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XP: I think I've ruined my tomatoes :-(

Hello.  I've never posted here before, but I was hoping you could help. 

I'm getting sick to my stomach just thinking about this.  I think I ruined my tomato plants Crying Our spring here in Virginia (Zone 7) was so wet, they didn't grow very well.  Their leaves curled from too much water, and they grew very slowly.  So I pinched the early flowers to encourage the plant to have better upward growth.  Well apparently I pinched the flowers off for too long (I stopped at the beginning of June).  All our friends have little green tomatoes, and our flowers just opened.  I was reading online that it's ~2 months from flowering to ripe fruit, which would be the end of August!!! That's normally the height of tomato season, not the very beginning!  Oh woe is me the overzealous gardener!

Do you think I should fertilize them?  We usually don't fertilize, just compost and worm castings.  I already did both of those a few weeks ago.  Do you think some tomato fertilizer would help?  I'm wary of doing any more at this point as I have screwed this up royally already.  Sad

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Re: XP: I think I've ruined my tomatoes :-(

  • I'm in MD and we have some little green tomatoes but we still have flowers right now too.  I wouldnt worry about it.
  • Let 'em be.  You'll get tomatoes, just a little later.  No big deal.
    Willa 4.6.06 and Henry 10.18.08 Camp Sinki
  • I'm in NOVA and only a few of my tomato plants actually have fruit at this point.  I wouldn't worry too much.

    Plus - do you have any friends growing tomatoes?  Can you trade your late tomatoes for their early ones?

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  • mae141mae141 member
    Ancient Membership 500 Comments Combo Breaker

    So many NOVA friends! I only have flowers at this point- no little green babies yet.

  • I think you should be fine.

    On some varieties, I have little green tomatoes already. Some heirlooms are flowering like crazy and some haven't even started.

    I figure that at least I won't end up with 100 lbs of tomatoes at the same time. In regards to fertilizing, I would maybe do Fish Emulsion and coffee grounds (1/week and 2x/week). You can actually over fertilize; the result would be the plant itself getting really big and shooting up, without putting the energy into the fruit setting (been there, done that).Miracle Grow actually does this. I noticed with carrots and radishes. When fertilized, the leaves would shoot up like crazy and then the root wouldn't develop.

    And if you are really, REALLY worried about not getting any tomatoes, you can always buy couple of plants at HD. Our HD has some really big ones, with tomatoes already on it...

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