Dying tomato flowers?

Hello, Mike.

Everything seems to be all right there and if you keeping these different tomatoes in the same place, some varieties are just likely not to be suited to your conditions. They are differently bothered or not about humidity and temperatures. Just sit and wait, until weather turns, give them a little tap to help pollination when flowers are open. Too much nitrogen is also not too good. If there are a lot of flowers some might be just dropped.

I have one tomato variety, which has not set so far at all outdoors, others next to it have, the same variety in the polly setting beautifully, so I'm fairly certain it is cold for this one outside. wait and see.

No idea bout the blossom-set spray, but I've brush pollinated my toms with ea very soft-bristled paintbrush (new!) as I don't leave my mini-greenhouse open very often due to owning a very curious cat!

Seems to have worked well as I've got loads of teeny weeny tomatoes - yay!

Gobs,

Are you suggesting I water the leaves of the plant directly? I read somewhere that it's best to just water the base (soil) and avoid watering the leaves. I think it had something to do with rot, disease, etc.

Humidity has been gradually increasing here in Maryland (USA) and will only get worse as the summer progresses.

I took another look at the plants most affected and they are Black Krim, Brandywine and Super Steak. Plum (Health Kick), cherry (Honeybunch) and "Big Rainbow" varieties don't seem to be experiencing this problem -- so, do you think it has to do with the type of plants I bought?

I had the same problem last summer with the Super Steak and Brandywine which yielded less than 2 dozen between them.

Maybe the climate here just isn't optimal for those plants ... it'd be nice if the supplier noted that in the advertising (Burpee.com).

Again, many thanks for you prompt and valuable advice!
Mike

http://www.pollinator.com/self_pollinating_tomato.htm

Interesting read. Click around and read about the "electric bee."

I read on another website that you can use an electric toothbrush to simulate the effects of a bee sonicating to stimulate pollination. For some reason, the visual in my head is of a human manually stimulating a horse (bad and totally unexpected experience while visiting an old girlfriend attending agriculture school -- then we ate lunch outside the barn where I just watched a horse get violated).

Oh, and I can buy bees from Peru if I really want to get the job done right. As if that's gonna happen... My wife and 2 dogs would love that!

Mike

Sharky, my tomato plants are all doing the same thing, the flowers appear, they dry up and dy.. the leaves look fine.. I'm fertilizing with the organic miracle grow stuff every 10 days or so.. my soil is organic mixed with top soil and egg shells..
I have no clue why the flowers are not turning into tomatoes.
-I tried brushing the plants with a green branch.. nothing..
-So far, I have one cherokee purple tomato on a 5-foot vine that is growing nicely.. 2 cherry husky tomato plants about 2 feet tall with a cluster of 4 healthy tomatoes on them but no more flowers are appearing..
-1-early girl hybrid with just the tomatoes it had on it when I bought it.. the flowers are now dried up too on this one..
WTH.. someone help me with my dilemma!!!!