Page 1 of 1

Doubt about tomato production

Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2020 6:27 am
by Nico
Hello everyone and thank you in advance.
This year I was quite ahead in the growth of my tomato plants thanks to a small greenhouse, I obtained tomatoes more than a month ahead of previous years, but now in the month of September with very good weather, the tomato plants have left to produce, when in previous years, at this time, my plants were in full production, and I wonder if the plants have only one production quota, that is, if for example a tomato plant even though its climate conditions are only favorable they can give a certain amount of tomatoes and no more. For this reason, by moving forward a month in production, perhaps the plant has already produced all the production it can have. I hope I have explained it well. Thank you.

Re: Doubt about tomato production

Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2020 7:11 am
by Labradors
What is the variety? Some are determinate and they do stop after a while, but many are indeterminate and they will keep on producing tomatoes until frost kills them.

Linda

Re: Doubt about tomato production

Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2020 8:32 am
by MissS
Yes Nico, Linda is right. Production of the plant depends on what variety you have. Determinate tomatoes are good for canning because they set and ripen their crop all at one time and then are finished and stop growing and producing much. Indeterminate plants will grow and produce tomatoes all season.

Re: Doubt about tomato production

Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2020 2:28 pm
by Nico
Thanks for the answer, the truth is that I have not counted the varieties that I have, but I think that I have more or less 20 different varieties and all have stopped producing in good weather. All my plants are indeterminate

Re: Doubt about tomato production

Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2020 3:07 pm
by bower
Indeterminate plants will slow down too if they have a heavy crop. Feed them and they'll start up again, as long as there's nothing else preventing them from growing and setting fruit.
Are they not growing, or are they flowering but not setting?

Re: Doubt about tomato production

Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2020 3:09 pm
by MissS
If your temperatures have been very hot, that may reduce your plants production. If that was the reason then they should have started forming new fruits when the weather cooled off. Have they been flowering?

Re: Doubt about tomato production

Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2020 1:14 am
by Nico
Yes, they are all flowering, but they have not produced tomatoes for two weeks, I do not think they will have time to form tomatoes since in two weeks more or less the cold will arrive

Re: Doubt about tomato production

Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2020 1:51 am
by Amateurinawe
We have maybe a couple of weeks of good weather on South coast of UK and then anybodies guess. I hope you manage to squeeze out a few more and keep figures crossed for an Indian summer. I'm still feeding the plants with tomato feed.

Re: Doubt about tomato production

Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2020 7:02 am
by bower
Sounds like it may already be too late to set and grow the last round of fruit, although "cold" is relative I guess. You could try fertilizing and giving them a good shake.
Some of my plants have little baby fruit on them that they didn't grow, but they still look white and appear to be a good set. Now that I cut the large fruit off, I notice several of those have started growing. I've seen this before on some indeterminates - that they kept some little fruit in reserve just to grow if they had the resources. Now I am a little bit torn, because IDK if they will have time to grow and ripen, and also there is grey mold in the greenhouse this season, so the plants may fail quickly as the weather gets cold. So I'm not sure whether to cut them down now, or let it run...
Even in warm weather I think 30 days is the minimum time for a small fruit to grow and ripen.
Many tomato plants will continue to grow fruit though, as long as the days are over 60 F/ 15C.

Re: Doubt about tomato production

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2020 10:46 am
by Nico
Thank you all very much for the comments, I think it is quite clear to me.
Thank you

Re: Doubt about tomato production

Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2020 12:29 am
by JRinPA
[mention]Nico[/mention] One thing to try next year...since you have a nice long season, take advantage of the greenhouse again and start half of your plants early like this year. Time the other half of your planned crop like previous years so you have continued production up until cold weather.