Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels => Topic started by: mclarkuk1 on May 09, 2011, 18:07
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I think I may be being impatient with my tomatoes.
I grew alot of tomato plants from seed very early this year and had so many that i gave a proportion of them to my dad.
Mine are about 2ft tall and they all have 2 going on 3 trusses. My dads are they same.
Mine have been kept in the greenhouse for weeks now and my dad has been carrying his in and out he conservatory untill last week when he got his greenhouse up and running.
Today, I discover his have a couple of tiny toms about a pea size on them, yet mine have nothing. I have had flower petals drop of but with no sign of the tomato growing since, i can only assume they havent been pollinated because they have been in a calm, wind free, bee free environment in which they have had no movement to knock/move the pollen.
Ive never grown tomatoes in a greenhouse before and it seems to me that greenhouse toms need to be pollinated manually :(
I got a greenhouse this year thinking it would be an easier way to grow some lush toms but since owning it i have had nothing but troubles with overwatering due to the unusually hot weather, magnesium deficiency and now i find that my toms arent pollinating and i have to do it manually :(
Sad times
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Sounds like normal greenhouse growing to me, they generally need a magnesium fix and some do need their flowers tickled. :)
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They will come eventually. It is still very early. There are probably a few little tomatoes developing that you have not noticed.
As regards magnesium deficiency, I mistook nitrogen deficiency for magnesium deficiency for years. I starved my poor tomatoes of nitrogen and fed magnesium, which makes it worse. Eventually I decided to give a general purpose fertilizer and now have very healthy tomato plants. If you haven't fed them and the leaves are yellow it is worth considering.
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just tap the canes/strings that are supporting the plants, the vibrations make the flowers release their pollen.
However in the hot weather we've been having, I would have thought that you would have doors and windows open allowing pollinating insects in anyway