Blossom Drop

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Trev62
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Blossom Drop

Post by Trev62 »

We have had problems this year with our large rose (pink) Bulgarian tomatoes, originally we thought it was “blight” but on closer inspection it seems that the flowers were forming then dying off, if a tomato did form it then grew naturally without a problem. Our other small yellow tomatoes are not affected and we are happily preserving them in jars for the winter. It seems our neighbours have the same problem and have abandoned their plants.

We have started to gently shake the plants when new flowers form in the hope this will increase pollination and in turn help produce at least some crop yield for preserving.

Does any have any experience of this problem?
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lancashire lass
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Re: Blossom Drop

Post by lancashire lass »

are the plants generally in good health (green unblemished leaves, no yellowing)? When the plant was flowering, was it indoors or outdoors? If outdoors, what was the weather like - hot days, warm nights, raining?

Warm weather is usually welcomed for plants like tomatoes and chillies/peppers, but it can also wreak havoc. A lot of plants need a change in day / night temperature - warm days (but not too hot - if you can't bear it for a short period, then neither can the plants and especially the pollen which is sensitive to heat), then "cool" (not cold) nights for pollen development. Rain of course just knocks the pollen down and leaves it wet.

After that, look at soil nutrition. If you are getting flowers then we could say that the plants are getting enough feed of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium (NPK) but you could add a little extra phosphorous and potassium to help things along a bit better (something like tomato feed even if you haven't got your first truss set - at this stage, you have nothing to lose. Avoid nitrogen now as this just encourages leafy growth) Trace elements like calcium, boron, iron and magnesium are essential for plant health and pollen development/fruit set - if you can get hold of a general purpose fertilizer like Phostrogen with trace elements, you could make a weak solution and foliar spray. If you can't get hold of it, why not try a foliar feed of dilute solution of magnesium sulphate (Epsom salts) and keep gently knocking those flowers to help pollination.
Trev62
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Re: Blossom Drop

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lancashire lass wrote:are the plants generally in good health (green unblemished leaves, no yellowing)? When the plant was flowering, was it indoors or outdoors? If outdoors, what was the weather like - hot days, warm nights, raining?


Plants are in pretty good shape, some yellowing on the lower leaves but this I think is due to scorching when watering. Plants were all beginning to flower outdoors but then we come to the weather which I think after reading your post is the real issue. Day time temperatures are well into the upper 30’s and low 40's Celsius and have not been dropping much at night, these temperatures followed on from some severe rain which caused some serious flash flooding. It has been too hot for my partner, she only spends short periods of time outside passing most on the day and early evening inside to keep cool.

I will seek out a general feed when I head to town tomorrow, you never know we may yet salvage something. I am presuming the small yellow tomatoes we have in abundance must be much more tolerant to the hot weather conditions we are having this year.

Thanks for the advice.
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Trev62
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Re: Blossom Drop

Post by Trev62 »

The good news is.......................after some feed and plenty of gentle tapping of the flowers we now have a few small tomatoes developing. Most flowers still drop of and die but there is a noticable improvement so we should at least get a few decent ones to jar for the winter, sigh of relief all round but we are wary as the really hot weather returns tomorrow and is due to stay again for several weeks, fingers crossed and we will keep on tapping!!!!
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Trev62
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Re: Blossom Drop

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The drop in temperature here to @ the late twenties to low thirties during the day and @ the late teens at night (Ah..... my late teens at night, the memories come flooding back!), together with the feed and flower tapping has worked well, the large rose tomatoes are coming on nicely and all the various pepper types are coming back into flower again.

Slight problem with "bottom end" rot on some tomatoes due to some heavy torrential downpours that also broke many branches (?) on the plants but that is a minor issue at present.
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Mo
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Re: Blossom Drop

Post by Mo »

Nothing is ever guaranteed when gardening, is it.
I always thought I'd plant various things and enjoy whatever did well this year. But it makes you realise how precarious life was for people who depended on what they grew and were at the mercy of the seasons with no Tesco round the corner & money in pockets.
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lancashire lass
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Re: Blossom Drop

Post by lancashire lass »

so glad to hear the tomatoes are picking up )t' but just to let you know

Trev62 wrote:Slight problem with "bottom end" rot on some tomatoes due to some heavy torrential downpours


blossom end rot is actually the result of low calcium not wet conditions ... which can occur with erratic watering and instead dry spells (that is, insufficient water available to be able to transport the calcium from the soil) That's why tomato plants should be kept well watered during the flowering period
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Re: Blossom Drop

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lancashire lass wrote:That's why tomato plants should be kept well watered during the flowering period


Our neighbours water theirs heavily every three days, we lightly water ours (taking into account this years flooding) every night, any advice on which way is the best?

Thanks again for replying.
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lancashire lass
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Re: Blossom Drop

Post by lancashire lass »

Trev62 wrote:Our neighbours water theirs heavily every three days, we lightly water ours (taking into account this years flooding) every night, any advice on which way is the best?


Try the finger test and poke the soil after you water to see how far down does the moisture go - when you lightly water, you are most likely only watering the soil surface and that's where the roots will grow. So on a hot day, the moisture will readily be lost and stress the plants. All gardening literature will tell you to heavily water every few days so that it penetrates much deeper down (this is especially important for root crops like carrots)

You could also try laying a mulch down if you haven't already - something like a layer of grass cuttings / straw - over the soil surface to reduce that water loss.
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Re: Blossom Drop

Post by Trev62 »

Thanks again lancashire lass, all being well we should just about harvest enough large reds to see us through to next year. We will cover the soil around the tomato plants with straw/hay next year now we know where to cut and collect it from.
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