Jon M – Page 117 – GreenUpside – Learn how to grow a green garden with us!

It is always disappointing to see tomatoes falling off the plant before they are ripe. It seems to happen without explanation, but there is usually a reason if you dig deep enough. So, why are your tomatoes dropping off the plant? Extreme temperatures, improper watering, nutrient deficiencies, pests, or even too much fruit can cause tomatoes to drop off the plant. These factors can cause stress in the plant, leading to weak roots, stunted growth, and dropping tomatoes off the plant. Of course, looking at other symptoms can often help to diagnose what is causing your tomatoes to drop off the plant. In this article, we'll look at the reasons that tomatoes might fall off the plant before ripe. We'll also look at how you can prevent the problem in each case. Let's get started. Why Are Tomatoes Dropping Off The Plant? Tomatoes will sometimes fall off of the plant before ripe, but it can happen for a number of reasons, including: Extreme Temperatures (too cold or too hot)Improper Watering (too much or to little)Nutrient DeficienciesPests (they can stress the plant or carry disease)Too Much Fruit (the plant can only support so much fruit to maturity!) There are several reasons that tomatoes may drop off the plant. Let's start with a common cause: extreme temperatures. Tomatoes Dropping Off The Plant Due To Extreme Temperatures A common problem that can cause tomatoes to drop off the plant is extreme temperatures. In fact, extreme temperatures can also cause problems with flower pollination, which will prevent fruit from appearing in the first place. To determine if your plant is suffering from extreme temperatures, look for some of the following symptoms: Dropping FlowersDropping FruitWilted Leaves (in extreme cases, they may look dry and feel crispy) Extreme heat cna cause wilted leaves on tomato plants. The problem could be caused by a few things: Planting Time (too early will expose them to cold or frost)Climate (it may be too hot and dry for them without better irrigtaion)Unseasonable Weather (for example, a cold snap) The ideal daytime temperature for tomato plants is: Daytime: between 65 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit (18 to 29 degrees Celsius).Nighttime: between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit (16 to 21 degrees Celsius). As you can imagine, extreme temperatures in either direction will hinder a tomato plant's growth. The ideal daytime temperature for tomato plant growth is 65 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit. For example, a temperature of 55 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius) or below will cause problems. The tomato plant will have difficulty in producing energy via photosynthesis. This can cause the plant to drop fruit, since it cannot produce enough energy to support all of the tomatoes to maturity. You can learn more about the lowest temperature tomato plants can tolerate (and how to protect them from cold) in my article here. At the other extreme, you may see tomatoes or flowers dropping off the plant if the temperature gets up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) or higher. Luckily, there are ways to prevent extreme temperatures from damaging your tomato plants. Plant The Right Tomatoes At The Right Time One of the best ways to protect tomato plants from extreme temperatures is to choose the right tomatoes and plant them at the right time. First, use this map from the U.S. Agricultural Research Service to check your plant hardiness zone (1a through 13b). For instance, in eastern Massachusetts, plant hardiness zones are generally 6a or 6b. Most places in the U.S. will be able to support tomatoes. Some exceptions are parts of Alaska, California, and Hawaii. Once you figure out your plant hardiness zone, consult a planting schedule, like this one offered by Urban Farmer. This will help you to find the ideal time to plant your tomatoes. Starting tomato seeds and tranplanting at the right time will help to avoid extreme temperatures. With this guide, you can choose your plant hardiness zone or you can choose your state, and the guide will direct you from there. Finally, be sure to choose tomato plant varieties that will do well in your climate. According to Bonnie Plants, heat-tolerant varieties of tomato include: Heatmaster - this determinate hybrid tomato produces fruit that weighs 7 ounces and matures in 75 days. The plants only grow 3 to 4 feet tall, so they are easy to manage and harvest from. You can find Heatmaster tomatoes from Bonnie Plants.Solar Fire - this determinate hybrid tomato produces fruit that weighs 8 to 10 ounces and matures in 75 days. The plants only grow 4 to 5 feet tall, so they are still easy enough to harvest from. You can find Solar Fire tomatoes from Bonnie Plants.Summer Set - this semi-determinate hybrid tomato produces fruit that weighs 10 to 12 ounces and matures in 75 to 78 days. The plants grow 4 to 6 feet tall, which is a bit taller than the others listed here. You can find Summer Set tomatoes from Bonnie