Tomato problem

by Dan
(Plainfield, il,U.S.A)

Hi Stella,
I’ve written before, and again I have a problem. In my system I have grown bell peppers and broccoli and now 3 tomato plants. The latter were planted as seeds around July and are currently around 5’ or so. My problem is this. I ‘topped’ awhile back so they could still fit under the light unit, and I remember that reading that if I did this the plant would revert back to its vegetative stage from the flowering stage for 6 to 8 weeks. I currently have several golf ball size green tomato’s that have not grown in size in say a couple of weeks or so. They grow quickly up to that point, then just stop growing.

Also, on the trusses, where you can have 3 to 5 flowers, I will have only 1 tomato set instead of all or at least most. The rest tend to ‘wither’ and die. Could either or both of these symptoms be from underpowered nutrient solution?

They are currently fed from a 36 gallon res., with constant flow pumps and don’t lack for fluid. I have air stones in the res so I don’t believe that is a problem. When the nutrient level drops, I use your strategy of refilling with plain water, keeping track of the gallons and changing the res after it has been refilled by half the res capacity. What do you think?

I might add, that both the peppers and the broccoli did fine, and do not seem bothered by anything at the moment. My only problem is with the tomatos.
Thanks for the help,
Dan
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Answer from Stella/Simon:
Hi Dan,
Glad to hear you are having success overall with your garden. Now, for the tomatoes. Tomatoes can be a little tricky, we have found. Some crops we had went crazy, and then one year, no fruit set at all!

Some thoughts on your problem: light or temp. Are you using HPS on your tomatoes? The green leafy vegs do fine under MH, but fruiting vegs definitely need the HPS or sunlight to set and ripen fruit. Are they too hot or too cold? Optimally, keep them 70-78 degrees. Are they getting too chilly at nite when the lamps are off?

Have you checked the ph lately? Keep at 5.5-6.5 (6.0 is ideal)

If still no luck with these options, you might go on and try a nutrient changeout and make up a fresh new batch of grow juice.

I am hoping some other gardeners will jump in with other suggestions...

Hope this helps, good luck!

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