I've had years where my plants grew like crazy but wouldn't set on. The tale I always heard was that the plants needed to be stressed in order to set on, hence the old stories about beating them with a broom. And, while I don't recommend it, what I did (not deliberately, just accidentally) was forget to water them over a weekend. I came back, and they were drooping, but they bounced back after I watered them, and started blooming.
Hmmm-by "cups", are you talking about the base of the flower, that ends up being attached to the fruit?
Yeah, I think I just planted them too late, and did a transplant, and combined, it was too much. The plants at my boyfriend's house flowered, but didn't produce fruit.
Oy, we haven't seen 70 degrees here in at least a month. That could be it. I am planting some green beans in September, when it starts getting a little more mild.
Most tomatos will drop blossoms and fail to set fruit in extremely hot weather. That's why I suggest that people in the South grow tomatoes bred to set in the heat. I live in NC and still plant some hot set varieties as insurance. Most big box stores offer the same varieties throughout the country, despite the fact that different varieties do better in different areas.
I thought I would be good with the Cherokee Purple. I selected it for it's fungus and heat resistant properties from Southern Exposure Seed exchange, through localharvest.org.
It may be a little late now, but you could prune the plants and side dress them with a high phosphorus fertilizer. Phosphorus has a hard time penetrating soil on it's own, so you'll have to dig a channel around your plant, apply the fertilizer and then cover the channel with dirt.
A few years back I side dressed my tomatoes with a high phosphorus 'peruvian bat guano' and they just exploded, but this year I'm having similar problems with my tomatoes--lots of foliar growth but not much fruit action. This time I merely top dressed the plants and covered the bases with mulch. This is not as good as side dressing, apparently.
My mistake. It was Peruvian Seabird guano, and it had an N-P-K rating of 11-13-11. It's a really good fertilizer! I can understand why countries went to war over seabird poop before ammonium nitrate was invented.
Oh yeah, the two tomato plants I'm getting tomatoes from now are Arkansas Traveller. The tomatoes are pretty small and a little too sweet for my tastes, but still very good.
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And, while I don't recommend it, what I did (not deliberately, just accidentally) was forget to water them over a weekend. I came back, and they were drooping, but they bounced back after I watered them, and started blooming.
Hmmm-by "cups", are you talking about the base of the flower, that ends up being attached to the fruit?
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A few years back I side dressed my tomatoes with a high phosphorus 'peruvian bat guano' and they just exploded, but this year I'm having similar problems with my tomatoes--lots of foliar growth but not much fruit action. This time I merely top dressed the plants and covered the bases with mulch. This is not as good as side dressing, apparently.
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Oh yeah, the two tomato plants I'm getting tomatoes from now are Arkansas Traveller. The tomatoes are pretty small and a little too sweet for my tastes, but still very good.
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