"Every Man" wrote in message
...
Very strange.

I'm in eastern Virginia -- Northumberland County, along the Potomac
River.

Last year as we were building our house we planted a dozen or so
tomato plants along the back of the lot and harvested tomatoes all
summer and into the fall.

This year, I have 26 plants, all heirloom varieties. They are in
raised beds that are filled with half-and-half compost and topsoil.

I prune my plants so there are 3-4 main stems. I have lots of
foilage, healthy plants, no pests, and lots of green tomatoes. However
-- only two of my plants are ripening. I have been picking an
occasional ripe tomato from these two plants for 3 weeks; the rest of
the plants show no sign of ripening although they are loaded with
tomatoes.


On a similar note:

After typing that message I got busy pruning dead leaves and dying shoots.
I noticed that many of my yellow pears would drop off the vine if I just
touched them. So I removed about 30 tomatoes, all green, that were ready to
drop. I have no idea if they will ripen indoors. One did, so I have hope.

So is this a sign that the plant was going to drop its unripe fruit? Does
this sound like a sign of stress?

Paul