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Old 18-07-2007, 06:20 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
Billy Rose Billy Rose is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jun 2007
Posts: 951
Default Odd behaving Tomato

In article ,
(Pat Kiewicz) wrote:

Jane Doe said:

I have an odd behaving tomato bush, actually two. Two of them are
Mr.Stripy from HomeDepot which I put in the ground at the end of April
with many other varieties.
Just yesterday, I noticed that the two Stripies have ZERO
fruit. Zero flowers. They are sitting in the same row as many other
varieties which have set fruit a long time ago which has already ripened.
All the tomatoes are planted in the same soil so it's not as if it's growing
in pure Nitrogen :*). I've never seen anything like it, but I'm curious how
this could happen and has anyone seen this kind of behavior from a
tomato plant before.

Any ideas?


I have one plant (Anna Russian) out of 14 varieties that just has not
set any fruit. I've been blaming the weather. It's been very dry since
mid June, and we've had some really hot days mixed through the
dry spell, and lots of windy, low humidity days. (It's been mostly
grand, for anyone that isn't a farmer or gardener.) Perhaps this
variety, for whatever reason, is just more sensitive to the kind of
weather we've had this year. It's been a good performer in the past.

I've got one other plant (Momotaro) that has refused to grow, but
has set some fruit. This plant was puny from the start, but it was
the best of the seedlings I had to choose from, as some seeds failed
to germinate. The last couple of years this variety has been normal,
from seedling on. Perhaps I need fresher seed. I can't otherwise
explain it. (In comparison, the German Orange Strawberry plant,,
both this year and last, started out extremely puny and spindley but
each time it rapidly caught up with the other varieties once it was
in the ground.)

All the other plants are growing well (overtopping the stakes
or crowding the caged) and are loaded with green fruit.

I finally had some SunSugar cherries to pick yesterday. (A bit late.)


Part of the problem with tomato harvest is that some ripen in 65 days
and others in 90 days. It seems like forever for those 2 pound tomatoes
to produce and then, bim-batta-boom, it is "gazpacho heaven".

I'm guessing that these are just those "little mysteries of life". My
first planting of early ripening tomatoes ("Marmande" & "Peche de Jaune"
) are moving very slowly, with no flowers yet. While my later planting
of them are flowering and doing well. The "stupice" is my first producer
but not my largest plant. One, a "rose" heirloom, that was a runt,
suddenly took off growing more rapidly than the other tomatoes, even
though it gets little, warm, afternoon Sun and is shaded by a "green
zebra".

I see little rhyme or reason in the manner that this years crop is
unfolding.

Won't even start with the surprise that my "sugar baby" watermelon looks
uncannily like a crook neck squash. Probably should take another look at
my crook neck squash. Hmmm.
--
Billy
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/