A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum The Tomato Forum I give up on Tomatoes, they don't grow

I'm at my wits end with trying Tomatoes. I have tried everything. This is my 3rd time now planing the small plants in my garden. For each plant I have dug a very deep 3 foot by 3 foot wide hole to remove the old clay.

Then I plant the tomatoes with a bit of organic fertilizer about 3 inches up from the stem base. I back fill with only the best dark rich soil and keep them watered. What happens you ask..... They grow about 2 feet tall and just sit there and give no fruit. They are alive, but just go into Hybernation.

I live in a very hot climate which is about 96 to 100 degrees everyday. I have no area for shade. Could it just be to hot and sunny for them? They look healthy just completly stagnet.

Same problem with my Hobinero peppers which are native to hot climate. They just sit there alive and do nothing even with the best organic fertilizer and soil.

They say fishing is hard, I catch them all day long, but can't catch a tomato to save my life.

Hi and welcome

Hmmm, you could have too much nitrogen in your soil. Also do you pluck off the suckers that grow on your tomato plants? Sometimes that helps..and lastly sometimes over watering them seems to stop the flowering..

Did you get any flowers yet?

Oh and yup, heat over 90* can stop fruit from setting also..

I should add tomatoes honestly have to be the finickiest plants I've ever grown, here the temps are too cool and the season is too short...I struggle with them as well every year..you are not alone.

Hey there Dead thumb. I'm just down the road from you in north central Mississippi. I can't give you any "experience" advise because we just moved here last fall and this is my first Mississippi garden. But I can offer some general thoughts.

First, I don't think it's necessary to do all this 3' digging. Tomato (and pepper) roots don't go down nearly that deep. And thorough waterings might be leaching the nutrients beyond the roots (experts can tell me this is silly).

Second, what is the N-P-K ratio of the fertilizer you are using, and added to the holes? Some more detail about the fertilizer would be helpful. How often? What type, etc.?

Next-- what's at issue with flower/fruit setting is nighttime temperatures. Once the nighttime temps consistently get up into the high 70s, flowers won't set. Mine are still setting flowers. And I'm starting to have a LOT of peppers.

Some thoughts-- have you considered container tomatoes and peppers?

I'm very curious to learn more about your fertilizer and the soil you put into those holes.

DO you have pictures?

ONE MORE THOUGHT! Have you checked for aphids? Aphids can completely wipe out flowers before you even know they're there. No flowers, no fruit.

No flowers at all yet. That I am sure of. I used a standard dark potting soil, nothing fancy like Mirical grow soil.

The fertilizer I mixed in the soil was just a tablespoon of this granulated Organic fertilizer. It's made of dead worms and stuff like that. On the container it says, "you can't over firtilize with it" such as with chemical fertilizers.

I give them a moderate watering everyday just because the sun here drys out soil so fast. You think I should water less? I see no signs of any bugs eating the leaves. My green bean plant is also stagnet. Alive, but just for decoration.

I wish they grew like my Cucumbers. I planted them from seed and they have gone crazy.

I have a new found respect for Veg farmers. I will have no clue how they do it.

Peppereater--- where are you??

Stay tuned Dead Thumb.

I live in Memphis. Maybe the PH is all wrong. The tomato plants are about 2 feet high and look healthy, but just sit there and don't grow. I have them supported so they stand upright.

The soil is rich dark and well mulched. Maybe I will remove them and till the siol with some gardening lime then re-plant.

My green Bean plants are doing the same thing and so are my Jalopeno and Hobinaro pepper plants. I give them good rich well turned soil and water, why they just sit there looking healthy and pretty with no grouth is beyond me.

My Zuccini, Pumpkin, cabage, and cucumbers were planted from seed and they are growing like gang busters. I can't even keep up with picking them all in time.

I'm not doing Cucumbers next year because they just grow too much. I swear if you let them they will take over your entire garden, but they are far away from my Tomatoes.

Maybe I should get a huge pot and try potting these tomato plants.

Don't dig up your plants..you'll stress them.

What kind of fertilizer have you used on them?

I tried some liquid Mirical grow, but it did nothing.

What kind of MG did you use? The kind specific for tomatoes-- it's red-- or the regular blue kind? They have vastly different compositions.

