Pollination problem due to heat, or something else?

13 years ago

I've had a very disappointing tomato season. I have a couple of plants (Celebrity, Patio and Early Girl) and they've all done a very 'naughty' thing. They all look vigorous and healthy, producing plenty of blossoms. The thing is, the blossoms are not pollinating, apparently. Oddly, they don't 'drop', either-- in the classic sense of blossom drop. They seem to go through the motions like they are trying to produce a tomato. The pedicel (attachment stem) strengthens and thickens as though it's preparing to support a nice tomato. The little green 'calyx' (the crown part) develops and turns really long and feathery as if there should be a big tomato inside. But either there's nothing but a tiny, tiny 'ovary' that just dies, or I get a very stunted little tomato that is completely seedless. These 'mini tomatoes' appear normal except for being very small, and they have a really nice flavor, but there's little to no gel and no seed cells inside. They get plenty of water, modest nitrogen with good phosphorus, plenty of sun and plenty of wind and manual pollination help.

Of course, this is North Texas and our temps get pretty hot early in the season, and they stay that way for months. Now, we've had some cooler temps lately but I'm i between blossom flushes so sadly, I'll miss this window of opportunity for something to happen.

Does this sound like a heat problem, or some other issue? They are in enormous pots and I do take extra steps to be sure that they have adequate water-- as I said, the plants themselves are strong and vigorous, setting flowers in flushes, not losing flowers, and I see no sign of pests or disease. If this is NOT a heat issue, what else could it be? It's so discouraging to watch my 'maters going through the motions, and doing EVERYTHING EXCEPT producing a normal tomato. They're loaded with empty crowns. If even half of these crowns actually made a decent tomato, I'd be loaded. But there is NOTHING but those empty crowns with teensy 'atrophied' ovaries inside... 'old maids', I call them. :(

What gives? Can I lightly prune my plants and try to carry them through for the fall season?

~Megan

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Comments (8)

joeorganictomatoes
13 years ago
Hi there,
I'm not the expert here by any stretch but I would prune and try and get as much energy to the blossoms as possible.(Experiment..what else have you to lose) This is the 1st year I ever pruned my plants and I can really see a difference. In the past I just put 3 plants in the ground. Watered them. Fed them Miracle-Gro and picked the fruit when it ripened. This year I started studying. I now prune. I don't use chemical fertilizers(MG) since it ruins the soil. I feed my plants with organic fertilizers and have also started watering them with a seaweed mixture and in spite of the horrible weather we have had this season, I'm getting tomatoes. My German Johnson(over 6' tall) has huge fruit on it, almost ready to pick.. I'm already planning on what varieties I'm going to plant next year! Good Luck.
qaguy
13 years ago
Heat above (if I remember right) above 90 deg can
cause fertilization problems, so can nighttime temps
below 55 deg.

Also, high humidity can cause the same problem.
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jean001a
13 years ago
Check with your county's Extension Service office. Perhaps you need to change the planting date for tomatoes in your part of Texas.

Use this map
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/

Here is a link that might be useful: locate your county's Extension Service office
seysonn
13 years ago
I would think that HEAT can be a factor in drying up the pollen and/or pollinated fruit.

But keep in mind that the pollinated flower in tomato will not bulge as fast as ,say, squash. They stay tiny for a long time.
Have to be patient. I have been watching my Black Krim... like for eternity ,... will there be a fruit ..?. Sure enough. It just took longer than I expected. The heat, water, (growing conditions ) can also be factors.
megan_anne
Original Author
13 years ago
Jean, thanks for that link... but our early spring temps are just so unpredictable. I've tried to beat the heat by planting early, only to get 6" of snow in March (something that NEVER happens, except the year that I tried to plant super-early... we had record snowfall that year!!), followed by 90s' the following week. As cold as it was the week that it snowed, there was nothing I could have done because we got way down in the low 20's. My plants froze even with protection that year. I replanted the following week, only to have them get too hot and produce very little.

Seysonn-- some of these 'old maids' have been there for a couple of months and have done nothing. No sign of getting any bigger and hey dried out, so I pulled most of the oldest ones off. Believe me, I was more than patient-- but I'm not crazy, LOL :D

It's just very frustrating to see the plants go through all the motions and do everything BUT have a tomato. I did get one decent candidate recently, but just as it was getting close to ripening time, we had a huge amount of rain and it split all to smithereens and I lost it.

That did it... I'm never planting tomatoes ever again. I'll just stick to peppers and berries and beans and relegate myself to the baseballs they sell in the store. I just had hoped to grow SOME tomatoes, as I used to do up in Illinois (those were some NICE 'maters!). Maybe that explains why I rarely if ever see anything but Mexican-grown tomatoes in the store... they just don't grow well here, I guess.

Thanks, anyway.
jean001a
13 years ago
You said thanks, " but our early spring temps are just so unpredictable. "

A different planting time isn't necessarily earlier. Perhaps it's later. Call your county's Extension Service and ask.

In fact, if you locate the Extension Service pubs online, you're likely to find a "how to grow tomatoes in Texas."
jean001a
13 years ago
Well, a brief search with the phrase "grow tomatoes in dallas texas" turned up the following from the local newspaper. Sounds like a challenge but it is possible.

http://www.dallasnews.com/lifestyles/home-and-gardening/headlines/20120328-a-pros-tips-for-wrangling-tomatoes.ece

Here is a link that might be useful: tomato tips for Dallas
jean001a
13 years ago
More info, this time from Aggie Horticulture
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/newsletters/hortupdate/2013/mar/protecting-tomatoes.html

With all the info I found online, sounds like most folks in your area had serious challenges with their tomatoes this year. So, in case it's any comfort, you have plenty of company.

Around here, the weather isn't near so extreme as it in Dallas. But now and then, we still have a Green Tomato Summer!

Here is a link that might be useful: Aggie Hort info