Yep, needs pollinating. Shaking the branches with flowers helps. You can also take a small (watercolor size) paint brush, run it around the inside of the flowers. It picks up the pollen and passes it around. Blossom Set also helps, you find it with the fertilizer.
Good luck, yum, I'm ready for a BLT!

dont know, my tomatoes are dying! This is the first time they've ever acted this way. they have sun, water, food. a few at a time just sort of shrivel up and bend over and finally wither away. This happened to all my various squashes, too.
I started everything form seed and the ones I gave to my brother are just fine. The other veggies in the garden are ok too.
I would have called my county extention agent about it, but he just retired 2 weeks ago and there isnt a replacement yet.

Im wondering if its the soil. I put in 2 large bags of manure soil before I planted this year. Did you amend your soil with a store bought anything?? Maybe theres something bad in some of the bought soil?? I should have my own compose pile. I need to raise some chickens just for the chicken poop! sharet

A Friend is having that problem - no bees! She's trying to do the pollination herself.

For me its a bee issue. There is a noticable lack of bees! I have big beautiful , green plants , lots of blossoms ... but no bees.

[quote=arimuse]dont know, my tomatoes are dying! This is the first time they've ever acted this way. they have sun, water, food. a few at a time just sort of shrivel up and bend over and finally wither away.
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Sounds to me like there's either a virus or some bugs under the skin. Look closely, even with a magnifying glass, to see if there's an entrance hole near the ground. Push a straw or needle in to kill any insect.

Get some Diatomaceous Earth, dissolve it in water and spray it generously over your plants. It'll dry and leave a whitish powder that will kill insects. It has microscopic barbs that puncture the skins of insects and they dehydrate and die. You can get this at farm supply stores. Get the food quality..I put some in my cat's water, and my male hasn't had worms since. Used to have to get shots for them.

But all in all, I'd say there is a virus going around your area. How are your close neighbors' gardens/plants/flowers doing?

And do you smoke? Have you dropped old butts near your tomatoes? If the tobacco had a virus, you could spread it to other family members of the tobacco family.
They are part of the nightshade family and a lot of farmers around here won't allow anyone to smoke while working with their tomato crops.

Could you bend the tomatoes over with some of the still growing ends clean and put them under some dirt? They will take root easily, if they have any health left at all. Or if you have a favorite, you could put a can of dirt and put it down in it.

Im wondering if its the soil. I put in 2 large bags of manure soil before I planted this year.
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This probably doesn't have anything to do with your soil, but after Katrina, I read somewhere about using some sawdust that might have come from that area, because of molds and termites and huge roaches. I don't think it is heat treated to get rid of such stuff, and very likely not have any chemicals added either for such things.

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that there was something in those bags of soil. Too bad you can't find others like it and try to find out where they came from. Or try to find some way of checking your soil in a lab, but that would probably be expensive. Farm Advisor would be the best way to go.

Seems like we can't trust anything or anybody nowadays.

Same thing happening with my plants. It's called blossom drop. Found some answers here:

http://www.tomatodirt.com/blossom-drop.html

my Step dtr said she took a brush and " pollinated" the flowers and got tomatoes.....

Ramona, I do have some Diatomaceous Earth, I got it for the animals (food grade). I dust the cats when they start to scratch a bit, seems to work on fleas. You can mix it with water?? I didnt think this stuff would mix too well. Do you have a site that tells you the ratio of DE to water/food? I suppose you have to be careful with it.
I will look for insects but I think its a virus. I really think it came in with the outside bagged soil I put down. It only affects tomatoes where I used this soil.My zuchinni died off too.
It makes me mad, cus for several yrs I spent the fall shovelling horse poo for someone who had several horses. She moved away so I was left with no spring fertilizer. It was a hard thankless job, but I could take away all the manure I could shovel into a pickup bed. So, this spring, I take the easy but expensive route - buying my manure and look what I get for it. All the yrs I put the real thing on the garden and it would explode with veggies. This yr it just explodes! sharet

[quote=arimuse]Ramona, I do have some Diatomaceous Earth, I got it for the animals (food grade). I dust the cats when they start to scratch a bit, seems to work on fleas. You can mix it with water?? I didnt think this stuff would mix too well. Do you have a site that tells you the ratio of DE to water/food? I suppose you have to be careful with it.
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Yes, careful about inhaling it, but otherwise I'm not very afraid of it. No, it doesn't mix well but a lot of shaking does it in a quart jar, and slugs don't attack my cannas as much now. And when the cats start scratching again I put it on both of them and should do it a little bit more often. I'm thinking that it might help if I put it in their bath's rinse water.
Last month I spent a little over 50 dollars for Front Line flea meds for cats, and they are STILL scratching. Skin is not dry, but I can see the little devils running in the white cat's fur and in Koko's white chest hairs. Also put it in their water, can't see it after that, but like I said, Koko no longer has to go to the vet for worm meds. Used to have to have shots for them, now never see any little white eggs near his upright tail anymore. That's why I took him to the vet some years ago.
No, no site that told me much but we could probably find one if we looked. I'm thinking it may be a good idea. I want to find out what else I could use it for. If it can puncture the skin of hard shelled fleas, then it could kill a lot of other bad ones. DE is used a lot for pesticide use, I think it's a lot safer than a lot of the chemicals now on the market.