Disappointing beans and toms.

  • 6 Replies
  • 3832 Views
*

Goosegirl

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: Caton, Lancaster.
  • 8941
Disappointing beans and toms.
« on: July 30, 2019, 11:30 »
This year I replenished my g-house bed with new bagged topsoil and compost and dug it over. Planted my toms and climbing and dwarf French beans with a scattering of BFB and all went well. The beans produced flowers and I had a few crops but then they slowed down and their flowers are now much smaller than usual. My Roma toms had some side-shoots pinched out but they just romped away so they're now more like big bushes and their flowers are also small. The last month or so I've been feeding them more or less every fortnight with Maxicrop but to no avail. All the leaves on the beans and toms look more healthy than I've ever seen before (with the odd exception) so am wondering if there's an excess of nitrogen in the bed. I've attached an earlier pic taken in mid-July showing the bean on the left, two toms in the middle, a cucumber and my sweetcorn are on the right. Having had a furtle amongst the foliage yesterday I did find two toms so should I cut the lower foliage off them so they get more light and what do I do about my beans?
Toms 1 (600 x 450).jpg
I work very hard so don't expect me to think as well.

*

JayG

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: South West Sheffield
  • 16722
Re: Disappointing beans and toms.
« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2019, 13:32 »
Can't really address your observation about smaller flower sizes, but tomato flowers failing to set is often the result of excessively high temperatures - anything above about 30C is the figure usually quoted as the point at which the pollen is likely to become unviable, a temperature probably easily reached inside many GH's or PT's over the recent heatwave. (There is a difference in tolerance between different varieties, although that information doesn't seem to be readily available.)

Not that much you can do about it - adequate ventilation is obviously important, and roof shading can help keep the temperatures down (I do that partially anyway, because cukes don't like too much direct sun.)

Don't know if French beans are similarly affected, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were.
Sow your seeds, plant your plants. What's the difference? A couple of weeks or more when answering possible queries!

One of the best things about being an orang-utan is the fact that you don't lose your good looks as you get older

*

New shoot

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: Reading
  • 18327
Re: Disappointing beans and toms.
« Reply #2 on: July 30, 2019, 16:01 »
Maybe stop feeding for now and see what they do, then switch to a proper tomato feed once more fruit/beans set.  Tomerite and the like have double the K to N, whereas Maxicrop is equal K and N.  It could be the plants are just in growth mode because they have so much nitrogen available to them. 

The routine I use is to chuck some pelleted chicken manure into the pots of the greenhouse stuff to get them going, then feed all of it with tomato feed once they start doing something. 

I never worry about having lush green leaves on tomatoes either.  I remember Bob Flowerdew years ago on Gardener's World saying tomatoes kept too cossetted are not the greatest fruiters.  After all you don't eat the leaves he said while picking armfuls of fruit off his not so great looking plants.  It kind of stuck with me and has always paid off as well  :)

*

Growster...

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: Hawkhurst, Kent
  • 13162
Re: Disappointing beans and toms.
« Reply #3 on: July 30, 2019, 20:13 »
I wonder if the Roma should be a bush, not a cordon, Goosey? We used to grow them and while they are a great tom for salads etc, grown as a cordon, they don't do that much, being so small.

I made the mistake of growing toms in bags of cheap compost instead of growbags, and they just produced masses of greenery, and took ages to get to tom-stage! Clearly too much nitrogen, methinks. We're back on Shirley and G.Dels these days, and the first will get taken TOMORROW!!!

-

"I remember Bob Flowerdew years ago on Gardener's World saying tomatoes kept too cossetted are not the greatest fruiters.  After all you don't eat the leaves he said while picking armfuls of fruit off his not so great looking plants.  It kind of stuck with me and has always paid off as well".

The man just used to say it like he meant it, didn't he, News!

*

Goosegirl

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: Caton, Lancaster.
  • 8941
Re: Disappointing beans and toms.
« Reply #4 on: July 31, 2019, 10:50 »
Thanks all. I did get some Tomorite but should have looked at the NKP ratios between that and Maxicrop. I think the last feed was Tomorite so let's see what happens. Growster, you're right about them being more of a bush than a cordon so I've only pinched out a few side-shoots.

*

jezza

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • 1602
Re: Disappointing beans and toms.
« Reply #5 on: October 17, 2019, 22:35 »
Hello the beans realy need to be outside so that bees can pollinate the flowers tomatoes need a high potash fertiliser we used to use  7 7 7 granular rotavated in to 6inche then 6 11 27 soluble after first truss set then same weekly till end of season we got 20 tons of fruit off 275.000 plants jezza

*

John

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: Clogwyn Melyn, Gwynedd
  • 17113
    • Low Cost Living
Re: Disappointing beans and toms.
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2019, 00:43 »
I get a pretty good crop of both climbing French beans and runner beans in the polytunnel. With the French beans I think they're self fertile anyway but with the runners you need to pick a self-fertile variety. I grow Firestorm
... tomatoes need a high potash fertiliser we used to use  7 7 7 granular rotavated in to 6inche then 6 11 27 soluble after first truss set then same weekly till end of season we got 20 tons of fruit off 275.000 plants jezza
That's a really high level of potash. Didn't you get problems with locking up or did you add magnesium to the mix?
Check out our books - ideal presents

John and Val Harrison's Books
 



xx
toms

Started by alancas on Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels

3 Replies
1972 Views
Last post July 22, 2012, 12:43
by alancas
xx
Toms or Cukes?

Started by fatcat1955 on Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels

2 Replies
1874 Views
Last post May 31, 2013, 21:12
by fatcat1955
xx
peaky toms

Started by hiccup on Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels

3 Replies
2175 Views
Last post June 04, 2016, 20:17
by Yorkie
xx
Anyone started Toms yet?

Started by adri123 on Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels

24 Replies
10100 Views
Last post April 15, 2015, 07:00
by snowdrops
 

Page created in 0.136 seconds with 39 queries.

Powered by SMFPacks Social Login Mod
Powered by SMFPacks SEO Pro Mod |