Oh dear! What's going wrong with my toms?
I have 2 tomato plants in a grow bag, which I water and feed weekly. I actually water twice a week when it's dry. I have lots of beautiful leaves but no flowers or fruit forming. My strawberries on the other hand are forming beautifully and are producing runners too. I am new to gardening so due to lack of experience I don't know if this is right or if I'm doing something wrong. I read somewhere that tomato plants have gone leggy! Could this be the case with mine? Any help please.
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You don't feed tomatos until the first truss ( flowers) has set. I'd stop feeding and water slightly more if they're in a growbag.
Thank you very much for the advice. So put them on a diet
haha...this maybe of some help http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Grow-Your-Own/Veg-A-to-Z/Tomatoes
Try not to worry, but do continue to water on a regular basis and remove the suckers. These are located between the main stem and leaves, you can't miss them, well...
Ahh yes the suckers! I've heard conflicting advice about those. Most say to remove them and I've heard to leave them alone
so do I cut as close to the main stem as possible? And I've noticed quite a few on my plants. Do I need to remove them all?
What variety of tomato are the plants, Herby Lou?
depends on the variety tbh, you have indeterminate, and determinate tomatoes, essentially vine or bush. If you have vine tomatoes take out the side shoots, the 'suckers', if a bush let it grow however it likes or you will be removing fruit! I don't feed til the first truss has formed, but some do and say they get more trusses and more fruit, it's up to you, but good luck and let us know how you are getting on.
I always grow the vine type ( Shirley, Alicante, Red Cherry amongst my favs) and have always removed them all. Not sure if they really affect a plants ability to produce but I find it makes a neater, more controllable plant especially in greenhouse conditions. Once you have about 5-6 truss, stop the plant by nipping out it's growing point - top of the plant.
If they're small I nip out with my finger and thumb - any bigger, sterile knife/scissors.
Hi Herby, It's too early to be seeing toms in flower, I'm guessing they are outside? I have only just put mine out, no sign of any flowers, this is normal , been very cold, just be patient and all will happen
I know you will see toms at the garden centres with fruit already on but they are retailers not gardeners so ignore what you see, your plants will know when to flower.
Good luck x
Ok I went to check on them today, one is a sungold, the other is a red cherry type. The red one is darker green and has more shoots and leaves. Well I removed most of the suckers now. I did notice a flower about to open up and quite a few flower buds. The shoots with the buds (although the buds are small) I left alone. I thought I'd leave them if they are to produce fruit. The sungold tomato has a small yellow flower just opened up. And again quite a few buds. I removed some of the lower shoots, as the higher ones are the ones with the buds on. I really am a novice at this. I guess it's really down to trial and error and experience. They were the only 2 plants I got out of 8 seeds, 4 of each. And I bought a young Italian plum from a garden centre which is now in a trough with marigolds. Was advised to plant near to them. Thanks for your advice
@itsnotmyfault
My toms have been out in the plastic greenhouses for 6 weeks, all are flowering. Alicante, Gardeners Delight and Sungold, the tumbling toms have been in a basket outside for about month now.
EDIT: Probably should have mentioned the greenhouse is left open all the time since 2-3 weeks ago.