I saw a little blossom drop about 2 or 3 of weeks ago when our low temps dipped into the lower 40s, but then it stopped. We've mostly stayed in the upper 40s or lower 50s since then, and the blossom drop seems to have stopped. We have lots of new small fruit, and I'm not seeing blossoms on the ground.

Are you seeing blossom drop on your plants?

Just a few on the larger fruit plants. Sungold and other cherries seem fine. Just curious if others had seen this. I will be happy when it warms up a bit. Not a whole lot of plant growth between all the rain and low temperatures. Thanks

You're welcome.

So, if order to answer the burning question in my mind: how many plants have fruit? How much fruit? I went out to the garden with a notebook in hand, and checked the first two rows that I planted back around March 17, 18 or 19. I don't remember the exact date, but that's the rough time frame. These plants have been out for quite a while, but also have had to endure a whole lot of strong wind, some cold nights and some hot, windy days right after they were planted. Here's what I found, plant by plant:

The variety of each plant is listed, with the number of tomatoes I counted following.

Row 1:

Lemon Boy 11

German Queen 5

Cherokee Purple 6

Arkansas Traveler 4

Arkansas Traveler 11

Arkansas Traveler 3

Pink Brandywine (Sudduth) 10

Pink Brandywine (Sudduth) 0

Pink Brandywine (Sudduth) 1

German Queen 6

German Queen 1

Nebraska Wedding 0

Nebraska Wedding 0

Nebraska Wedding 2

Row 2:

Early Doll 0 (so, not likely to be early)

Sophie's Choice 8 (2 are full sized and about to break color)

Sophie's Choice 13 (5 are full sized and about to break color)

Sophie's Choice 9

Sophie's Choice 12 (1 is breaking color)

Vorlon 5

Vorlon 8

Orange Minsk 5

Orange Minsk 8

Cherokee Carbon 10 (an impulse purchase)

Red Brandywine 0 (finally has begun blooming though)

SunGold - 20 or so, already has produced ripe ones

SunGold - 15 or so, already has produced ripe ones

SunGold - 10 or so, already has produced ripe ones, but the top of it was snapped off by wind about 10 days ago

Supersonic 3

There's two more full rows, and then there's a couple of odd and end plants I stuck here and there, like at the end of a row of something else, or in a flower/herb bed or whatever.

Of those odds and ends, only Better Boy (purchased as a large plant in a pot in January, already blooming) has fruit on it now. It has 4, and 2 are breaking color. We've harvested about 9 or 10 from it so far, beginning in mid-March.

I don't know if this report helps any, but that's the state of my garden as of right now. Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason to what is happened. For example, usually Red Brandywine produces before Brandywine Sudduth, but not this year. It also doesn't really make sense that one Nebraska Wedding has set 11 fruit, and the other 2 have not set a single one yet. I guess the one with 11 fruit is an overachiever.

If I get a chance to do so later this afternoon, I'll look at the other two rows, which were planted about a week after the first two rows. I was trying to wait for the weather to settle down before I planted them, and the individual plants themselves are larger than any/all plants in the first two rows. They have had equally crazy weather, but just a bit less of it. I'm still not sure the weather has settled down, but it is a lot calmer today than it has been the last couple of weeks.

Dawn

Not on the tomatoes, but yes on the one pepper that's big enough to bloom. I figure it'll stop here now that we're warming up.

I need to take an inventory like Dawn did.

I have a better bush with two fruit. All others just flowers, but I also have two hungarian wax peppers with fruit. Oddly enough I have an New Girl with nothing. Looks like it is not going to be as early as advertised.

The whole Early GIrl/Early Doll/New Girl thing is perplexing. Some years, they are early. Some years they are not at all early, even though their DTMs would lead one to believe they would be early. I've had years when Big Boy produces ripe fruit earlier than Early Girl, which totally defies logic. It happens often enough here that I tend to refer to Early Girl as Late Girl.

Most of my peppers I have fruit, Yellow Straightneck Squash has produced ripe squash already. We'll harvest the first zucchinis today. We have cucumbers about half sized. Yet, some tomato plants that went into the ground earlier than all of them haven't set fruit yet. Our temperatures have been all over the place for the last couple of months swinging from the upper 80s and very low 90s to the mid to upper 30s, though in the last 2 or 3 weeks, we've dropped no colder than about 43, and mostly have stayed at 47 or above. Our OK Mesonet station just a few miles from us has consistently dropped down to 36 or 37 on nights we only droped to 43, so I suspect gardeners in that area are not as happy with their gardens right now as I am. Really, it is the weather that is the problem.

I checked the last two long rows of tomatoes late yesterday, and found that many, though not all, in Row 3 had set fruit. Some plants had set a lot, some had only one or two. In the 4th row, planted a few days after the 3rd row, very few had set fruit---maybe 5 plants out of 15 had fruit. Most of the ones in that row usually are the latest to produce, based on DTMs, which generally are fairly accurate, so I woudn't be expecting much fruit on them yet. The Heidi paste tomatoes in that row have just begun to flower though. I expect over the next few days, with all the sunshine and warmer air, fruit set will explode. There is a very definite corelation between the date the plants were put in the ground and the amount of fruit set. Not only did the last two rows go in a bit later than the first two, they also have had colder temperatures because of the way the cold weather returned after we'd had a lot of warm weather.

I always feel like we are in a mad dash here in southern OK to get fruit set before the highs in the 90s arrive to stay, so it really hasn't bothered me that the cold came back. The cooler the weather in May stays (within reason), the longer my plants will set fruit. Sometimes we don't hit the 90s until June, but sometimes it happens in May. Obviously I get better fruit set if the 90s wait until June to show up.

Dawn

Somewhere I read that temps below 55 delayed fruit set, so I usually waited to plant until we are having lows above 55, and I usually get very few tomatoes because then it gets hot. Unfortunately even the ones in the green house have been exposed to 40ish temps, but they all seem to be thriving and budding. I'm sold on planting earlier. I know this has been a weird year. Next year we could have a cold spring. But I'm working on a plan for row cover for next year. Maybe by fall so I can keep brassica going.

Even tonight we have forecasted low to 49. I'm setting my expectation for fall production. I've lost six pepper plants and two tomato plants. None have had the opportunity to reach more than 12" tall, much less blooming stage. They weakened and the bugs got them and that was that. Peppers are only 8" all. I'll start more tomatoes and some peppers, soon. This morning we started a fire to warm up the house. It's just too cold for mine.

I still have not set out my eggplants. They are doing very well since I've been able to bring them indoors at night. Such a shame on the others, but who knew?

bon

Wotanhl, I've had some blossom drop 2-3 weeks ago here in Edmond, but everything is finally starting to grow just this week with the warmer, dryer weather. Almost all my tomatoes have a few fruit or are at least blooming. The peppers are blooming but still look unhappy. A few have a fruit or two I'm about to pull off to push them to focus on growing more!

Bon, I'm sorry you lost some plants. Total bummer. I've got a whole bed with some sick looking, stalled tomatoes. I need to spray them again before they croak. The chilly wet weather has definitely made all my early planting pointless. Nothing, except the plants in containers, looks like much.

Dawn that is a very detailed list. I'm so jealous you have so much producing already! I know you have "Texas weather" but I'm still green with envy! I'm so hungry for a real tomato!