In in Ontario, canada.

Well, then your tomatoes should be able to pollinate. That being the case, sometimes flowers fall off. If you shake them to encourage pollination, do so somewhat delicately. Tomato blossom drop can be stress-related. Temperatures too high or too low, humidity too high or low, lack of water, overfertilization, etc. If those don't seem to be likely stressors, then just hang in there.

Thank you, that's very helpful. I really appreciate all the advice .

Concur: according to your description . just the petals fell off.. If the base is intact you should notice a little tomato forming. It is normal for for the petals to fall off once pollination occurs. If the entire flower did not detach you should be good to go.

I have noticed this year trouble with tomatoes. Not just the size of the plants which are smaller than previous seasons, but less fruit production. They flower, but then I don't see a fruit develop but the flower turns brown and dries up. I don't understand why that should be if there are plenty of bees and other pollinators in the garden. Lots of flowers around.

We have had a LOT of rain, about 23" so far since June 1st. I normally get very little rain in July. And the spring there was a fair amount of cloudy cool weather. So to me that explains the size of the plant, but flowers not turning into fruit, I'm not understanding.

Tomatoes are wind pollinated......don't need any bees :-) Lack of fruit production could be related to the very rainy weather. As noted by dan, flowering or lack of it can be stress related and excessive rainfall and gray, cloudy days could certainly be a contributing stressor.

Rain (and associated high humidity) can clump the tomato pollen and prevent it from falling. It is well understood that this reduces yield.

Well, I learned something new today. So normally then the reason someone is advised to shake the plant is to attempt to get better wind germination, but it doesn't help in a rainy season when the pollen is constantly being wet and clumps. Makes a lot of sense. Thank you.

When I find blooms that turn brown and die, it's often because of injury from tiny insects that burrowed into the bud.

I've heard that high temperatures also prevent tomato pollination because the pollen gets clumpy, but I've also heard that high temperatures simply make the pollen sterile. In the former case, in principle, cool nights could allow pollination. In the latter case, they wouldn't. Not sure what the right answer is about how high temperatures kill tomato pollination.

I've always considered tomatoes to be evolutionarily "dumb", in that when it rains a lot, the plant is encouraged to grow and thrive, but fruit doesn't set as well. Also, you'd think that if a tomato plant is going to keep chucking out flowers when it is very warm, those flowers would pollinate. That is, why keep making flowers if they aren't going to set fruit?

Dan, that is an interesting and funny way to look at the tomato plant. [g] It is kind of ironic. And not knowing all this about tomato pollination, I just always thought very simply, tomatoes either had a good year or a bad year. lol But, maybe next year, I could try giving my plants a little shake to help the pollination, but not sure if the rain and the heat have such an impact that shaking is not going to help much. I mean if they are pollinated by wind, this year I had a LOT of windy days and had the worst year for pollination.

The 'wind' part of the pollination might be a bit of a misnomer :-) Toms really only require a bit of a breeze - just a gentle jostle - for them to pollinate themselves (provided the heat or wet is not clumping the pollen).

The PNW is a tough climate to grow tomatoes in because it is a short season and it is rarely very hot. It is also seldom more than just breezy in summer and quite dry. But if the tomato type is well suited for here, we get bountiful crops. My Sungolds are going nuts!

I grow Sungolds every year and they are doing nothing. You are lucky!!