Why do I still have so many tomato flowers?

Hi everyone, it's my first year with a greenhouse & I planted far too many tomatoes:dh: A few plants with larger tomatoes has every truss full of fruit however, I have baskests of cherry tomatoes, moneymakers & hundreds & thousands which still have most of their flowers, tomatoes are appearing here & there but overall it's a mass of yellow flowers. I tap the plants regularly to try & help with polination & spray them with a mist of water. It said on the hundreds and thousands seed packet that no pinching out was required but I'm worried that they are still putting energy into growing & not starting on the fruit, I heard that the actual growing season is short (I'm a complete beginner) So I'm worried the fruit isn't going to appear soon enough to ripen properly, any advice?

Here's a picture of one of my 'hundreds and thousands' plants

 

Flowers looks normal to me FS. :gnthb: but I've never seen tomato plants growing in a basket before!

 

Really? That's great news :thmb: I thought that most of the flowers should be dying off by now & tomatoes coming through. I wasn't aware that it was possible to grow tomato plants in baskets either but this particular variety is apparently really suited to it:

http://www.suttons.co.uk/Shop/Vegetable+Seeds/Tomato+Hundreds+and+Thousands+Seeds+180648.htm

 

yeah, you're right I think I fed them too early. I'm feeding with tomorite every week now, however, the suttons website is I feel a gross exaggeration of what to expect That's my excuse any way!

Here's a picture of someone's plant I saw on flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/bentobusiness/2750606487/ - alot better than mine but not up to suttons standard.

I grew a few of this variety in pots also, which aren't as weak looking, however, another variety of cherry tomato I'm growing (I completely forget the variety) Is also looking quite weak with long spindely stems, maybe the early feeding doesn't agree with plants in baskets.

 

Masses of flowers should lead to masses of tomato`s so its a good thing.
I have a sea of yellow flowers, lots of green toms and a few red ones so far.. patience is the name of the game. Nothing wrong with hanging toms on the wall either :wink:

 

Difficult to make out, but, is that plant growing under glass?

Just thinking that could be the reason for the leggy soft growth.

 

It's in the corner of the greenhouse, it's pretty impossible to grow tomatoes outside in northern ireland, well for a beginner like me anyway :D I'm hoping the fact that these tomatoes are a tiny variety will mean the stems may just be strong enough, if not what kinds of support should I use?

The larger tomato plants seem fine, here's a pic of one of them, sorry it's not well focused! To me, they seem pretty strong & happy & they've had the same treatment as the cherries :cnfs:

 

I'm only guessing again, but if its a hanging basket variety its probably more suited to growing outside on a sunny wall.
The warm conditions under glass could promote lots of soft growth.

I dont think it would be easy to support if it gets heavy, it should probably be shorter jointed and and a bit wiry.

May be a net under the fruit if it should get too heavy might work, hopefully it will be alright though.

 

Would it be possible to support the growth with a 'fruit hammock' of sorts? Some netting clipped onto the side rails of the greenhouse (can use the clips that you use to insulate with bubble wrap?) and that would give the fruit some extra support but still let the air circulate? I use them for my cucumbers as the cucumbers further up the plant become heavy, and they work great. Also great for melons.

 

Feeding to early...thats the reason for my plants to have obtained 7 feet....up the south facing wall they to have masses of flowers plus tomatos I have tied them up every where you can they are the cherry type I did resist taking out the side shoots as they are covered in flowers also so hope we have a bumper crop.

 

Cherry tom stems tend to thicken up as the load increases.
I have some that are already hanging out from the bed by a good 12"-15", defying gravity, and its only going to get worse :wink:

 

I've still got loads of flowers on mine too. There's one red one wjich I'm gonna go eat in a mo and the rest are green

 

My cherry toms are doing OK if going on the rampage somewhat. Variety: 100s And 1000s, greenhouse grown, builder's buckets with drainage holes, compost: 50/50 loam and 1 year old household 'dalek', Tomorite or equivalent AFTER the first fruit have set. They were getting a bit congested in a 6x6 greenhouse so a lot of the leggy growth was removed, two put back in the greenhouse and one has been left outside near a wall in a south-facing border.

I like plenty of room for good roots to develop and I keep 'em lean untill those first fruit form. As with everthing, get the roots right and the rest looks after itself.

Before they had a haircut!



And our first bowlfull - arround 25 toms in all. Yum!