Tomato Blossom Drop Problem

This year my tomatoes are all dropping their blossoms and I'd really like some advice with this. Last year my tomatoes all did well and my cherry tomatoes basically took over and I had tons of tomatoes all the way through the fall. This year I decided to plant them in a different spot. Last fall I prepped the soil by doing the lasagna gardening idea of layer cardboard, then kitchen scraps then newpaper then kitchen scraps then topping it with compost. This spring when I planted my seedlings in there, not everything was completely decomposed, but my seedlings seemed to do well and grew well. They have blossomed and grown a lot, but there have only been 4 tomatoes put on amongst the 10 tomato plants I have. I have 8 heirloom tomatoes (I don't know which ones, they were in a variety seed pack), 1 cherry tomato plant, and 1 big boy. The cherry tomato and the big boy are in a different place in the yard from the others, but the soil was amended the same. The big boy has 1 tomato and the other three have been from one of the heirlooms.

Here are the things I have done to my tomatoes besides the lasagna garden layering, some ideas came as advice from other forums:
I've added epsom salt to the soil when I planted and sprinkled on soil 6 weeks later. I crushed up some egg shells and put around them while they were little (to keep slugs away). I've pruned them (I usually don't prune my tomatoes). I've put corn meal on the soil. I've put dried powdered milk on the soil. I've tapped all the blossoms as much as I could in the mornings. I water them every other day. I am in Texas and it does get hot, but this year has not been worse than other years and I usually have a good amount of tomatoes by now. I don't think the weather is the problem. I have friends who are getting tomatoes right now.

Part of me wonders if it's the heirloom tomatoes since I've never grown them before, but since my cherry tomato is not producing either, I think the lasagna gardening idea made my soil off-balance. Anyone have any suggestions? I particularly like natural suggestions.

I found this on dave's garden: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/524032/#b


And, I found this online: http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/tomato/2000083030027695.html

Why are the blooms on my tomato plant dying and falling off?

What is going wrong?

"Blossom-Drop" is a condition suffered by tomatoes, peppers, snap beans, and some other fruiting vegetables where the plant blooms but fails to set fruit, the blooms die and fall off. It may be caused by the use of excess nitrogen fertilizers or dry windy conditions, but the most common cause is temperature extremes.

Tomatoes, peppers and beans are especially picky about the air temps when it comes time to set fruit. If the night temps fall below 55 or rise above 75 or if the day temps are above 90, the pollen becomes tacky and non-viable. Pollination cannot occur. If the bloom isn't pollinated, the bloom dies and falls off.

What can I do?

Water the plants deeply once a week, mulch heavily to maintain constant soil moisture levels, establish windbreaks as needed, avoid using excessive amounts of nitrogen fertilizers, and wait for temperatures to moderate and stabilize. Earlier timed planting can help attain fruit set prior to the on-set of high temps, and the use of protection can compensate for cool nights. Some recommend attempting hand-pollination with an artist brush or a gentle shaking of the plant/cage/support prior to the hottest part of the day will also help. Fruit set will resume when temperatures moderate. Hormone sprays, such as "Blossom Set", may prevent some blossom drop due to LOW temperatures. However, the resulting fruit are often misshapen. But studies prove that hormone sprays do not prevent blossom drop due to HIGH temperatures.

Entered by gwTamara

honesteyes
when did you transplant your tomato outside?
Right now it is too hot (apart today) in our area.
Half of my tomato plant are still producing, but I did transplant them outside mid February.
You will have a lot of green leaves and flower until the temperature will cool down in September.
As soon as the temperature will cool down you will start to produce fruits. If we will have a late freeze the fruit might ripen by November.