I've talked to several folks in my area (near Mississippi State Univ.) and many of them are saying hte same thing, "where are my tomatoes?" Could be that it's been too warm the last couple of weeks, we've been well above average.

Have you tried watering them very very well, and then ignoring them for a week or so? Sometimes that works for me when a plant isn't doing as I think it should. The fact that your other stuff is doing well indicates to me that it's not a soil/fertilizer issue.

Yup, if the temps are too hot, you won't get flowers.

I will add my 2 cents. I grow several plants every year but in a different climate than most. Have intense heat and wind but usually low humidity and cooler nights. I also am blessed with deep sandy loam soil that drains well. With the low humidity and cool nights we can often get some fruit set even with temps in the high 90's. When they reach the 100's most don't set much if any. But they will bloom and the blooms will fall off. In your case where you are not seeing any blooms. I would feed with a good foliar feed on a 7-10 schedule. You can use a good fish/seaweed feed. My personal preference is the Fertilome Blooming and Rooting Soluble plant food. Often I use the Bonnie's liquid organic plant food when I transplant. And then use the Fertilome mix till I have good fruit set and then go to any good tomato plant food. Whether a MG tomato mix, Fish/seaweed or something like the Bonnies. The Fertilome mix has a N-P-K reading of 9-59-9. The 59 is P which stands for Phosphorus. It is the primary nutrient that encourages rooting, blooming and fruit production. This develops a great root system and will provide the plant the needed nutrients to produce. I did use a Jobe's organic tomato fertilizer this year when I planted. It has mycorrhizl fungi and a biozome in it. But there are many good options out there. The Epsoma Tomato Tone is another. MG has a blooming mix with a P reading of 30 which works but I prefer the higher reading myself. Your decision maybe made by what is available in your area. Here it is hard for me to find a lot of what I want. So I either stock up when traveling or order online. The drawback there is shipping. If you do use a feed with a high P reading please let me know in about 2 weeks if you have blooms and if your plants are growing and looking better. Then whether the blooms set will be decided by temps and humidity. If nights are over 75 and and days in the 90's most varieties won't set well. You can shake your plants everyday which sometimes helps with pollination. But if humid and it clumps then pollination will be poor regardless. Jay

I've heard that tomatoes require more heat and light than you could imagine. Especially during the first two months of seedling.

And the soil should be between PH 7.0 to PH 6.0. If you gave them too much fertilizers, they soil might turn alkaline.

I dont agree with all the tomato talk here.
I am zone 5

I start seeds in february or later, indoors in a cold winter. Never had tomatos failme. In fact the popped up in other stuff.

The tomatoes are full of blossoms right now an we are eating cherry ones.

Hight was 90 , lows down in a40"s

They are adapted to most areas without problems. Except last year we had a blight. TOok them all out.

I sprayed this year?


Tomatoes will survive most anyplace. One in a pot on the porch is fast an eating off it .

dodge ..go figure

They probably are adapted to most AREAS but unfortunately for me they are NOT adapted to all GARDENERS

I'm still gonna blame it on the temp being over 100 on a daily basis tho. I imagine that it also has something to do with my gardening ability (or lack of) to know exactly what the poor plant is needing.

If only the tomato plant could tell me what's wrong! I'd gladly fix the problem and make fast friends with the dear plant!

But for now, I will try to be happy with my one lonely little tomatolet that's growing on a plant as tall as I am! He's an only child at the moment, but I'm hopeful he'll have a whole clan of brothers and sisters some day

my nece in florida has to buy all her soil for our plants.
She raised in pots zone 5 flowers. Dont remember if she did tomatoes.

I told her to give them som shade make a pretend over head trillis . 4 sticks an cardboard if you have to .

Sorry you hav a problem

b

That's a good idea dodge! May try some shade. Everything I read said to place them in full sun, but maybe they'd be happy with less sun if it equals less heat? I'll let u know!

Now that you say that, the one tomato that i do have is low and very near the main stem wher it's shaded by all the other branches of my tomato plant. So I think you may be on to something!!!

I am not growing tomatoes. But when I did, I offered them some shade in the middle of my summer heat in the desert. Full sun to me means about 6 hours a day. So if a plant gets a few hours in the morning and evening but filtered shade in the high sun hours, they usually do well for me.