Tomato flowers dropping off

[Herb Johnson]

I have a tomato that has been given a death sentence. It come from a clone that I took off a beef steak tomato that fruited and grew well.
The plant has grown well and it flowers great but it won't hold a flower for more than a week, they dry up at the elbow and drop off.

The plant is getting good light with direct sun for about 4 hours and the rest of the day in filtered light. I have a French vanilla bean growing beside it in the same grow bed that I grew from seed and it is jumping for the sky and flowering very strong and its holding its beans so I don't think its a light issue.

I have added Chelated iron and the rocket and basil is loving me for it but the tomato has not changed. :frustrated:

My ph is steady at 7.1

Has anybody else had the same problem and how did you fix it?

[tpilk]

Hi Herb,

A forum member recommended potassium for flowering issues, in addition to iron. Many use banana peels, some use potassium in other forms.

In my case, the banana peels helped, but were not the root cause - my system was quite young and not capable of supporting all of the varieties I was trying to grow. A seaweed product immediately fixed the problem and sent my tomatoes and cucumbers flowering out of control and they very quickly produced fruit.

[Yabbies4me]

Maybe try giving your plants a foliar feed using Eco-rose (it's got a new name now, but can't remember it). Spray the foliage once a week, in the very late afternoon, about an hour or two before dark. Or if your system has a low water pH you could also add the Eco-rose to your system water. Maybe try a heaped tsp per 1000Ltr, but dissolve it first in some water, it takes a bit of stirring to dissolve it properly.

Banana skins have to be added to GB's on a continual basis to get any noticeable benefit. In my single blue barrel system (50L GB capacity) I've been adding a banana skin every 2 or 3 weeks and still had to supplement some Potassium recently.

The new name for Eco-rose is Eco-fungicide, it contains Potassium Bicarbonate, which will also buffer your pH up.

Also, I remember reading many years ago in a companion planting book, that tomatoes and beans shouldn't be planted next to each other. But in saying that, this year I planted a yellow tomato variety next to some beans because I was running out of room, and they've both produced well???

Cheers, Yabbies.

[RupertofOZ]

Companion planting is based on the theory that one sort of plant has a higher take up of certain minerals... and effectively robs the neighbouring plant...

As we're providing constant nutrient and mineral provision to all our plants... I haven't found it necessary to companion plant....

Having said that... some also do so as a means of pest control...

[Herb Johnson]

Sorry I forgot to add that I did give them a little foliage feed with some bloom hydro nutrient that I had left over about a fortnight ago and I was also using root excelurator in the system, it's Ammonium Nitrogen & K2O potassium oxide. I have found it to do the same jobs as seasol just a lot faster.



I remember reading many years ago in a companion planting book, that tomatoes and beans shouldn't be planted next to each other. But in saying that, this year I planted a yellow tomato variety next to some beans because I was running out of room, and they've both produced well???

Cheers, Yabbies.

I didn't think of this, but I tend to agree with what you have found and rupert stated, companion planting in the case of the tomato and the bean relates to the availability of key nutrients and in this case as they are side by side and not in a NFT channel with the beans in front I don't think it would be my biggest issue.

[RupertofOZ]

Nope... your biggest issue(s) will arise from treating your aquaponics system like hydroponics... or a chemical laboratory... :D

Sooner or later you'll kill your fish... if you dont stop...

[Bevearly]

I second the comments of Rupert....
Maybe the season has been the cause of your flower drop. We've had a warm spring and relatively cold summer so far, and I've had almost nothing set since November. [Luckily, lots of fruit set before then, but nothing ripe yet]
Do you have any other varieties growing to compare with? I spread my risk, and typically have 10 varieties going, and expect a failure typically of 2 - which is different every year.

[Herb Johnson]

Nope... your biggest issue(s) will arise from treating your aquaponics system like hydroponics... or a chemical laboratory... :D

Sooner or later you'll kill your fish... if you dont stop...

Point taken. This is why I neglected to mention it. The foliage feed was at 1/4 strength and little to none of the solution would of found its way into the water supply and as for the root excelurator it is derived from kelp just as seasol is.

I am definitely not treating my system like hydroponics, if I was I wouldn't be have this problem I am sure.

What I am doing is what many people have done and that is trialing products that have proven themselves in hydroponics that might also work just as well in the early stages of an aquaponics system,
For example a few product like CANNA's Rhizontonic and CANNAzym both natural brewed and can provide a source of ammonia and other useful elements for the bacteria to grow and feed while giving your plants a much needed boost.
Then there is COBRA from CROP it is sold as a hydroponic rooting and growth accelerator, and it is something that would help any young system as it consists of approx 60 strains of beneficial bacteria and fungi kelp and vitamins.

I haven't lost a fish in any of my trial systems I have put additives in but I have lost fish in the system that I left to its own to cycle with just fish!

I am only using the additives in the cycling process to build up bacteria quickly and foliage feed when I think the plants need it.
When I get ready to put edible fish in, the systems water won't have any traces left of what I used to cycle.

I would think PH up & down would be a lot worse than some naturally derived additives. Most people use some sort of chemical in there system to no ill affect to there fish or plants, I'm not trying to get organic certification I just want my system to produce at a rate that makes it worth doing.
I can watch my plants die in a $5 pot I don't need to spend loads of time and money to have them die from neglect.

[RupertofOZ]

I would think PH up & down would be a lot worse than some naturally derived additives.

That's for sure...

[MrWright]

I haven't lost a fish in any of my trial systems I have put additives in but I have lost fish in the system that I left to its own to cycle with just fish!
Was this system cycled before you added the fish or were the fish added on day 1?

[Herb Johnson]

Was this system cycled before you added the fish or were the fish added on day 1?

All my systems have been cycled with fish in there tanks from day one.

The only difference is the type of systems they are e.g flood & drain and constant flow.

[GracielaJenkins]

do you grow them in the same place every year?
maybe it has something to do with that.
maybe the soil is exhausted

[brandylorton]

This is the common disadvantage of the traditional farming. As the soil lake some kind of nutrient so this kind of thing happens and we need to provide perfect nutrient to each and every plant but ina big farm it is not possible .it is possible in a small hydroponic setup only.

[RupertofOZ]

Even more possible... with less effort... in an aquaponics setup...