fruit drop on tomato plants

[finglas]

Hi everyone, just posting with a slight problem with my tomato plants.

I am growing beefsteak ferline tomatoes which dont seem to have too much of a problem. on the other hand im also growing sweet million cherry tomatoes and quite a few of the fruits set but have then snapped off the vine. I'm not quite sure what the problem is. I have been feeding some of the plants tomorite and others homemade comfrey tea. The problems seem to be in both. I stay near Glasgow so the weather isn't great. I do have about 4-5 vines on each plant and perhaps 30-40 fruits on each vine, so could there just be too many for the plant ? I had been watering following the routine of letting the leaves wilt slightly and the top of the soil feel dry then giving them a good water, perhaps 2 litres per plant (they are in pots).
After the problems arose i thought maybe i wasn't watering enough but i have started watering a bit more regularly. I know maybe a little fruit drop is to be expected but it seems a bit more than id have expected.

Would appreciate it if anyone could give me any advice on the possible problems and maybe potential solutions?

Thanks again,

Jamie

[Zelenina]

Hi again finglas. It's hard to be sure what the problem is but there are a few possibilities.

First it could be due to poor pollination. This can be caused by high temperatures, over about 30C during the day and 25C at night, which stops the pollen working properly. You say your weather hasn't been good so that is maybe unlikely, although greenhouses can get hotter than you might expect.

Low night temperatures around 12 C or less can also have the same effect. And prolonged high humidity can make the pollen too sticky to work properly.

Also, although tomatoes are self pollinating they sometimes need a little help if they are grown under cover with no wind to shake the pollen onto the stigma, so it might help to give the stems a little tap every time you pass by.

I think letting the leaves start to wilt before you water the plants is putting them under stress and that also could make them drop their fruit. It's not something I would recommend, although presumably some expert is giving that advice somewhere, otherwise you wouldn't be doing it. Irregular watering can also cause blossom end rot on the tomatoes that don't drop.

Also I'm wondering if your pots are large enough for the size of the plants. Pots too small could put them under stress too. If you've allowed 4-5 vines on each plant that means they are probably very big plants and need a big root system to support them.

[finglas]

Zelenina, thanks very much for taking the time to write that and get back to me. It could very well be a temperature issue, some nights here recently have been a bit below 10 degrees Celsius so perhaps that is the problem. I have since stopped letting the leaves wilt before watering. I had been tapping the plants early on but after the first few vines i did slow down with it, i'll start that back again too.

The plants are fairly big, perhaps about 5ft ish, they are in 20 litre pots i think. How many vines would should I am for before pinching out the growing tip ?

Thanks very much,

Jamie

[MarkPelican]

I've never grown sweet million so I don't know whether they have a "natural limit" on the number of fruit that set.

If its that they are failing to set properly, I've noticed (on other varieties) that the knuckle of the flower goes yellow before it drops.

Personally, I stop plants when I don't think there is any point in allowing more fruit to set because there isn't be time for them to ripen so it depends on the variety and when it will be too cold for the fruit to continue ripening. I realise that doesn't help much but (for example) I leave my beefsteak until late August because they might continue to ripen on the plant until mid-November (I know it seems late but the latest I have picked Brandywine tomatoes was the first week of December in an unheated greenhouse).

[BUFFS]

Hi everyone, just posting with a slight problem with my tomato plants.

I am growing beefsteak ferline tomatoes which dont seem to have too much of a problem. on the other hand im also growing sweet million cherry tomatoes and quite a few of the fruits set but have then snapped off the vine. I'm not quite sure what the problem is. I have been feeding some of the plants tomorite and others homemade comfrey tea. The problems seem to be in both. I stay near Glasgow so the weather isn't great. I do have about 4-5 vines on each plant and perhaps 30-40 fruits on each vine, so could there just be too many for the plant ? I had been watering following the routine of letting the leaves wilt slightly and the top of the soil feel dry then giving them a good water, perhaps 2 litres per plant (they are in pots).
After the problems arose i thought maybe i wasn't watering enough but i have started watering a bit more regularly. I know maybe a little fruit drop is to be expected but it seems a bit more than id have expected.

Would appreciate it if anyone could give me any advice on the possible problems and maybe potential solutions?

Thanks again,

Jamie

I too stay near Glasgow but would never let the leaves wilt as the plant will shed fruit to try to survive, the plants need to be in bucket sized pots, I use DIY store buckets with holes drilled in bottom for drainage, and they have handles, making it easier to move them about, mine are watered every second day, and fed on a sunday so I know exactly when their last feed was, and they seem to thrive, never a problem and we make loads of lovely pasta sauce with our basil and onion etc. I don't think the problem was caused by the temperature being too hot, not here, not in all the time I have been here anyway, not unless there is a costa del govan nobody is letting on about..

