Forced Flowering question.

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HydroOhio Bryan, OH Sep 20, 2014

I have planted Japanese Black Trifele Tomatoes in my grow tent to grow indoors.The question I have is about force flowering. I currently run my lights 18 hours on 6 hours off for all of my non-fruiting herbs and veggies, but I understand you have to Adjust lighting times to force flowering, and i was wondering if anyone could lay out in detail how you go about force flowering. How many hours on/off i should go to for flowering? How i should go about changing the time, should i stage it down slowly or just Change it all of a sudden to the flowering length of time? Do i have to do a certain fertilizer routine to force flowering?

My grow set up is as follows. 1 4x54w T5 Ho light fixture, 2x42w CFL bulbs, 2x24w CFL bulbs, my light spectrum is a mix of 6500k and 2700k light. This is all enclosed in a Grow Tent that Measures 48" Wide by 24" Deep by 60" High, and is covered inside with reflective Mylar. I am growing in Dirt that i custom blended,in a 5g bucket. It is a mix of Potting Soil,Top Soil, Coconut Coir,Peat moss,Crushed Oyster Shell, and Plain Clay cat litter(very small amount).
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Metrosideros Keaau, HI Oct 03, 2014

I don't know if you can force tomato flowers. The plant just has to be mature.

Tomatoes do well in the tropics with about 14 hours a day sunlight.

If you want more tomatoes rather than leaves, when the plants mature give them a low nitrogen, high phosophorus & potassium fertilizer.

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WeeNel Ayrshire Scotland, United Kingdom Oct 05, 2014

I give my tomato's a half dose feed soon as the first truss of flowers appear, the following week I give full dose (dose being the recommended dose as given from the maker on the bottle / pack) never over feed or you will make the stems weak, too much soft foliage and maybe even burn the roots, there is commercial Tomato feeds to buy from the garden store.

Once the fruits have began to set, you can remove some bottom leaves to allow more light onto the flowers and forming fruits, Also depending on the type of tomato's your growing, I like to pinch out the growing tip up the top of the main stems, this helps make stronger side shoots to develop more flowering trusses, after I have about 5 bunches of flowers, I begin to remove any small new shoots that Tomato's throw out from the side leaf axles, nip those out by pinching between thumb and finger or you end up with a plant trying to grow way too many flowers AND too many fruits in one season.

I'm giving my methods for MOST types of tomato plants BUT there are loads of new ones on the market, like cherry Tomato's dont need pinching out but like a feed as mentioned, some dont require top pinching as they grow to a prescribed height, so you can decide whats best for the type of Tomato you are growing.
Hope this helps you out a bit
Best regards.
WeeNel.

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