Mike,

No, no, no, no, no.

It is pretty much a total waste of your money

If you lived in a part of the country like Michigan or North Dakota where the cold weather, especially the cold nights, hang on forever, you might find that you had to use it to get better fruit set. In our climate, the cold nights are not that persistent, and generally cold nights have warmed up even before the tomatoes begin to bloom.

Research has shown the these sprays do increase fruit set when the problem is that temperatures are too low. However, they do not increase fruit set when high temperatures are the problem. Since the problem here is most often high temperatures, this product wouldn't help you when you need it.

Also, fruit formed when using this product is often misshapen and ugly. That may or may not matter to you.

I wouldn't use it.

Once nighttime temperatures are above 55 degrees, your tomatoes should set fruit just fine.

Once nighttime temperatures begin exceeding 75 degrees, and daytime temperatures begin exceeding 92 degrees, and especially when both are occurring simultaneously, then fruit set of many varieties is impeded, but the spray won't help under those conditions. What does help is to select varieties with a DTM of 80 or less, plant as close to your last frost date as you can, and be careful not to overfertilize with nitrogen because you'll have all foliage and little fruit. Also, there are some varieties that set fruit better in higher temperatures than others. If you aren't aware of those varieties, let me know and I'll list at least 2 or 3 dozen for you.

If you are having problems with fruit set while temperatures are in the right range, then it is likely you have your garden in a sheltered area where there is not much wind. Tomato plants are self-pollinating and self-fertilizing but it does take a little wind movement to make the process happen. If you aren't getting enough wind movement, you can thump each blossom gently, or grab hold of the plant or its cage and gently shake it.

If you have caged tomatoes and they are firmly staked, you can walk down the row of tomatoes with a tennis racket or sturdy stick and whack each cage once or twice. That movement will shake the flowers enough to make the pollen do its job.

If this product really worked, we'd talk about it all the time here because we have a lot of Oklahomans who grow tomatoes, and you don't ever see us discussing it, so that should be a red flag for anyone considering buying one of these products. : )

Dawn

Hey Dawn, i wonder if it would help with greenhouse grown tomatoes in the winter. I generally try to keep the low temp around 60 but i have cool spots in there.

i keep an osolatiny fan running full time to have air movement. Right now i have some betterboy hybrids growiing and finally seen one pea sized tomato. i have been tickling the blooms to try and have a better polination. I just figured the temp was too low at night.

Busy1,

I think that you are right....the temps probably are slightly too low at night.

The age of your plants also has a lot to do with it. If the plants are fairly young, they just aren't ready to set fruit.

Depending on the size of your greenhouse, you may need more than one oscillating fan to get enough air movement.

Also, be sure your tomatoes aren't getting too much nitrogen. When you fertilize or fertigate, you should be giving your tomatoes a balanced tomato food and not a general plant food that is high in nitrogen.

If you want to try a blossom set spray, you can. In your "cool night" conditions, it might help. However, be advised that the fruit which forms as a result of these sprays (which are hormone-based) often look irregular and deformed. In addition, they often have a puffy look to them and very few seeds (because pollination didn't really occur naturally). Since you are a market grower, think twice about whether you want to risk your reputation by selling puffy, deformed fruit.

Sometimes, in a greenhouse setting, the air flow just isn't enough to increase pollination, so you can thump the plants as I described above. (Are your tomatoes cages? staked? cordoned and climbing twine? supported by the Florida Weave or something similar?) One of the guys on the Tomato Forum uses an electric toothbrush to fertilize his plants. I think he holds it close enough to each blossom that it "vibrates" the blossom and helps shake the pollen around.

If you can leave a greenhouse door or two open during the day to allow bees to come in, they'll help with pollination. Since tomatoes self-pollinate and self-fertilize, bees and other small pollinators aren't "necessary" but they can assist the flowers in a manner similar to the electric toothbrush described above.

Finally, in future years, you might want to use varieties bred specifically for greenhouse production. If you need the names of a few, let me know.

I have 4 early tomatoes in pots--Better Bush, Bush Goliath, Early Girl and grape, and two of the four have set tomatoes in the last week. They, however, are outside in a warm area (concrete slab beneath them, south-facing wall behind them) with good air flow all day and then I carry them inside at night if the temperatures are dropping below 50 degrees. I've had these for about a month and they've been large enough to bloom and set fruit, but haven't until now and I just think that the weather conditions are finally "right".

Since the weather this week has improved significantly in terms of warmth and sunshine, your plants probably will start blooming and setting fruit any day now. One caution--greenhouses can heat up quickly when the temperatures are in the 80s and 90s, so be sure your daytime highs in the greenhouse are not getting higher than 92 degrees. I have greenhouse plastic over the screens on my west-facing screened-in porch and most sunny afternoons it can get into the 90s on that porch even when it is in the 60s and 70s outside. If your greenhouse is getting too hot, you may have to open vents or doors or whatever you can do to let air in and heat out, or put up some shadecloth.

Dawn

Yea, i put some shade cloth on the other day with the forcast of daytime temps getting clost ot 80.

I have the exhaust and vents set on a thermostat. I think it is just now getting right for them to set fruit.

These plants were just a experiment and was just for some green tomatoes for frying. I have some greenhouse varitey seeds but i am not going to start them till later in the year for some winter tomatoes.With the price of the seeds i figured i'd try something less expensive for some early green frying tomatoes.

I did notice alot of honey bees around my aluminum can barrel today but i'm affraid they would get traped in the greenhouse when the temps started to dip. So i am opting to keep them out for now.

Last year i used a humming bird feeder to draw them in for some fall polination.

I bet your tomatoes start blooming and setting fruit any day now--with temps in the 80s and 90s, why wouldn't they?

I like the idea of using a hummingbird feeder to lure them into the green house. This year, I have fed the bees all winter long with an outside hummingbird feeder. Now that fruit trees and some early flowers are blooming, they don't seem to "need" the hummers' feeder any more.