GARDEN Q&A
QUESTION: I've got tomato vines 3 feet tall with lots of blooms but no tomatoes setting yet. What is going wrong?ANSWER: Tomatoes do not require insects to pollinate flowers because normal swaying in the wind shakes the pollen within the flowers. This sets fruit.However, weather can interfere with this. As a general rule, fruit set is inhibited when night temperatures rise above the mid-70s and day temperatures are above 90. When tomato flowers don't pollinate, they drop off the plant.Try shaking your plants in bloom, but only gently, for a few seconds a couple of times a week as blossoms develop. Whether night temperatures will drop in coming weeks to the best level remains to be seen.Another reason is excessive nitrogen fertilizer that produced very rapid growth of stems and leaves and reduced carbohydrates required to set fruit.Did you go overboard on fertilizer this spring?Do your best to keep the plants evenly watered, use fertilizer strictly according to the amount and timing on the label and shake the plants a bit. Tomato plants have many months ahead of them to be productive, so you should not be discouraged in mid-June.
