in full sun if you can.
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