Have you already done your gardening work diligently in the spring when growing plants, but your tomato plants are not growing? The causes of a poor harvest could be due to various factors that sometimes pose a challenge for amateur gardeners. If you grow tomatoes, you've most likely encountered one or more of these common plant problems. Here is some useful information and advice that can help you take the right action.
Everything was done correctly and the tomato plants are not growing – what could be the problem?
If you in springPlant tomatoes, you may look forward to a rich fruit harvest later at suitable temperatures. Healthy tomato plants grow quickly under the right conditions, but if the plant doesn't like one factor, its growth will slow or stop. Plants that experience this may be suffering from disease or insect infestation, or may simply need pruning and the appropriate amount of nutrients from fertilizer.
As a rule, tomatoes are not a difficult plant variety to grow. They are actually quite hardy and persistent given the right temperature and water conditions. However, the difficult part of growing tomatoes is knowing the plant well enough to make it grow the way you want. Aside from leaf problems, one of the most common difficulties gardeners have with tomato plants is the lack of fruit. Many who have grown lush, bushy tomato plants ask themselves: What do tomatoes need to grow?
Why doesn't the plant produce fruit?
After you plant your tomatoes in the ground, it usually takes a few months before you can harvest fruit. Each tomato variety has a different time to fruiting, which can be 90 days or more. It's really hard to wait patiently for fruits on your plant, but the first thing you need to do is browse your variety.
This will give you a rough estimate of when you should expect fruit from this plant. If your tomato plant is definitely old enough to produce tomatoes, then it's time to consider one of these reasons for poor production. There are various causes, but tomatoes grow slowly, so you need to take a closer look at your plant during the growing phase.
Pruning tomato plants
If your tomato plant grew quickly but has stopped producing flowers and fruit, you may need to prune some of its branches. If you don't prune your tomatoes regularly, the plants will develop additional branches called suckers. These branches are called suckers because they deprive the plant of the energy it needs to produce and ripen fruit.
Look for suckers growing in the crotch between two established branches. To remove a suction cup, squeeze the base with your fingers and wiggle it back and forth until it breaks off. If your plant is mature and very large, you can also remove larger side stems that are not producing flowers or fruit. This allows the plant to focus more energy on fruit development.
Well watered but tomato plants are not growing
You should make sure that you water neither too much nor too little, but just right. When your plants experience periods of drought and flooding, they often respond by dropping flowers. It is best to water evenly and avoid extreme changes that can cause problems with growth and tomato fruit.
If possible, install drip irrigation at the base of your plants and only water the soil when the top layer of soil is dry. Depending on your environment, you may need to water every day or just once a week.
Tomatoes stop growing due to lack of nutrients
Of course, tomato plants also need nutrient-rich soil so that they can thrive. When the soil is nutrient-poor, the plant suffers from many problems, including stunted or slowed growth. Additionally, an unhealthy tomato plant is also more likely to attract pests and diseases. The fruits of a stunted plant also remain small and take longer to ripen.
To remedy this problem, surround each tomato plant with a layer of aged compost when you grow them. When tomatoes reach golf ball size, fertilize each plant with 1 tablespoon of 10-10-10 fertilizer or ammonium nitrate. Repeat the application again three and six weeks later. However, when fertilizing, no fertilizer should get on the leaves of the plant. After fertilizing, you should also water the plant well.
Take the right measures against plant diseases and pests
Even if you prune and fertilize your tomato plant properly, pests and diseases can strike and cause serious problems. When the plant is attacked by a pest or plant disease, it must expend its energy to fight off the problem. This reduces the energy it needs to continue growing. Diseases that commonly affect tomatoes include root rot, blossom end rot, fusarium, crown rot and wilt, cucumber mosaic virus, and bacterial canker. Common pests include aphids, worms, flea beetles, psyllids and stink bugs. To find out the best way to treat your plant, search for the suspected pest or disease in a pest database.
Either your tomato plants will tolerate the disease and grow through it, or they will succumb to the stress and die. Any treatment you apply is really to prevent the infection from spreading to other plants, although this is often a futile attempt. A heavy infestation of pests such as aphids or spider mites can put additional stress on a tomato plant, which can affect fruit set. How you perform pest control on your plants should be a personal decision.
Pay attention to optimal temperatures
Tomatoes prefer mild weather and temperatures that are too low or too high can stunt growth. For example, tomatoes stop setting fruit when daytime temperatures exceed approximately 32°C, although nighttime temperatures above 20°C could also cause problems. Generally, temperatures below 15°C inhibit growth. When it's too hot or too cold, plants focus on survival, not new growth.
With the exception of weather and disease, you may be able to use these tips to redirect your plant's growth to encourage more fruit set. If you are new to gardening, going through this list will help you monitor your plant and respond to it as needed. Experience is truly the best path to success when growing tomatoes. Even if you didn't get a great harvest this year, try again next year and the year after that.
