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Beefmaster beef

20 years ago

Transplanted Beefmaster a month ago. Best looking of all tomato plants in garden...however...only 1 (one!) fruit thus far. Plant about 4 feet high, dozens of dead and living blossoms, but only one has beared fruit. All other plants in garden prolific. Nearest relative is 4 feet away, with at least a dozen tomatos intact...planted at the same time. What gives?

Comments (4)

  • 20 years ago

    Some plants are cranky. I have a couple like that -- heck, my peppers keep dropping blossoms, for no reason that I can see.

    If it's flowering, at least you know it's not a nitrogen overdose. Humidity hasn't been too bad in the NW lately from what I've heard, and heat isn't usually a problem either... so it's just being difficult.

    Try inducing pollination. There are three popular ways to do it: give the whole plant a hard shake, once a day or so; flick each open blossom, hard enough to knock it away, not so hard as to knock it off; or find an old electric toothbrush, and give each blossom truss a little buzz.

    Tomato flowers pollinate themselves, without the help of insects, but the pollen doesn't always neatly fall from the anthers onto the stigma. Humidity can make it sticky, and some varieties (or individual plants) can have a more difficult time of it than others, even in ideal conditions. I idly flick flowers when I'm walking around, particularly on Brandywine and others that I know are difficult; I get pretty good results that way.

    --Alison

  • 20 years ago

    Wow.......thanks a bunch. Going to go try it right now. Will advise.

  • 20 years ago

    Alison....still nothing new 2 weeks later. Plant is still best looking of all tomato plants out there, BUT, still only 1 (one!) tomato, and its not ripe yet....but about the size of a softball! Plant is about 4-5 feet high now, and covered with little yellow blossoms...half of them spent. I did what you suggested, but nothing yet. "Cranky" is right!

  • 20 years ago

    And another 2 weeks later, a new fruit has formed, but seems to have stopped at about the size of a grape. The plant itself and its leaves all look pristine. I cannot believe it wont produce fruit the same way. About 5 feet tall now, at least, and "bushy".

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