Tomatoes (other than Heatwave) are DORMANT above 86 degrees.
They won’t ripen, pollinate, fill out or anything else.
Well now, ten minutes on the gardening thread and I know more about tomatoes than I did. Thanks for the tip. We don’t get a lot of 100’s here and the short growing season limits varieties somewhat, so anything that will assist in their ripening is a big help.
Happy to be of service.
Btw, do not spend your hard earned money on any of those chemicals they sell to spray on tomato blossoms to set fruit. I have found it’s a waste.
You can do two things to set fruit. Plant them in pots and move them to shade in overly hot weather (Moths will pollinate them at night!) or you can use that highly technical device known as a Q-tip (lol) and hand pollinate them, going from blossom to blossom.
Watering: I learned this from my Italian grandpa’s knee. But of course, I had to find out on my own. Tomatoes respond to “water stress.” Translation=if you have a choice of a little water every day or a deep water twice a week, choose the latter.
Fertilizing: Tomatoes are vines, remember. So here is what this means to you: Choose a fertilizer with a high middle number.
That is your PHOSPHORUS. PHOSPHORUS controls flowering and fruiting.
The numbers on your fertilizers are:
(in this order, always)
Nitrogen (controls greenery and growth)
Phosphorus (flowering and fruiting)
Potassium (getting established, overall plant well-being. Like the banana to cure your hangover! LOL)
If you have a plant that is growing a lot and looks beautiful, but refuses to flower or fruit, you are using too much nitrogen!
Btw, Miracle Gro changed their formula a few years ago and it’s high nitrogen and low phosphorus....a word to the wise.