Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Hello @Makingabobor2,
Are your tomatoes actually producing flowers? If so, then it sounds as though they are not being pollinated. Are the plants shut in a greenhouse & inaccessible to pollinators? Admittedly a lot fewer insects around this year, but I have fruit on all 19 plants so there must still be enough going on for pollination purposes. My Mum used to swear by weekly tapping of the trusses of flowers too, for assisting pollination, but I don't know how scientific that is. 
Another thought....do you have loads of lush green leafy foliage & all the energy's going into that? This can sometimes happen if you begin weekly feeding too early, before the 1st tiny fruits have set. The plant has no incentive to hurry up & reproduce (as in producing fruits/seeds) because it is yumming all that fertiliser & is under no pressure to fruit.
Another thing could be if it was saved seed from supermarket tomatoes? I regularly save flower seeds but always buy new tomato seed as I want a reliable variety. It's a long growing season & if they don't flourish, it soon becomes too late to re-sow.
The weather won't have helped & none of my outdoor tomatoes are as far advanced as warner years, but if they are a variety which is suitable to grow outdoors (labels & seed packets should state this) then I'd expect them to be producing something by.now, even if still small & green.
Hope this is a bit helpful anyway,
F x

foxgloves

Oh my life.....Mr F has today received a letter from VM informing him that we are coming to the end of our broadband contract, when the monthly payment will rise by an absolutely p*ss-taking amount. I worked it out & it's a 108% increase!! Needless to say, he's on it. 
F

Sun_Addict

foxgloves said:

Oh my life.....Mr F has today received a letter from VM informing him that we are coming to the end of our broadband contract, when the monthly payment will rise by an absolutely p*ss-taking amount. I worked it out & it's a 108% increase!! Needless to say, he's on it. 
F

I spent 2 days haggling with them on What’s app last year for the same reason. You have to persevere but it’s worth it in the end. 

Blackcats

V M really do take the proverbial.  I endeavour to manage my dad's account for him and it is one of the most soul destroying tasks of the year.  I'm sure MrF will eventually get you a far, far better deal than their outrageous renewal figure.

I agree that a dismembered carcass is actually better than a living mouse in the house.  Grim choices for those of us with felines! 

Makingabobor2

foxgloves said:

Hello @Makingabobor2,
Are your tomatoes actually producing flowers? If so, then it sounds as though they are not being pollinated. Are the plants shut in a greenhouse & inaccessible to pollinators? Admittedly a lot fewer insects around this year, but I have fruit on all 19 plants so there must still be enough going on for pollination purposes. My Mum used to swear by weekly tapping of the trusses of flowers too, for assisting pollination, but I don't know how scientific that is. 
Another thought....do you have loads of lush green leafy foliage & all the energy's going into that? This can sometimes happen if you begin weekly feeding too early, before the 1st tiny fruits have set. The plant has no incentive to hurry up & reproduce (as in producing fruits/seeds) because it is yumming all that fertiliser & is under no pressure to fruit.
Another thing could be if it was saved seed from supermarket tomatoes? I regularly save flower seeds but always buy new tomato seed as I want a reliable variety. It's a long growing season & if they don't flourish, it soon becomes too late to re-sow.
The weather won't have helped & none of my outdoor tomatoes are as far advanced as warner years, but if they are a variety which is suitable to grow outdoors (labels & seed packets should state this) then I'd expect them to be producing something by.now, even if still small & green.
Hope this is a bit helpful anyway,
F x

Thanks FG.  2 of them have flowers so far and they all have loads of green foliage. I only started feeding them a few weeks ago, and haven't seen any difference since then.  I didn't realise I shouldn't feed them until the first fruits had set.   No, they are all outside, don't have a green house....still working on DH for that, he says we have no room.....I say we can make room....lol   If there's too much foliage, should I cut some back?  Maybe my compost was rubbish?   The one plant that is producing fruit, currently has about 6 more ripening off.  Well its all a learning curve isn't it?  I'll see how they go and hopefully if this year is a disaster I will do better next year. Maybe use a different garden centre next time. 

themadvix

MAB, I have only had two cherry toms so far. Mine are all outside too. Flowers in the last couple of weeks but only one obvious plum tomato developing at the moment. I think it’s probably the weather - everything has been slow this year due to lack of sunshine and warmth. Hopefully with a bit more sun, things will start to crack on!

joedenise

I've got loads of tomatoes on the cherry tomato plant (Tumbling Tom) and loads more flowers.  The beef tomato however has only just produced it's first fruit and not a huge number of flowers so hopefully we'll get a few more fruits.  We started feeding the plants a couple of weeks ago when the cherry tomato started fruiting.

Makingabobor2

themadvix said:

MAB, I have only had two cherry toms so far. Mine are all outside too. Flowers in the last couple of weeks but only one obvious plum tomato developing at the moment. I think it’s probably the weather - everything has been slow this year due to lack of sunshine and warmth. Hopefully with a bit more sun, things will start to crack on!

Yes, I hope so

Debsnewbudget

@Makingabobor2
Have you taken out the side shoots of the tomato plants ? 

This is how to if you have not done it
https://www.allotment-garden.org/vegetable/how-to-grow-your-own-tomatoes/removing-tomato-side-shoots-suckers-stopping/

Makingabobor2

Debsnewbudget said:

@Makingabobor2
Have you taken out the side shoots of the tomato plants ? 

This is how to if you have not done it
https://www.allotment-garden.org/vegetable/how-to-grow-your-own-tomatoes/removing-tomato-side-shoots-suckers-stopping/

ooh, no. Didn't know about that. Thankyou. x