Have Flowers, No fruit

[123abct]

I am currently doing an aquaponic project at school, in our school greenhouse. I have Tilapia as my fish. I have two grow beds, one on top of the other with the tomatoes on the top, a few peas on the bottom. Started in October of 2010.

:I planted cherry tomatoes

My tomatoes have been flowering for about a month now but still no fruit. Most of the flowers are dying. From other websites, I've read that I might have too much Nitrogen and that I need more Phosphorus and Potassium. How do I get rid of Nitrogen?

What should I do?

[urbanfarmer]

Blossom-end rot is a nutritional disorder. Too little available calcium, too much or too little water and severe pruning favor its development. This can be corrected to some degree by spraying the plant with a solution of 4 tablespoons of calcium chloride mixed in 3 gallons of water. Spray twice weekly, 1 quart per plant, according to product labels.

Blossom drop can be caused by too low or too high night temperatures, too much nitrogen, too much shade, over-watering or even insects, such as flower thrips.

Other tomato disorders include fruit cracking, blotchy ripening, sunscald, yellow-shoulder, leaf-curl, and herbicide injury. The whitefly and a virus have teamed up to cause plant stunting and irregular ripening.

UF/IFAS (HS508) (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vh028)

[urbanfarmer]

PLEASE stay tuned for a DIY type article I wrote for the journal regarding HOW to make CALCIUM CHLORIDE and CALCIUM ACETATE, which will help the nutritional diagnosis of your problem. For the mean time, buy some calcium fertilizer made for this and foilar spray it as it says above.

[keith_r]

be careful adding any "fertilizer" to an aquaponics system... read the mds, be aware of additives..

not tryin to knock ya uf,,, i understand you're concentrating on the plant aspact of ap, but adding certain things that might be very good for the plants can quickly kill your fish..
a good natural calcium additive is crushed eggshells
are you using an electric toothbrush, or q-tips or anything to shake the plants? or do you have bugs doing the work?

[cedarswamp]

"are you using an electric toothbrush, or q-tips or anything to shake the plants? or do you have bugs doing the work?"

What Keith is asking is have you taken care of pollination? If you don't have insects doing it for you, you gotta do it yourself.

[keith_r]

what cedar said, i was distracted when typing..lol

[urbanfarmer]

be careful adding any "fertilizer" to an aquaponics system... read the mds, be aware of additives..

not tryin to knock ya uf,,, i understand you're concentrating on the plant aspact of ap, but adding certain things that might be very good for the plants can quickly kill your fish..
a good natural calcium additive is crushed eggshells
are you using an electric toothbrush, or q-tips or anything to shake the plants? or do you have bugs doing the work?
The wind is a great pollinator too. Do you have any wind there?

There are a lot of calcium fertilizers out there certified organic. Eggshells are not as simple as just throwing them in there... Anyway, I have not looked into it, but are you familiar with any additives in fertilizers that might be unsafe for fish?

[keith_r]

egg shells will take a long time to break down, which won't hurt anything...crushing them and burying a dozen with each tomato plant in dirt gardens is common (at least around here)
re the fertilizer.. some contain phosphates... bad for fish..
others may not conain anything that is bad for the fish, but excess nutrients can cause an algae bloom which can starve your fish of oxygen.. or an cause an amonia spike..

[rfeiller]

Uf it is in a greenhouse

[123abct]

Blossom-end rot is a nutritional disorder. Too little available calcium, too much or too little water and severe pruning favor its development. This can be corrected to some degree by spraying the plant with a solution of 4 tablespoons of calcium chloride mixed in 3 gallons of water. Spray twice weekly, 1 quart per plant, according to product labels.

Blossom drop can be caused by too low or too high night temperatures, too much nitrogen, too much shade, over-watering or even insects, such as flower thrips.

Other tomato disorders include fruit cracking, blotchy ripening, sunscald, yellow-shoulder, leaf-curl, and herbicide injury. The whitefly and a virus have teamed up to cause plant stunting and irregular ripening.

UF/IFAS (HS508) (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vh028)

Why do they need calcium? Once, on one of the tomato plants, that there were a few leaves that had purple-ish color with some spots also. Is that a tomato disease/disorder?

