A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum The Tomato Forum Beefmaster tomato, one tomato hogging all the nutrients!

I have 1 Beefmaster tomato plant and so far have 1 very large green tomato, and about 15 pea sized tomatoes that appeared to have stopped growing. Should I snip half of the small tomatoes to ensure I get more tomatoes, or should these plants be able to yield more than 1 tomato at a time?

Keith,
The plants should be able to grow and mature many tomatoes at once. I have plants with over 70 on them. These will be 6-8 oz when ripe. So not as big as you Beefmaster but then way more total pounds. Some of the possible causes can be heat, weather conditions, too cool, lack of nutrients(but that should affect every fruit from my experience). Disease can hit a plant and the more mature fruits will be bigger. Of course you should see other signs of that. What is the overall health of the plant? Size? Color? I only snip blooms and growing tips when I want something to mature before frost and I think it needs to hurry. If you answer the questions along with recent weather maybe we can give you a better idea. I have grown many of the hybrids but not that one. Jay

The plant is very green and healthy, strong,thick stem with no brown/yellow leaves. It has been on average in the high 70's here during the day with little rain. I have been watering towards night at the base of the plant (not the leaves or fruit) The plant is growing fast and producing many flowers, but only 1 tomato is growing the rest never seem to grow? Some of the new tomatoes did have a brown dot on them, but it doesnt get bigger and the tiny tomatoes are still on the plant, just not growing anymore.

I do have a Grape tomato plant right next to my Beefmaster (which is producing tomatoes just fine) I did spot some bumblebees and some very tiny,irridescent bees visiting the grape tomato flowers then visiting my beefmaster flowers (especially newly opened flowers). Could it be the bees are cross-pollinating and the beefmaster flowers dont grow well if grape tomato pollen is put in?

Keith,
If the bees or anything has cross pollinated your Beefmaster's it won't show up till you save seeds from the tomatoes set this year and grow them. Did the big one set a while ahead of the others? If so maybe something has stressed the plant lately. Do the leaves show any curling? I've seen smaller fruit due to heat stress, cold nights, hot dry winds, certain diseases will affect small tomatoes more than bigger ones(which doesn't seem to be the case here), And it may be putting its energy into growing vine and foliage and not fruit. But then that usually shows up in all fruit. Sorry I can't help you more. Jay

What I meant was mabye the cross pollination affected the fertilization of the flower, making the resulting fruit weak or almost infertile, or less healthy (had many,many flowers drop off at first early in season from beefmaster). Now being the grape tomato has less flowers and more ripening fruit, the Beefmaster has more fruit resulting from flowers, instead of all flowers falling off. The lack of fruit growing is my issue now, for an unknown reason. I think beefmaster grow later season than grape, so that could explain the delay in fruit forming, BUT, it says it's generally a warm weather, drought tolerant tomato apparently, it's already September warm weather is going quickly so I should have had mature tomatoes by now.

The grape tomato had flowers form much earlier then the beefmaster, as early as 1-1/2 months ahead of time! And then when the beefmaster started growing flowers at first every single flower fell off before it formed fruit for about 3 weeks, while the grape already had tomatoes ripening on the vine! Then one day I had a fruit form, and that is the huge tomato growing now, after that one no other tomato has grown any more! That tomato was NOT cross pollinated, because I remember at that time the grape tomato had only fruit growing no open flowers. It's weird, but the tomato is getting large so i'm sure it will be a monster! I just want a few more like 2 or 3.

Elk said it well, the grape tomato pollen would not affect the outcome of this year's fruit. In fact, the more pollen from any tomato plant, the more opportunity for the flowers to produce large, well formed fruit and hold it, not drop flowers. Fluctuations in temp/weather, as elk mentioned, are the more likely cause of small fruit and blossom drop. Fertilizing with nitrogen could re-direct energy into foliage/plant growth at the expense of fruit production. I'm thinking that at this point, this late in the season, tiny fruit may not have time to mature and ripen. Sometimes the outcome of any one plant simply remains a mystery, and any explanation of poor production is just a guess, just set your sights on next year, and odds are you won't see this problem next year. Just do all the things you know are good cultural practices, and you have a good chance of a better crop in the future.

What I have done was I trimmed any long, laggy branches, or branches blocking sunlight to the tiny tomatoes and for better air flow. I have also fertilized them and watered.

Now less energy will be going to old branches, and more to the tomatoes growing. I also snipped half of all new branches on both plants, to even further save precious nutrients. Now mabye they will have a better chance.

What I will do is save seeds from the 1 beefmaster I have so far, apparently it was healthy enough to mature so I can try growing plants from it next year, same with the hybrid tomatoes, just to see what develops for fun! If I get any more beefmaster (which for sure will be hybrid, then I will save seeds from them too for fun)

That is the main reason I grew tomatoes this year, to try and make a cool hybrid, so i'll have to wait to next year to find out how I did!