Better Boy problem

[jdroyer]

I have good fruit sets initially at the bottom of the plant. Then mid season, the sets become sparse with hardly any fruit. As the season progresses, I get good fruit sets again. This happened 2 years in a row. What gives?

 

[gardenstart]

Could be a problem with pollination. If you don't get many bees, especially bumblebees which are excellent for tomato pollination, then you can try hand pollinating. That involves just shaking the stems a bit to dislodge pollen so they can pollinate themselves.

High temperatures (consistently above 95°F) can also make flowers drop off too early and not turn into fruit. Likewise, with low temps (below 56°F at night), pollen fails to develop and flowers that open the following morning will not set fruit.

If it is very humid then pollen can be too sticky to properly pollinate, or if it's too dry it may not pollinate, either.

It could also be too much nitrogen in the fertilizer.

And be sure you're watering consistently, not erratically.

More here:

7 Reasons Your Tomatoes Aren't Setting Fruit This Season

Are your tomatoes struggling to set fruit this season, but you aren't quite sure why it happens? There are actually a few reasons that this can occur, and most are easily remedied. In this article, organic gardening expert Logan Hailey walks through the seven most common reasons your tomatoes...

www.epicgardening.com

 

[nao57]

We get this often. In fact, it sounds like you are describing something I just dealt with. But it cycles around. Sometimes its the tomatoes, sometimes its the raspberries, sometimes its the cucumbers.

When the temperatures of the day hit above 90 F, I've learned I have to be more careful about heat insulation around the roots of the plant AND up the number of times of day I water. By this I mean I don't have to use a lot of extra water, but instead break down the water to more than one time of the day to help ease the plants through the heat. I've also seen that often the production WILL shut down if I only water twice a day when the heat is above 90 F. I usually have to do a very small 'cool down' type watering around 12 to 4 PM; this one carefully done to also not leave too much water for a boiling effect.

When I pursue this strategy, I can get the plants to NOT stop vegetable/fruit production through the very turbulent heat period months of July and August. (For us July and August are especially bad.)

...

Also I appreciate what gardenstart said. He's describing it very well, that the blooms can dry out. And you can tell this, if the blooms have enough moisture then bees will still be around them. But if the blooms are too dry you won't see any bugs on them.