I also see this yellow-orange-green powder like substance on my fingers when I touch my tomato plants. When I wash my hands after, it feels sticky but smooth and easily rid from my fingers. Is that normal?



"are you using an electric toothbrush, or q-tips or anything to shake the plants? or do you have bugs doing the work?"

What Keith is asking is have you taken care of pollination? If you don't have insects doing it for you, you gotta do it yourself.

I see little bugs and when I pinch off the "suckers" growing in between branches, I shake the plants a little bit. I'll try to make it "pollinate" more. We have a mild wind sometimes inside the greenhouse.



egg shells will take a long time to break down, which won't hurt anything...crushing them and burying a dozen with each tomato plant in dirt gardens is common (at least around here)
re the fertilizer.. some contain phosphates... bad for fish..
others may not conain anything that is bad for the fish, but excess nutrients can cause an algae bloom which can starve your fish of oxygen.. or an cause an amonia spike..

I dont get the whole egg shell concept. What do I actually do? Put it in our grow beds on the tomato plant roots?

[keith_r]

eggshells will add calcium (among other things) as it breaks down..
everything that happens in an ap system is a balancing act between the fish and the plants,, a "slow release" nutrient like eggshells are commonly used... another one is to bury a banana, or half a banana in your growbed - provided you have worms in there - to add potassium that will be slowly released as the worms and micro-organisms break it down
adding anything besides media and plants to a growbed has implications beyond your vegetables... that's all i'm sayin

[urbanfarmer]

I bury bananas too! You don't need the worms though. Potassium cannot volatilize into the atmosphere; therefore, it will stay in the system. I have left a banana peel on top of my gravel (it will decompose slower this way mind you) and it decomposes very rapidly. I also tried one with the water that goes into the grow bed making regular contact with it. This sped things up noticeably. These are just observations.


egg shells will take a long time to break down, which won't hurt anything...crushing them and burying a dozen with each tomato plant in dirt gardens is common (at least around here)
re the fertilizer.. some contain phosphates... bad for fish..
others may not conain anything that is bad for the fish, but excess nutrients can cause an algae bloom which can starve your fish of oxygen.. or an cause an amonia spike..
Phosphate isn't an additive to fertilizer, it's the fertilizer... but yes, too much of any chemical salts in the system can cause toxicity or acute problems with osmoregulation in the fish... with that said, that doesn't mean you can't do it.

I didn't say you can't use eggshells or that it doesn't work... I just tried to disclaimer the fact that it needs to be done carefully because (as APers who have tried it have discovered) it can lead to fast and hard pH spikes. I believe you see most people who do this make sure their eggshells are readily removable from the system. I would not suggest burying eggshells in the system near the root system where they cannot be removed later...

Ammonia is also not an additive nor is algae, but too much ammonia can harm your fish especially at lower pH. You can safely have 10x more ammonium at pH 6 than pH 7. The factor approaches 100x for pH 8. Algae adds oxygen during the day. Some commercial fish farming operations pour fertilizer (or manure) into their ponds to promote algae. It feeds the Tilapia for free in some cases. They fish aren't magically dead. I'm not telling anyone to do this, but algae (with all the bonus aeration in everyone's systems these days) will definitely not kill your fish. I have recently experimented with algae in aquaponic systems. It does not seem to rob the plants of any nutrient besides nitrogen. Short of a chemical analysis of the plant matter, this has been the only problem. I have injected urea and ammonia directly to the root zone of certain plants and have seen a reversal of the affects.

[keith_r]

i peed on a bush all the time one summer and it died

[urbanfarmer]

i peed on a bush all the time one summer and it died
try it on a bush in an aquaponic system with a pH of 6, it will laugh at you and grow bigger (than...)

