Tomatoes 2021

[quanglewangle]

^^^ Mark I would be inclined to use calcium nitrate if I felt they needed calcium. Won't raise pH like lime would and is quite cheap. I doubt tomatoes would be happy with raised pH.

[Ms-T]

Olka Polka toms , in the G/H

[Vegmeout]

If a tomato flower falls on the ground does that mean it has not been pollinated?

[burnie]

If a tomato flower falls on the ground does that mean it has not been pollinated?

Sometimes I think yes, but plants can get stressed as well apparently, so lack of water or over heating can also cause this.

[ameno]

If a tomato flower falls on the ground does that mean it has not been pollinated?

The fruit won't grow larger than 2mm if it hasn't been pollinated. If it was larger than that when it dropped off then it wasn't a pollination issue.
My guess would be water stress, temperature stress, or something simply knocked it off (although it does need a fair bit of force).

[Penellype]

Planted out the first 3 outdoor tomatoes today (Ferline). I've already planted 6 Shirley in my friend's greenhouse.

I'm having dreadful problems with the tomato seedlings this year. They germinate fine then as they grow they turn a sickly yellow and start to drop their leaves. Some do better than others and sometimes when I pot them up they start to improve. I'm using the same system as usual - lights in my spare bedroom, on self watering mats and the compost I'm using is the same as usual (Westland tomato grobag). I have no idea what the problem is - its not the variety because its happened to 1 of 3 Balconi red, 3 of 5 Ferline, 2 of 6 Sungold and 4 of 20 Shirley. I'm completely stumped.



The dark green plant is a healthy Shirley , the 2 yellow ones are the unhappy Sungold.

[Mark Rand]

I'd suggest nitrogen defficiency, not enough light ant too much water. But I could be wrong on all three counts. Try giving them a bit of tomato feed and stick them outside, unless the weather turns back to winter.

Note:- This advice is worth almost as much as you paid for it.

Just because it's the same compost doesn't mean that it's not a bad batch.

[ameno]

I would say the compost is almost certainly the issue. As said above, it could be a bad batch. Alternatively, they may have changed the formula (this happens more often than you might think).
Either it's a nitrogen deficiency or else the compost has an excessive mineral salt content (not necessarily sodium chloride salt, but other mineral salts).

[quanglewangle]

I would say the compost is almost certainly the issue. As said above, it could be a bad batch. Alternatively, they may have changed the formula (this happens more often than you might think).
Either it's a nitrogen deficiency or else the compost has an excessive mineral salt content (not necessarily sodium chloride salt, but other mineral salts).

I wish there was more transparency about compost: content, origin, exactly what "nutrition for first x weeks" comprises, and impurities .

Clear labelling, part of the contract of sale is needed.

[Penellype]

Thanks, all. I suspect the compost too - very disappointing. I've had appalling germination from my peas and beans too, but that is a different bag and MPC not tomato grobag. It is really hard to know what to do about compost.