You’ve probably heard tomatoes are a nice and easy fruit to grow, making them the perfect starting point for beginner gardeners. But what if your tomatoes have stopped growing?
(Keep in mind it can take up to 60 days for fruit to grow after flowering.)
Watch: how to grow tomatoes from seed
Why do tomatoes bloom without producing fruit?
If your tomatoes are flowering, you might be scratching your head trying to work out why they aren’t setting fruit.
The answer could be simpler than you think: tomatoes are wind pollinated. It could affect your crop if you’ve got them in a spot where there isn’t much wind.
Kevin Parker, a senior horticulturist at The Greenery Garden and Home, says, “A Lot of people plant tomato plants and they get flowers but don’t get any tomatoes.
“Generally that’s because the flowers aren’t being pollinated because they are in a spot where there’s no wind.
“The wind shakes the flower and it shakes the pollen off the flower.”
How to hand pollinate tomatoes
One solution to this problem is to hand-pollinate your tomato plants.
Before trying your luck hand pollinating, some people find simply shaking your tomato flowers can help release the pollen.
Alternatively, you can get a little brush and brush the pollen onto the flower sigma (the female part of the flower.)
More tips for growing tomatoes
- Tomatoes love the heat, so make you get them in the ground in early spring.
- Prepare the soil well before planting tomatoes. Aim for a pH of 6.5-6.7.
- Plant tomatoes from seeds, seedlings or try your luck with a tomato quarter you got from the supermarket.
- Tomatoes are prone to caterpillars. If you notice a couple of holes in the leaves, here’s how to keep caterpillars out of your garden.
- Tomatoes can be picked when green and left to ripen inside. Or you can leave them on the vine until ready.
- Tomato plants grown in the right conditions will produce big, fat, juicy pieces of fruit to last you all summer. Here’s how to make your tomatoes grow bigger and faster.
- You can grow tomatoes in containers or in the garden. And here in Australia, we’re lucky to be home to lots of different varieties.
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How to grow six of the most popular herbs at home
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