[keith_r]

than what i peed with? hahahaha

ok, back to your regularly scheduled program

[urbanfarmer]

:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[cedarswamp]

i peed on a bush all the time one summer and it died

Probably from humiliation. :lol:

[WAbedroomponics]

I had an idea how to get calcium to the plants..... There is cricket feed that is for gut loading and calcium loading crickets to feed to geckos..... It looks like 1 mm tilapia feed but really colorful.... If you feed a little to the fish every few days would it help your plants have more calcium ?

and FYI the bush didn't die from any chemicals in the pee or anything but like anything that's alive that you regularly pee on it commuted suicide... LOL:-D

[urbanfarmer]

I had an idea how to get calcium to the plants..... There is cricket feed that is for gut loading and calcium loading crickets to feed to geckos..... It looks like 1 mm tilapia feed but really colorful.... If you feed a little to the fish every few days would it help your plants have more calcium ?

and FYI the bush didn't die from any chemicals in the pee or anything but like anything that's alive that you regularly pee on it commuted suicide... LOL:-D
I would check the ingredients in the food to make sure. If they put gecko sex hormones in there or something like that it might be bad for the fish (I have no idea what is in that kind of feed). If you post the ingredients, I'm sure everyone will chip in to check them!

Poor keith! :lol:

[WAbedroomponics]

They have some on my schools green house I will add the list Monday lol I thought of just posting it tidy but thought it wouldn't be important in hind sight its extremely important lol

[WAbedroomponics]

I was able to write down the ingridients list for the potential calcium boost fish food........




ground corn, ground wheat, calcium carbonate, soybean meal, soy hulls, wheat middlings, di-calcium phosphate, fish meal, animal fat, coconut fat, natural and artificial flavors, L-lisine HCL, choline chloride, salt, DL-methionine, ascorbic acid, Vitamin A, biotin, hydroxocobalamin, cholecalciferol, menadione, niacin, riboflavin, thiamine HCL, calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, sodium selenite, cobalt carbonate, magnesium oxide, ferric sulfate, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, manganous oxide, zinc sulfate, zinc oxide




...........................

that is the whole list... thanks for the help guys i will try to look up some of it also i just dont know how to tell where to even start or how to find out if it will hurt the fish

[urbanfarmer]

ground corn, ground wheat, calcium carbonate, soybean meal, soy hulls, wheat middlings, di-calcium phosphate, fish meal, animal fat, coconut fat, natural and artificial flavors, L-lisine HCL, choline chloride, salt, DL-methionine, ascorbic acid, Vitamin A, biotin, hydroxocobalamin, cholecalciferol, menadione, niacin, riboflavin, thiamine HCL, calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, sodium selenite, cobalt carbonate, magnesium oxide, ferric sulfate, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, manganous oxide, zinc sulfate, zinc oxide

I forgot if you mentioned you had Tilapia, but I am assuming you have Tilapia or some kind of omnivore.


LEGEND
Italics - OK
Regular - Unchecked
Bold - Harmful in some way
Underlined - My best guess is safe


ground corn
ground wheat
calcium carbonate
soybean meal
soy hulls
wheat middlings
di-calcium phosphate
fish meal
animal fat
coconut fat
natural and artificial flavors (obviously can't really tell this one
L-lisine HCL (should be safe, but can't find reference, humans take it)
choline chloride
salt
DL-methionine (in dog food and humans take it)
ascorbic acid
Vitamin A (not specifically stated, but in all likelyhood ok)
biotin
hydroxocobalamin (how many forms of B12 are there!!!)
cholecalciferol (vit D3)
menadione (vit K should be fine)
niacin
riboflavin
thiamine HCL
calcium pantothenate
pyridoxine hydrochloride
folic acid
sodium selenite (some of this stuff must be good for geckos I guess, low toxicity in humans, gonna OK it)
cobalt carbonate (high toxicity in humans, can't reference MSDS: http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/CO/cobalt_II_ ... drate.html (http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/CO/cobalt_II_carbonate_hydrate.html))
magnesium oxide
ferric sulfate (high toxicity in humans, can't find this anywhere, maybe harmful http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9924046)
copper sulfate
calcium iodate
manganous oxide
zinc sulfate
zinc oxide

To make this fast, I am cross referencing the following:

Purina Mills Aquamax Grower 600 (http://www.onlinepetdepot.com/purina-mills-aquamax-grower-50lb-p-12075.html)

Also, this page full of possible examples (http://www.marquette.edu/~buxtoni/puregold/care/food.html)

The ones in BOLD I only marked as harmful because it is harmful to humans in any large quantity. I realize we are evaluating the fish and and the nutrient in trace quantity. The substances could metabolize into something entirely different for all I know or even be required by human nutrition in trace quantities. I urge you to further research those substances. As we don't eat geckos, it's hard to say if the food is safe for raising livestock for human consumption or not.