Plants.Phoenix - this determinate hybrid tomato produces fruit that weighs 10 to 12 ounces and matures in 70 to 75 days. The plants only grow 2 to 3 feet tall, so they are compact and easy to harvest from. You can find Phoenix tomatoes from Bonnie Plants. Red, ripe tomatoes – this is how you want them to look! TomatoFest has some cold-tolerant varieties of tomato, which include: Alaska - this semi-determinate heirloom tomato from Russia produces deep red, cherry sized fruit early in the season, taking only 63 days to maturity.. You can find Alaska tomatoes from TomatoFest.Alicante - this indeterminate heirloom tomato from England produces medium-sized red fruit that matures in 70 days. You can find Alicante tomatoes from TomatoFest.Andes - this semi-determinate heirloom tomato from France produces long red tomatoes (up to 7 inches long and 2 inches wide) that look like chili peppers and mature in 75 days! You can find Andes tomatoes from TomatoFest. Use Cold and Heat Protection For Tomato Plants If temperatures are too hot for tomatoes, you can try using shade cloth to filter out some sunlight and lower the temperature for your plants. If you are growing tomatoes in a colder climate, you can try building a greenhouse for your plants. A greenhouse will keep tomato plants warmer throughout the growing season. If the days are warm, but the nights are cool, leave the greenhouse door open during the day, and close it in the late afternoon. This will trap enough heat for the plants to get through a cool night, without overheating them during the day. If a greenhouse is not an option, you can try a row cover to protect taller plants from cold. You can learn more about cold protection for plants on this page. Tomatoes Dropping Off The Plant Due To Improper Watering Too much or too little water will also stress your tomato plant and cause it to drop fruit. Drought conditions will eventually damage the root system of your tomato plant. If your tomato plant senses an extended drought, it may decide that it is unable to support all of its fruit, and it will drop some tomatoes to conserve resources. Soil that is too dry for too long causes stress that can make tomato plants drop their fruit. If your soil seems excessively dry, check out my article on how to treat dry soil. Too much water will also cause a problem for your tomato plant. Frequent, shallow watering can cause root rot and damage the root system. Instead, you should give your plants a good, deep watering on a less frequent schedule. For more information, check out my article on over watering your plants. Be sure to water in the morning, when the soil and air are cool and the sun is low. This allows the water to sink into the soil and get to the roots of the plant, instead of evaporating in the sun and heat. Water tomato plants deeply and less frequently to avoid shallow root development. Also, water the plants low, close to the soil. Avoid pouring water all over the plant’s leaves. This may be tempting to do in the hot weather, especially if the leaves are drooping and wilted. However, pouring water on the leaves is unnecessary. A healthy plant is perfectly capable of transporting water from its roots to its leaves. Watering the leaves is unnecessary, and can also be harmful. This is especially true if you live in a high-humidity area where plant fungus is a common problem. Tomatoes Dropping Off The Plant Due To Nutrient Deficiencies Any number of nutrient deficiencies can cause problems for your tomato plant. If the plant does not have enough nutrients to support all of the tomatoes, it will drop some of its fruit. One common sign of nutrient deficiency in tomato plants is chlorosis, or yellow leaves. This is caused by a failure to produce enough chlorophyll (the compound that makes plants green). These leaves are showing signs of chlorosis, which is the result of nutrient deficiencies. Some of the more common nutrient deficiencies that cause chlorosis are magnesium and iron. If the bottom leaves (old growth) turn yellow first, a lack of magnesium may be the problem. You can supplement magnesium with Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate). For more information, check out my article on how to treat magnesium deficiency in plants. If the top leaves (new growth) turn yellow first, a lack of iron may be the problem. You can supplement iron with chelated iron or an iron sulfate. For more information, check out my article on how to add iron to your garden soil. If you want to learn more, check out my article about which nutrient deficiencies cause yellow leaves. If some of your tomatoes turn brown or black on the bottom, then they are likely suffering from blossom end rot. This is caused by a calcium deficiency, which you can fix by adding lime to the soil. For more information, see my article on how to treat calcium deficiency in plants. Tomatoes with blossom end rot, due to a calcium deficiency. However, before you add any fertilizers or supplements to your soil, make sure to test the soil pH. If the pH is too high or too low, it can make a nutrient unavailable to