Early Goliath not setting fruit

19 years ago

I'm in Southeast Idaho. We've had a very hot summer so far -- mid-to-upper 90s in the day. Nights are low 50s (usually mid-40s). We haven't had a drop of rain in over a month. The forecast is for a bit of cloud cover this week and a couple thunderstorms with highs down about 10 degrees. But, then it looks like back to where we were.

This year I planted an Early Goliath as an experiment. Next to it, my Celebrity plants are doing well (1st fruit now ready with lots of fruit coming along).

But, the Goliath has just grown and grown. I've put poles on the side and attached the individual stalks to the them. It is a bit over 6 feet high with lots of blooms -- but not a single fruit has set.

The blooms just dry up and then drop off.

A week ago, I started trying to hand pollinate. Not one has set yet.

Yesterday, my uncle suggested cutting the tip of the stalks off. I did so this morning.

Any suggestions?

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Comments (3)

digdirt2
19 years ago
Hi staggart - It is called "blossom drop" and is caused by day/night temps you have been experiencing. There is a FAQ here about it linked below. And a search for that topic will pull up lots and lots of posts on it - you'll quickly see that you aren't alone. ;) We all suffer it to a degree when the day temps get above 90 and the night temps fall below 55 or remain above 75. It will pass. ;)

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Blossom Drop
staggart
Original Author
19 years ago
I've done a bit of research and assumed that was basically what was going on.

But, what puzzles me is that the adjacent Celebrity plants are not affected.

Can anyone explain why the difference?
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jenny_in_se_pa
19 years ago
I'm going take a wild guess but Celebrity is a determinate (bush) or is sometimes labeled as a strong determinate type and Early Goliath is an indeterminate... Meaning that it's possible that the Celebrity had already loaded up early on with a number of blooms that got pollinated before your weather took a turn for the worse. Meanwhile the Early Goliath may have flowered later than the Celebrity and when it did so, it ran right into unfavorable conditions... and that may be making the difference... I have grown both determinates and indeterminates and have seen the determinates bloom much earlier than the indeterminates...