Need some help.
My tomato plants are blooming at 12-18 inches tall even with me having pruned them.
Last yr and the yr before I had 7 foot tall tomato plants and I need them to bloom at a higher level than 12-18 inches to keep rodents from devouring the fruit later.
Will these tomatoes Co time to grow taller even with a giant batch of blooms opening on thr top of the main stem?
Is there something I can do besides normal pruning to get them to continue growing taller?
As an aside I think they started blooming because we were in 50s degree nights when I transplanted them...then we had a week of mid to low 40s at night. Even some of my new chard transplants got nervous and bolted.
I have about 75 tomato plants and about 45 pepper plants.....only thr tomatoes are having issues so far....peppers are just extra slow on their growth right now.
I just gave them a 0-10-10 shot the other day but other than that I use liquid kelp once a week and 3-4-4 at transplant time
First of all, thank you for being HONEST about what you are doing right now. Man, I hate having to figure out a plant problem when I’m not given ALL the information, LOL!
I know it goes against everything holy, but you need to nip off those blooms, STAT!
My tomatoes are going in next week; rainy weather, not trusting my nighttime lows, just a general PITA to go out there at night in my jammies to battle wild animals and cover things up in case we have frost, which we do more seasons than not!
Whew!
Anyhow, nip those blooms off. And stop pruning. Also, STOP fertilizing for the time being, but make sure they have adequate water (1” per WEEK is plenty). You are being WAY too generous with the fertilizing for plants that originally thrived in arid, baron conditions. ;)
They will re-bloom when they hit 3’ in height, give or take.
You can keep pinching off the suckers and pruning up the lower leaves as they grow...BUT let them GROW for a while.
I know! It’s PAINFUL! But I will be pinching off blooms on my home-started tomatoes and peppers when I plant them next week and trust me - they bounce right back. :)
Speaking of which - I need to go close up the greenhouse and move the bird feeders OUT of Mr. Opossum’s grasp for the evening! :)