Gus wrote:
"Gus" wrote in message
...
"songbird" wrote in message
...
Gus wrote:
I have 8 plants and 7 all have had a decent number of tomatoes, but
one
plant has not had any. It is the plant the has grown the best and
biggest and looks the healthiest. It's actually huge-- over 6 feet
tall, and filled out well. Has had lots of flowers, but not one
tomato.
It's in the same spot as I had one last year that produced many
tomatoes. I'm confused why this one plant is not growing any
tomatoes,
and it is the biggest and healthiest of the lot.

there are many possible reasons, but if the
plant is not in some way isolated from pollinators
or otherwise protected from the wind or the rain
then i would guess that it is a mutation that
affects self-pollination.

you could try to take pollen off another plant
and to hand pollinate a flower and see if that
works (using a small paint brush).

this year for us our cherry tomatoes are fairly
barren, the beefsteaks are doing fine. usually
we have more cherry tomatoes than we can eat.


songbird



This seems helpful. I do have Qtips... I didn't know there were
male and female flowers. In the past, I just planted plants and
they grew and produced on their own.


Tomatoes do not have male and female flowers. Each flower is both.
Normally they self polinate, from the same plant if not the same flower,
mainly due to the wind.

http://vegibee.com/index.php/hand-pollination



I'm more confused. All the flowers on the plants look the same. I
don't see any that look female like the article shows. Even on the
other plants that are producing they all have what appears to be a
stamen sticking out of the flower. The flowers all look the same.

In the tomato they are. The example was for squash etc which have separate
male and female flowers. Be careful generalising in the world of plants,
one size does not fit all.

--
David

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A better world requires a daily struggle
against those who would mislead us.

On 08/03/2014 05:24 AM, songbird wrote:
Gus wrote:
I have 8 plants and 7 all have had a decent number of tomatoes, but one
plant has not had any. It is the plant the has grown the best and
biggest and looks the healthiest. It's actually huge-- over 6 feet
tall, and filled out well. Has had lots of flowers, but not one tomato.
It's in the same spot as I had one last year that produced many
tomatoes. I'm confused why this one plant is not growing any tomatoes,
and it is the biggest and healthiest of the lot.

there are many possible reasons, but if the
plant is not in some way isolated from pollinators
or otherwise protected from the wind or the rain
then i would guess that it is a mutation that
affects self-pollination.

you could try to take pollen off another plant
and to hand pollinate a flower and see if that
works (using a small paint brush).

this year for us our cherry tomatoes are fairly
barren, the beefsteaks are doing fine. usually
we have more cherry tomatoes than we can eat.


songbird



Hi Gus and Songbird,

I think there may be a clue from Gus' original port:

"It is the plant the has grown the best and
biggest and looks the healthiest"

Gus, Are you using a organic or a conventional fertilizer?
If you are using a conventional fertilizer, there is
a possibility you hit it with too much nitrogen.

If so, Songbird will know how to fix it.

Just an idea.

-T

On 08/03/2014 03:41 PM, David Hare-Scott wrote:
Tomatoes do not have male and female flowers. Each flower is both.
Normally they self polinate, from the same plant if not the same flower,
mainly due to the wind.

Would a gentle shake do the trick?

David Hare-Scott wrote:
....
The hand pollination is a long shot. Tomatoes are usually self-pollinating.
While bird's idea is not impossible it is far from likely.

By 'small' I would picture a brush of 3mm (1/8th in) not 1.5in. You have to
get the tip into the flower and on to the anther, the little spike in the
middle.

certainly it is a strange way to go about
things, but sometimes it is worth a try, as
is dinging the flowers with the tip of your
finger, or sometimes watering the plant even
onto the flowers to shake them around, even
if it isn't always the best thing to do to
get the leaves wet...

short of some observation or more description
of why this plant would be pollinating
differently would likely help too, but
sometimes we don't always get all the facts of
a matter.

and yes, mutations, by their nature, do tend to
be not very frequent, but they do happen (as
evidenced by the pea i planted last year that
ended up not having any functional chlorophyll
in it at all -- it died shortly after the
cotyledons ran out of energy).


songbird

Gus said:

I've not been watering it all. We've had quite a bit of rain this year,
and so far has not been necessary. I've done nothing to it different
than the other plants that are producing. There is one just about 4
feet away and it's more scraggly, but producing. I've never had a
plant do this before. It looks extremely healthy and has many yellow
flowers.

Are they different tomato varieties? Some varieties are more
temperature sensitive than others, so will not set well if the nights
are too cool or the days too hot.

Sometimes it can help to do something to stress the happy but
unproductive tomato plant. Prune some of the foliage, maybe
even stick a spade down along one side of the plant to sever some
roots. Force the plant out of vegetative mode and into survival mode:
"I have to set some seed before I croak!!!"

--
Pat in Plymouth MI

"Yes, swooping is bad."

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