I tried those twice and could never figure out when to pick them.

The so called white tomatoes, which are usually ivory colored to a pale yellow to a deeper yellow depending on the specific variety and the degree of foliage cover, have been around forever and there are many many different varieties.

Which variety are you growing?

The blossoms drying and falling off has nothing to do with white tomatoes, such blossom drop can occur with any variety and indicates that the blossom wasn't pollenized.

Two main reasons why blossoms don't get pollenized are sustained temps about 85 or higher, it often depends on the variety, in which case the pollen is destroyed, and also if there's high sustained humidity in which case the pollen clumps and is less effective.

I see you're in a 10a gardening zone and I would guess that in such a zone that the temperatures are very high already.

Just roughly where do you garden?

Carolyn

Yardenman, you harvest them when they are roughly the size they should be for the variety and when they're getting soft to the touch.

Different varieties have anywheres from cherry sized fruits to large beefsteak sized fruits; it is variety specific as with all other colors of tomato varieties.

It's no different determining ripeness, really, than with any other variety. ( smile)

Carolyn

Thank you, Carolyn for replying so promptly! I think my zone should be 9. My tomatoes are the big size, the plants already had tiny fruits on when my son bought them. I'm in the San Francisco Mid Peninsula, we never get sustained 85 temperatures. My tomatoes (2 plants)are in a 5 gall. plastic container, they grew about 4ft. since May 30. The pot sits on a "humid tray", maybe that's the problem! I used a tomatoes fertilizer every week for three weeks. How often should they be watered?
Annamaria

Annamaria, please take them off the humidity tray. The constant humidity will clump the pollen making it less effective in pollenizing.

Also, depending the variety name you see on the label, a 5 gal pot may be too small for the variety.

As for watering, I can't tell you that for your area, but every day does seem like a lot, but I don't know how much sun they get and how fast they dry out. They want to be deep waterd and then allowed to dry out a bit.

As for fertilizer, container grown plants do need more fertilizer than inground plants, usually, but every week for three weeks may be too much.

Carolyn

Thanks again, yeah, everything you say makes sense!!! Should I pick a redwood planter, and how much bigger should the container be?

Annamaria

Hi Annamaria, I'm growing in containers in San Mateo. I've got one Great White plant this year and have already harvested 3 tomatoes from it. I find that they have a delicate flavor, while my husband asks me why I bother with a tomato that doesn't have flavor.

From my experience, I would say that a 5 gallon container is rather small - OSH has 10-15 gallon plastic containers (light colored) that work well for me. I find that the containers dry out quickly, but watering deeply once a day, in the morning, seems to work. I fertilize with MG tomato food every 2 weeks and some fish emmulsion/seaweed on a less regular schedule. Also, be sure to use potting mix and not potting soil for containers. Depending on exactly where you are on the penninsula you may be getting blossom drop due to the cool temps at night.