the plant, even if there is plenty of the nutrient in the soil. Tomatoes prefer slightly acidic soil, with a pH of 6 to 6.8. If you add a nutrient to the soil when pH is the real problem, you can end up with an excessive amount of that nutrient, which can prevent the plant from absorbing other nutrients. Another note about nutrients: be sure to employ crop rotation in your garden, to prevent nutrient deficiencies and the spread of disease in your plants. Instead of planting tomatoes in the same place every year, switch their location every other year. For example, this year you plant tomatoes in the left half of your garden, and beans in the right half. Next year, you plant beans in the left half of your garden, and tomatoes in the right half. This prevents nutrients in the soil from being depleted, since different plants use different levels of nutrients. Tomatoes Dropping Off The Plant Due To Pests There are a few different garden pests that are common foes of gardeners and their tomato plants. One of the more common pests is the aphid. Aphids are little bugs that feed on sap from new plant growth. They can be green, white, red, pink or black. Aphids are not exclusive to tomato plants. They can multiply quickly, stressing or destroying your plants with their sheer numbers. If you have aphids on your tomato plants, watch out - they spread quickly! If you see one branch of a tomato plant infested with aphids, simply prune off the branch. Then, throw the branch away – far from your garden! Otherwise, the aphids can spread to other plants. For more information, check out my article on how to get rid of aphids. Another idea is to use artificial or natural pesticides to control aphids. However, you will want to avoid this if you are going for an organic garden. You can also release ladybugs into your garden. Over time, they will eat the aphids, keeping the problem under control. If you are like me, your ladybug-catching skills are a little rusty. In that case, you can order ladybugs from PlanetNatural. Another trick to try is companion planting, which means planting your tomatoes with other plants nearby. These companions are friendly plants that will repel pests to keep themselves, and thus the tomato plants, safe. Some common companion plants for tomatoes are amaranth, basil, garlic, and marigolds. Basil is a good companion plant for tomatoes. Crop rotation can also be used to prevent some pests, such as nematodes, from getting established in your garden. As mentioned earlier, crop rotation means that you avoid planting the same type of plant in the same part of your garden two years in a row. Tomatoes Dropping Off The Plant Due To Too Much Fruit I bet you never thought this would be a problem for tomatoes, or any other plant for that matter! However, too much fruit can be a problem for several reasons. First, the tomato plant can only support so much fruit at a time. Whether the limiting reactant is water or nutrients, the plant will only be able to provide enough resources to produce a limited amount of healthy, mature fruit. When a tomato plant starts dropping some of its fruit, it does so to save the rest. Think about it: wouldn’t you rather get 20 nice, healthy, delicious tomatoes than 30 or 40 diseased, disgusting, flavorless ones? Also, too much fruit can cause damage to the tomato plant. Too much fruit on one branch can cause it to snap or break off entirely. A tomato plant with too much fruit may drop some of it. In this case, it is better to lose one or two tomatoes, rather than all of the tomatoes on that branch. In extreme cases, too many tomatoes can cause the entire plant to fall over, possibly snapping the stem and preventing all of the fruit from ever ripening. If it looks like this might be happening to your plant, take preventative measures. Pinch off fruit on heavy branches, and provide support to your tomatoes. One way to do this is to drive a tall pole into the ground near the tomato, and tie the tomato to the stake at intervals. You can also use a cage or trellis to give the tomato something to cling to as it climbs up towards the sun. For more information, check out my article on providing support to tomato plants and my article on why to use a tomato cage. You can also prune entire branches if they are not producing fruit, since the extra weight can cause your tomato plant to tip over. Just be sure to leave enough branches to shield the tomato plant from intense sunlight. Conclusion Now you have a good idea of which of these problems is causing your tomatoes to drop off the plant. You also have a starting point for treating the plants, and ways to prevent the same problem in the future. Remember that no garden or plant is perfect, and you may sometimes lose a few tomatoes that look healthy otherwise. Remember what Mr. Spock (from the original Star Trek) would say: “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few … or the one.” I hope this article was helpful in diagnosing your problem. If you want to read some of my most popular posts, check out the “Best of GreenUpSide” page here. Enjoy! ~Jonathon