Have you tried "Blossom Set"?

Lowe's has one called "Tomato Bloom Spray." (I think)

I've used it in the past, & it helped.

Rusty

First, tomatoes aren't pollinated by bees. They are only a tiny contributor to tomato pollination and it is a secondary role. Tomato blooms are self-fertile - they pollinate themselves, often before the bloom even opens) when and if the conditions are right.

If you have lots of blooms that aren't setting fruit them the issue is called "blossom drop" (the the FAQ linked below for the basic info) and it is primarily weather related. You can also search 'blossom drop' here for many discussions about it.

The blossom set sprays, research shows, also don't solve the problem. That too is discussed in the FAQ.

Some find that daily jiggling/vibrating/spanking of the bloom clusters in the early AM before the heat sets in will help but if the air temps and humidity are such that the pollen is tacky then there is really nothing you can do.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Blossom Drop FAQ

I have had VERY few bees this year. Sad. That said, fruit set has been OK. I shake the cages when I walk by. The spring wind probably helps too.

Hey Structure,

I am certain the Earth's Axis has shifted, and we in Silicon Valley are getting the climate from SLO this year!!! 58 degrees and rain all day yesterday. In June, it should be 85 to 90. Crap!!

I too have wonderful growth of foliage and hundreds of tomato blossoms - - but minor fruitset, as of today. I have been shaking each cage daily for the past 2 weeks, for about 30 seconds per cage. We will see if that helps. On Saturday I sat in the garden for about 3 hours and saw ONE bee making its way through the tomatoes.

Not just bees - - I am seeing about 10% of the Hummingbirds now as compared to what I remember last year at this time.

The irony with all this foliage growth, is that I've now got to add cage extensions...to my cage extensions today!

Raybo

Honey bees are the bees suffering from CCD (colony collapse disorder). But honey bees have no interest in tomato blossoms and do not visit or pollinate them.

Bumble bees collect pollen from tomato blossoms and, in doing so, aid their pollination by a process called sonication. When they alight on a tomato blossom they change their wing beat frequency from the one they use in flight to one which more effectively shakes pollen loose.

Vibration from other sources, such as wind, helps pollination of tomatoes too. Tomatoes are self pollinating. Anything which causes the pollen to drop helps them to pollinate themselves.

Jim

Let's not forget the fact that temperatures and humidity
can also have an effect on fruit set.

Too hot during the day (above 90's), too cool at night
(below 55 or so) and high humidity (pollen sticks
together) are also culprits in low percentage of fruit set.

Those are all helpful tips. The weather in Southern California, however, has been ideal. 70's and 80's by day. Mostly sunny (unlike last year's gloom summer)...60's at night. And very little humidity. Could just be that it is very early in the season and I would stop being so impatient I'd probably see fruit set soon...RIGHT?! We tomato growers are so impatient. I'll report back in a few weeks and if I still have low fruit set I'll send out another SOS. And thanks Raybo... Sorry to put you in such a position of responsibility, but you are often the bar to which I compare my progress too.....LOL. Cheers!!
Don

Don if you read the BER FAQ then you'll have seen that excess N can also contribute to blossom drop. What are the odds that your plants are over fertilized?

Dave

I have had hundreds of tomatoes set here in Orange County, in southern California for over a month, in some cases about two months. Problem is due to the cool nights we have been having I have only gotten about a dozen ripe tomatoes so far, and most of them on Stupice which is known for being early.
I do have a big black bumblebee that visits my garden every day, maybe that's why I have the good fruit set. I even saw a honey bee trying to pollinate a tomato blossom, it was having a hard time. First time I ever saw a honeybee try it.
My Cherokee Green has some really big tomatoes on it, but since I can't tell when they are ripe I will wait for my Cherokee Purple to ripen as an indicator, since they are supposed to be the same tomato, just different colors when ripe.

Dave...I thought that with excess N the plants wouldn't flower, not just be sparse on fruit. I haven't used a lot of fertilizer this year besides compost, but there is quite a bit of compost in there. I made my own compost this year and may have gotten a little overzealous with the amendment. But besides that I've only used a little EB Stone granular when I planted out and compost tea. You think I should lay off any additional feeding for a while? That would make sense.
Don

Don - excess N from day one will prevent blooming. But otherwise it is a matter of timing the nitrogen for after fruit set. Nitrogen application triggers the plant back into a vegetative growth cycle. So it boots off the blooms in favor of vegetative growth.

So yeah, I'd lay off the feeding for awhile.

Dave

Ya dont need bees

I always learn so much reading these threads. I'm in the farthest northern zone and I have tons of bees visiting my three small gardens daily in the am, afternoon and evening.

I have noticed what I think is strange bee behavior. The bees seem to circle the tomato plants but don't go any further into the foliage. I have blooms but no fruit yet even though it's pretty early for either in my opinion. It'll be interesting to see if the bees stick to this behavior even if they aren't necessary for pollinating the blooms.

I agree with jimster that honey bees are not that attracted to tomato blossoms. We get these large bees that look like a black jellybean, and you can hear the change in wing "frequency" when they attach themselves to a tomato flower. I had two doing their thing in the garden yesterday, going from flower to flower. I'm still hand shaking the cages daily and have noticed about 100 pea to golfball sized fruitset as of today on my 32 plants.

Raybo

If your black jelly bean bees look like a bumble bee but have a shiny butt instead of a fuzzy one, then they are carpenter bees. They make their homes by burrowing holes into my siding (any available wood really like my deck and my raised beds) So not great for the wood, but they still pollinate the garden!

Susan

Most years the carpenter bees make a living off my tomatoes. This year I haven't seen many of them either. Maybe it's the weather. I don't spray and neither do the neighbors so I suspect it's nothing sinister.

It's amazing how many variables there are with something like growing a tomato. Too much N, too little, too cool, too hot, too humid, etc. Sure makes it fun to walk the garden every day.

Raybo, I agree something shook loose in CA this year (last summer too). We had an inch of rain in June! Good grief. I'm lucky I tried the hoop house though. The plants are monsters. Ate the first Kosovo from the undercover plants the same day I ate my first Bloody Butcher from outside...wasn't expecting that! They'd probably cook further inland, but so far, it's a neat set up here in SLO. Will post pics again in a week or so.