[Zelenina]

Maybe I misunderstood you when you said vines. I though you meant you had let four or five stems grow on each plant, which is unusual for UK gardeners who usually grow toms as a single- or sometimes double-stem cordon. But now I think you might mean 4-5 trusses of fruit, which isn't an unusually high number, and 5ft isn't particularly tall. This variety is supposed to produce a large number of small fruit so it probably doesn't have too many to cope with if everything else is ok. I can't say how many trusses to aim for, and it seems too early to limit them yet. Mine usually get blight before they get to that stage so it's usually a case of rescuing all the mature sized fruit and ripening it indoors.

[Snoop Puss]

How long did you leave your comfrey steeping before using? I'm not a comfrey expert, but it could be that if you haven't left it steeping for a while, it isn't providing all the nutrients that very productive plants need. Don't stop using it (it's good for calcium and toms love that), but combine with a specialist tomato feed to ensure you've got everything covered.

[BUFFS]

I have altered my growing of cherry type toms as last year I put some Ambrosia toms I bought into the greenhouse border and did not stop them and one due to a reasonable autumn on one plant we got 17 trusses of toms with more coming but the weather chilled, so I saved some seed and we will see how we get on this year but with the amount on each truss I had to tie in the main stem as it went across the roof space before trailing down the other side, it looked like a curtain. Next year I have some Olympe xblack Russian x indigo rose hybrid seeds to try, it should be interesting to see what we get..

[Jungle Jane]

Is the truss of tomatoes too heavy,I've grown sweet million they're amazing,sometimes there's so many tomatoes weighing down the tiny bit of vine they're all hanging on & it starts to bend,then it can break,can you support some of the tomato weight so it doesn't get weighed down?

[BUFFS]

Is the truss of tomatoes too heavy,I've grown sweet million they're amazing,sometimes there's so many tomatoes weighing down the tiny bit of vine they're all hanging on & it starts to bend,then it can break,can you support some of the tomato weight so it doesn't get weighed down?

when I grew the idl toms I had to cut a 2ins piece of old bike tyre, turned it inside out, put it at the start of the truss and used twine to tie it to the supporting cane, this spreads the weight along the stem, and I have had no stem breakages since I started doing this

[finglas]

Thanks everyone for the very helpful replies. Appreciate you all taking the time. I think maybe the watering has been a bit of an issue then. I have started watering a bit more regularly. Yeh the fruit trusses on the sweet million are huge, must be 2.5 ft in length easily, some of they are trailing on the floor!

In regards to the comfrey, I let it down for 6 weeks i think? And I had only added about 1 cup of water so I think the mixture would have been fairly concentrated. I then diluted it down. The pots i have been using are also a fairly good size of say, went out of my way to get ones which are atleast as bit as "builders" lile buckets.

Buffs, im just outside Glasgow. Costa del East Kilbride haha! In regards to The weather this summer so far, how would you say it's been for tomatos? I always heard people talking about good and bad weather for tomatoes, just wondering how you would consider it so far ? Just so i have a rough idea of what is good and what is considered not so good.

Thanks again everyone,

Jamie

[burnie]

Over here on the sweaty east coast on the Angus Riviera the weathers been quite kind this year, minimum temp in the greenhouse has been 10 degrees and the max, with auto vents, side vents all open was 40. I have some lost flowers, but very few dropped fruits, literally 2 off one of the tumbling toms in a hanging basket.
Another thing to consider if you don't water regularly is the fruit will split due to irregular growing from the dry periods.

[BUFFS]

Thanks everyone for the very helpful replies. Appreciate you all taking the time. I think maybe the watering has been a bit of an issue then. I have started watering a bit more regularly. Yeh the fruit trusses on the sweet million are huge, must be 2.5 ft in length easily, some of they are trailing on the floor!

In regards to the comfrey, I let it down for 6 weeks i think? And I had only added about 1 cup of water so I think the mixture would have been fairly concentrated. I then diluted it down. The pots i have been using are also a fairly good size of say, went out of my way to get ones which are atleast as bit as "builders" lile buckets.

Buffs, im just outside Glasgow. Costa del East Kilbride haha! In regards to The weather this summer so far, how would you say it's been for tomatos? I always heard people talking about good and bad weather for tomatoes, just wondering how you would consider it so far ? Just so i have a rough idea of what is good and what is considered not so good.

Thanks again everyone,

Jamie

This year has been good if you have a greenhouse, reasonable night temps and some warm days, so I managed to put the bucket toms where the foliage gets the sun and the roots stay in the shade
, I have some April plants, some volunteers that I grew on and some I grew from seeds picked up in Italy ,cheaper, stronger growing, and about three times the amount of seeds in the packet that you get here. It seems we have a lot of holiday resorts I knew nothing about, costa brave heart..