Tomato plants are concentrating more on growing tall

[dconklin]

I have only a couple tomato plants that are getting flowers and tiny tomatoes on them. Most of my plants are concentrating on growing tall and not on producing. A couple of them are about 5 feet tall but straight up, no suckers grew on them and they did not get bushy at all. Is there something they are lacking that is making them grow so tall without producing? Only a couple plants are showing hope for fruit. The plants look extremely healthy, no yellow leaves or anything.

I have had to give them plenty of water the last few nights because of this heat, but they don't look withered during the day.

 

[Becky]

Have they got enough light? Might be that they don't have sufficient light and so are growing tall to try and reach it?

 

[dconklin]

Have they got enough light? Might be that they don't have sufficient light and so are growing tall to try and reach it?

It is possible. Our yard is small and the neighbor has a huge (huge isn't even the word for it) maple tree that shades a good part of our yard. Where the tomato plants are is the one part of the yard that sees the sunlight, but not as much as I would like them to see. They do get a few good hours of it tho. I wish I could give them more sun, it just isn't possible with that tree!

They want to take it down but there is no easy way since you cannot get equipment into any of our back yards so they would have to climb it and cut limb by limb down then drag the branches through their house. They haven't found anybody who is willing to do it. Part of the tree is dead from somebody tying a rope around it for a clothes line many years ago. It suffocated a big part of the tree, but there are still a lot of lively ones with tons of leaves - enough to shade the yard.

 

[TheCrazyPlantLady]

Do you have a sunny location in your yard that you could grow tomatoes in a large planter box? I have a couple on my deck that are massive. That won't really help you this year, but it might be an alternative for next season.

 

[Marie]

Have you pinched out the growing tip? (Picture below: Very top shoot in the photo.)

This way, the plant should stop trying to grow tall, and base it's efforts more on producing flowers and fruit. If there had been any suckers, I'd suggest removing these, but as you said there aren't, it must be something else. :S

Also, once your tomatoes start filling out and ripening, remove some of the lower shoots and branches from the plants (below the bottom tomato vine); the less energy is spends keeping these leaves alive etc, the more it can use the energy to ripen your tomatoes.

 

[headfullofbees]

Could be too much nitrogen.
If you have high nitrogen levels and a lot of water, it will encourage the plant to put on lush green growth.
Remember, tomatoes are perennials, and are in no rush to fruit.
If you are watering, cut back a bit and the stress may make them fruit.

 

[dconklin]

Do you have a sunny location in your yard that you could grow tomatoes in a large planter box? I have a couple on my deck that are massive. That won't really help you this year, but it might be an alternative for next season.

They do get a bit of sun where they are, but not full day of sun as none of my yard gets a full day. I am thinking the weather we had so far this summer took a toll on them. Now a couple of them are starting to get some flowers.

 

[dconklin]

Could be too much nitrogen.
If you have high nitrogen levels and a lot of water, it will encourage the plant to put on lush green growth.
Remember, tomatoes are perennials, and are in no rush to fruit.
If you are watering, cut back a bit and the stress may make them fruit.

I am not sure if we have too much nitrogen to be honest. All I know is that the ph is well balanced, but I don't have any testing stuff to see the levels of everything. They got way too much water the whole month of June because we had rain just about everyday for weeks. It just seemed like the rain wasn't going to end

We had cooler nights with the rains in June, then July started out quite hot (and the tomato plants loved it) and now we have cool nights again. Poor plants are probably confused!

 

[Kansas Terri]

In my part of the USA, during the last 26 days we have gotten 23 days of rain. This is extraordinary. I do not know how much rain New Jersey got, but I can well imagine that shade from the tree plus the overcast skies have worked together to block the light!

Your tomatos are 5 feet tall and my tomatos are 1 foot tall. I am impressed: I suspect that you have more skill at raising tomatos than I do. May I ask what you fertilized them with?