I planted mine outside in April. My mom's tomatoes are still producing right now and so are 2 of my friends, but mine really aren't. I wonder if that lasagna gardening layering I did gave me a nitrogen imbalance. I know tomatoes usually produce less the hotter it gets, last August mine took a little break, but since we've had a mild summer mostly, I'm really surprised by how poorly mine are doing. Even though they are growing like crazy. drthor- are you saying that you think half of yours stopped producing because of the heat? Are they still flowering the same amount but just not producing? Mine are flowering like crazy! My cherry tomato plant probably has 20-30 blossoms on it right now, and many of my heirlooms have 15+. Something is just not right. They didn't really produce in June either, just a ton of growth and flowers.

honesteyes
I can talk by experience of 5 years of growing tomatoes in our area.
I am still harvesting tomatoes as you can see in the pictures below (these are harvests of this week).
I have started to remove half of the tomato plants, they are done. They will only produce leaves and tons of flowers until the weather will cool down. Plus the leaffotted bugs will just suck their life out of them and make the tomatoes not edible.
If you want to have a successful tomato season in Dallas you need to transplant out much earlier and protect your plants.
Honestly I am sooo tired of tomatoes right now. I have been eating them every day since mid-april and my freezer is full of tomatoes ... weee

I will not worry about your tomatoes and I will focus on growing something else in that spot.
It is just to hard to keep alive the tomato plants during our hot summer months for "maybe" have some fruit in the fall.

Good luck

I have gardened in Texas for 20 YRS and have never planted out before the soil warmed up,usually April. If you have fellow gardeners near you that have plants that are producing there has to be a reason why yours aren't. Is there a chance that you might have too much Nitrogen in you soil? You mite want to try fertilizing with a product that has a high middle number. Phosphorous helps with flowers and fruit set. I have a ton of green tomatoes on the vine and I have tomatoes setting daily, I pull out the spent blossom and actually check for the baby tomatoe. Mine are producing much later then normal but they are definitely producing. I have no problem keeping the plants alive over the summer and I can't remember a Thanksgiving that I didn't serve vine ripened tomatoes.

I originally gardened in So Cal where the daily temps got in the 100s for weeks on end (it did cool down at night) . But we grew tomatoes the entire summer..

Another thought: Tomato blossoms are pollinated by wind as well as bees, etc. If you've planted your tomatoes in a very calm portion of your growing plot, the plants may not be getting enough insect coverage to pollinate each blossom so the plant has to depend either on the breeze or for you to hand pollinate the blooms.
There are a couple of easy steps you can try to see if pollination is the only issue and those are to go along the row and shake each plant vigorously enough to shake loose any available pollen from the flowers (although not so hard as to damage the plants) or pick off several blossoms and brush them face first into adjoining blossoms to manually pollinate.
Just a couple of options to try out...
Steve

drthor- your tomatoes look great! And at this point, I am definitely thinking about removing some of plants and trying something else!

1lisac- I am starting to think it's a nitrogen problem. Allegedly corn meal is supposed to be good for phosphorous, but I think I you are right, I need to buy something that's more potent. Last year I had tomatoes up until the freeze, and right before the freeze I took my green tomatoes in and ripened them in a brown paper bag because I had so many. I am wishing now that I could have traded for a little less last year to get more this year!

TXSkeeter- I have tried the shaking. I honestly think that's the only reason I've got the few tomatoes I have. I do think that my yard is not very windy since it's not that big and the fences block so much. I've also noticed with my zuccini (that is now dead due to a vine borer) that if I didn't hand pollinate, they wouldn't get pollinated, so I'm not sure if there are just fewer pollinators this year too.

Thanks y'all for all the advice. I love the perspective of seasoned gardens, so much more helpful than my gardening book!

Oh, and thank you Gymgirl as well. I really appreciate all the help and info!

This year I have a little blossom drop but my crop is better and earlier this year.I think that I got the hang of growing my plants from seeds this year and transplanting them into bigger pots this year when they were indoors .

Tomatoes are self pollinating meaning that each flower has male and female parts (they dont need insects to polinate them) and you did say you were tapping the blossoms, so lack of pollination wouldn't be my first guess.

There are many organic fertilizers that you can spray on the ground and on the plant that have a high prosperous level. I like Medina Hasta Gro. At the moment my tomatoes are coming on late but the vines are COVERED. We had so much rain that I wasn't able to get into the garden until today and some of the tomatoes had gotten too ripe. Can't win. Lol