tomato that does not fruit

I have three tomato plants that are flowering but not fruiting. I had this problem with one plant last year. The other two next to it (different kinds) were fine, so I didn't think it was pollination problem. Is it soil problem? Any suggestions?

It seems a bit early to expect even baby fruits to me (but I typically don't grow early varieties) Here's a link I found through googling that suggests it's too much rain: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf48516325.tip.html#16146475

Low temperatures mess up fruit set and can cause small (size of buckshot or smaller) fruits to drop. Below 50 degrees is asking for trouble with most tomatoes while below 40 guarantees fruit set problems. It only takes one cold night. Spraying the blossoms with fruiting hormone such as Blossom Set helps a little bit. There are some heirloom varieties from cold or mountainous regions that set and ripen fruit in cold conditions. Unfortunately, those properties are their only virtues.

The wild temperature fluctuations in May seem to have affected the supply of pollinating insects, too.

Not a problem now but sustained hot temperatures with nights staying mostly above 80 will shut down blossom production for a while. This can cause gaps in the supply of ripening tomatoes weeks after the hot weather.

I was tempted to start a new thread, since the subject is zucchini rather than tomatoes, but since the topic is a lack of fruit, this seems like a reasonable place for me to post...

We have two large and vigorous zucchini plants in the garden which are producing male flowers in normal quantities. We have, however, had no single female flower, thus no actual zucchini. Last year, my zucchini plants also seemed to do well but production of actual squashes was minimal. This year, the absence is complete.

A friend of mine in the Indiana/Illinois border zone is experiencing low production as I had last year and another friend, in the Frankfort area, has had no zucchini so far this season. A relative in far off New Jersey is also suffering from a dearth of productivity from his plants.

Are others experiencing this as well? It's rather strange, since in previous years, my zucchini plants have been tremendously productive, matching the species' proverbial generosity.

Very disappointing that my first home-grown cianfotta had to be supplemented with store-bought zucchini...

Antonius

My tomatoes have tons of baby green tomatoes on them...
But they get lots of sun, and I have been watering them deeply once a week during the dry spells.
We also have lots of bumblebees around, since there is a big patch of monarda about 20 feet away,
and the bees completely love it!

I also did not plant the tomatoes very early, they went in in early June, I think-
I think they tend to do worse when you "rush" them.

My peppers are doing pretty nice, too-
If I get my act together, I'll take a picture.

Antonious, you probably already now this, but....how long have they been flowering? If it's only been three weeks or so, I understand that to be normal - females often show up a few weeks later than the male flowers.

I am not a squash expert by any stretch, having only grown them a few times. I was curious and did some searches and couldn't find anything to suggest why this would happen. I hope you figure it out soon.

ViewsAskew wrote:Antonious, you probably already now this, but....how long have they been flowering? If it's only been three weeks or so, I understand that to be normal - females often show up a few weeks later than the male flowers.

I am not a squash expert by any stretch, having only grown them a few times. I was curious and did some searches and couldn't find anything to suggest why this would happen. I hope you figure it out soon.

ViewsAskew -- Thanks for the response. The zucchini plants have been flowering for some time now. Indeed, the overall development has proceeded just as in other years, with flowers appearing abundantly already in mid to late June. The one and very much mysterious difference being the lack of actual squashes to eat... Very strange... I'll continue to ask around and also poke around on-line and in books...

A

Today I noticed a small creature sitting on the flower buds of my tomato (it seems behind in other ways, so I'm not yet worried that it hasn't fruited, but you all have me thinking) I thought it was a tiny caterpillar, but when I went to brush it off, it flew away, like a leafhopper (it was orange, brown and white, though.) I'm poking around online to see if he might be the culprit.

And this blog, excellent for bug identification, notes it as an Alianthus Webworm Moth (how did I live before Google?) which was probably looking for a tree and not a tomato.

After reading Antonius's post and searching on-line to find out how to tell the difference between a male and a female blossom (I had no idea there were two types), I checked my delicata squash plant and found only male blossoms. I've had blossoms since the end of June. So, it seems I have the same problem. I'm hoping the female blossoms are just delayed. But I was happy to find out I can pick the male blossoms without losing fruit. Does anyone know if delicata blossoms are edible, or is it just zucchini?

I think all squash blossoms are edible. I am relatively sure my Italian in-laws use the blossoms from any squash they grow. A search netted a University of Illinois page that says just that.

I searched for some reason that both of you would only have male flowers and literally found nothing. My favorite gardening forum is GardenWeb. The container gardening folks are very well-informed. I've not spent much time in the Vegetable Gardening forum there, but I'd try a post there. If they don't know, the container folks might.

Yes, both male and female blossoms are themselves used in our kitchen in a variety of traditional ways, some of which I've posted on in the past. And again, while the flowers abound this year, all have been male... that is, until just a couple of days ago when we finally found an actual small squash growing. The mystery remains, for the appearance of just one squash at the end of July is hardly normal and certainly not in accord with our experience in previous growing seasons...

A