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Post by Moose on Aug 8, 2015 0:11:36 GMT
are totally enormous and it is entirely possible that they may take over this arm of the solar system soon. However, they are not with tomato which makes me feel rather ... barren. My mum told me to go out and 'polinate' them by tickling the flowers with a feather but in all honesty I suspect that many of my neigbours already think that I am weird enough without my getting a reputation for tickling tomatoes especially at one am. Anyway, surely bees are supposed to do the polinating thing? I've noticed a fair number of bees this year - most than most years, though that might be because I've been outside more than usual this summer - and yet whatever it is they are supposed to be doing to turn tomoato plants into a ham salad is apparently not happening.
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Post by JoeP on Aug 8, 2015 11:45:36 GMT
Make a tree house on top of the plants and wait. You'll be the first moose in space.
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Post by Moose on Aug 8, 2015 14:20:24 GMT
I thought that beanstalks were the traditional veg of choice for launching meese into space.
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Post by JoeP on Aug 8, 2015 14:25:31 GMT
Do you have a beanstalk growing at the same rate?
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 8, 2015 22:04:35 GMT
My tomatoes are just beginning to produce in earnest. I had a few early fruit, but now the Romas are ripening in bunches.
If your soil has too much nitrogen and not enough phosphate (and/or potash - potassium), then it will produce more green foliage and flower less. You want it to flower more and limit the foliage to that necessary to support the bush to produce more fruit. You want the plant to stop growing and start reproducing....ahem. Flowers are necessary for fruit to develop. Flowers that are subsequently pollinated. I believe you said you had seen plenty of bees in your area this growing season. If they are indeed bees, and not hornets or other wasps, then you should be okay; I think it more likely that you have insufficient phosphorous in your soil. It can be readily augmented if known in time...but I think you probably don't have adequate time remaining in your growing season to rectify the situation...this year.
Next year, you'll know. And you'll be ready earlier in the growing season. (My father every year would plant his tomato sets in late May and then give them two to three weeks to get established. Then, he'd trench a circle around each plant about two inches deep just beyond the tips of the plants' branches and put a tablespoon of superphosphate in each trench and water it in thoroughly. It was his way of kickstarting the bloom cycle. The same can be done with typical over the counter 'bloom-builder' garden fertilizer products.)
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