Topic: Puzzled re tomatoes

[Hot_Potato]

my Gartenperle tomatoes, which have thickened up lovely and been loaded with flowers, now have a few tomatoes forming on each plant, some the size of my finger nail but what about all the other flowers.....they now seem to by dying off with no sign of anymore 'babies' forming   ???....is this normal....surely I should expect more than 3 or 4 tomatoes from a plant?

also, quite a few of the leaves have gone quite yellow, I keep taking them off but wonder if maybe I'm overwatering them?......is it possible to do that....I soak all the tomatoes & courgettes, which are either in buckets or growbags every evening and they're not in the sun when watered - it's morning before they get anymore sunshine!...I'm now feeding them twice a week with tomatoe feed.....

what have I done wrong - I keep 'hand pollinating' the courgettes where I think necessary - but you can't 'hand pollinate' tomatoes surely!!....wouldn't want to try....I've loads of bees, insects and butterflies around thankfully.

H.P.

[tim]

You're right. You're being robbed. Where do we start?

1. Watering? Soak? Each plant in a bag needs up to 3.5 litres a day in this weather - sun or not. But too much could be bad.

2. No need to pollinate toms - but an occasional 'wobble' helps.

3. Yellow? Aphid? Fertiliser? Correct amount & as on the instructions?

Can't think of a panacea!

[supersprout]

Do the toms have good drainage HP?

[greyhound]

No need to pollinate toms - but an occasional 'wobble' helps.

What's a wobble?

[djbrenton]

It's the same as a jiggle but a bit less vigorous.

[tim]

Thanks, Sprouty - that's what I meant to saywith the over-watering.

[spacehopper]

It's the same as a jiggle but a bit less vigorous.

Its what I'd call a shoogle.  :D

[Hot_Potato]

thanks for comments - yes, they've got plenty of drainage....noticed last night as I made sure the tomato had as much water as Tim suggested (maybe I wasn't giving quite that much) that it was pouring out the many holes I'd put in the bottom.

As for a little 'wobble/jiggle' or 'shoogle' even - I'd have thought with the regular breezes we seem to get - they'd get plenty of those but.....to make sure - I gently gave all the flower clusters a shake then ran my fingers thru them gently - hope that wasn't overdoing it?? ;)

Maybe I'm just a wee bit impatient - noticed this morning a few more tiny ones forming :)

But!!.....that doesn't alter the yellowing of the leaves and having looked thru my Dr. Hessayon book (why didn't I think of that earlier)....think for some reason one pot particularly cos it's worse than the others, might have a magnesium deficiency???....suggests spraying with Epsom Salts or a foliar spray with mag. any suggested brand names please for that?

Notice also just a few tiny little black flies (like greenfly but black) but not many!

When I put them in the pots or hanging baskets.....don't think I added any fertiliser to the potting compost but I do use a basic tomato feed, which the books says makes this serious disorder worse  ???    :o

now what?