How to Protect Your Tomato Blooms from Blossom Drop
By Michelle Fabio
If the flowers on your tomato plants are drying up and falling off, you’ve got a case of blossom drop on your hands.
Here are a few possible causes and what you can do about them:
• Weather
If the weather’s been extremely hot, humid, or cold, that’s the most likely cause of losing your blossoms; this is because pollination is most successful in temperatures between 70° and 85°F and is also adversely affected by high humidity.
There’s not too much you can do about the weather in a given season, but you can plan when you plant your tomatoes to give them the best chance.
Also, note that ideal humidity levels are between 40% and 70%; if you live in a low humidity area, you can wet your plants during the day to try to create some humidity. In high humidity areas, the best you can do is choose tomatoes varieties that aren’t as affected by humidity.
• Fertilizer
You may have fertilized too much, putting too much nitrogen in the soil—you’ve probably noticed a lot of great foliage, but weak flowers. You really only need to fertilize once when planting and again after the fruit sets.
• Not Enough Bees
Even if you’re allergic to their stings, bees are your friends when you’re looking for pollination, and it’s possible that there just aren’t enough visiting your tomato plants. Should you start a hive? Well, you could, but it’s probably easier to just plant some nectar-rich flowers in the same area as your tomatoes instead.
• Water
Even when it’s hot and dry, you should only need to deep water your tomatoes once a week; shallow watering can weaken the plants.
• Disease/Infection
It’s possible that your blossoms are dropping due to stress from disease or infection; if there are other symptoms, try to find out the root of the problem, so to speak, and work from there.
• Too Much/Not Enough Pruning
Maybe you’ve been shear-happy, or perhaps there are just too many blossoms for your plant to support. Try to keep the amount of foliage and blossoms reasonable for the size of the plant to support.
Overall, if you’re experiencing blossom drop, one of the best things you can do is talk to other gardeners in your area—if they are having the same problems, chances are it’s the weather or other factors out of your control.
On the other hand, if their blossoms are progressing just fine, you’ll have to look closer at how you’re treating your tomatoes.
May all your blossoms bloom.
June 15th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Question - should one remove or leave blooms at base of plant?
June 15th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Question - should one remove or leave blooms at base of tomato plants?
May 13th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
how do you stop blossom drop off?
May 25th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I have a green house >first yr< and I have some tomato plants, planted in large buckets, that are losing thier blooms a few of them..the rest looks good so far. the other plants, they look good but are starting to get spinnly and cury leaves what to do????