[urbanfarmer]

Did you end up using it?

[WAbedroomponics]

I have used it with fish not being raised as food and growth, color and fruit production greatly increased

[urbanfarmer]

Oh that's great! I would check ferric sulfate and the other one in bold. I found ferric sulfate in my other fish food I bought from walmart. It's hard to say without intimate knowledge of these chemicals and the metabolic pathways they take... I would even call the manufacturer to check because it might be 100% safe.

[WAbedroomponics]

Is the fish food you bought at WalMart the fish food you feed to your tilapia?

[urbanfarmer]

Is the fish food you bought at WalMart the fish food you feed to your tilapia?
AT THE MOMENT YES. This food comes in a 1 ounce container in flakes and is high protein. I am using it to raise tilapia fry to become breeding stock; so, I won't eat this fish... therefore, I didn't concern myself as to the safety of the food. However, this food does not state anything like "not for human consumption" so it makes me believe it might just be safe, ingredients and all! I think you see my logic, but I prefer you did the extra mile on the research. Call the company maybe or if you have other resources to tap, check there.

I might be making you concerned over nothing, but we are using pet gecko food on fish for consumption (or we will be anyway); so, we really need to do our due diligence. I know around these parts, the rednecks will feed ANYTHING to their fish and then eat the fish. The hillbillies haven't died yet, but that's no guarantee!

[WAbedroomponics]

But might make you die early.... Just cause you don't drop dead doesn't mean that it won't kill you in the long run... The gecko food also doesn't say not for human consumption or anything like that there isn't even a warning of any kind on the bottle which is rare now days.... But I will research this more but so far my guppies seem healthier grow faster and the plants are much better so I hope my research shows that it will be ok:-D

[urbanfarmer]

Please let me know what you find. I have never thought about it before, but perhaps there are some pet fish foods that ARE NOT safe to use on fish that are meant to be eaten... or perhaps they're all safe because of the restrictions and regulations put on the industry OR perhaps it's safe because most living organisms share very similar toxicities and therefore would make it safe by default. I DON'T HAVE AN ANSWER FOR THAT.

That's why I went with a comparison. I know the aquamax is meant to be fed to fish for human consumption. Maybe more comparison will help.

[123abct]

Do average eggshells work? Like the eggshells of an egg when you cook one up?

[keith_r]

i use eggshells in my growbeds, growing up we always put shells in the dirt where the tomatoes were planted.. i don't have any documentation on this, it's just been a "common practice" so i figured it couldn't hurt..

[WAbedroomponics]

They should but the nitrate level might get raised really high

[WAbedroomponics]

Your nitrate level might go through the roof but it might help.... If your nitrate levels are low and you bury them under where your water enters the grow bed you will PROBALY help or atleast not hurt

[urbanfarmer]

i use eggshells in my growbeds, growing up we always put shells in the dirt where the tomatoes were planted.. i don't have any documentation on this, it's just been a "common practice" so i figured it couldn't hurt..
Oh it most definitely works. It's just in AP you gotta be careful it doesn't shoot your pH too high when you're not watching. That's why most people have it so they can pull it out of the water at a moment's notice. The reason is you have an irregular shape with a changing surface area and changing conditions for its decomposition, which all affects the rate at which the CaCO3 absorbs and reacts with the aquaponic water. It's not going to spike overnight (I mean it can, but highly unlikely), but you will probably leave it in there unchecked for long periods of time only to discover "oops" and you need to pull it out. That's why it's best not to throw a bunch of crumbled up eggs shells deep in the grow bed. Obviously, if you only have a few in comparison to the SIZE of your tank, well it's not going to affect it much ANYWAY. It just depends what you're doing...

[WAbedroomponics]

What about I cloth type bag filled with egg shells ground to near powder and buried with a wire so you can pull the wire and remove it right away... Would that work?

[urbanfarmer]

What about I cloth type bag filled with egg shells ground to near powder and buried with a wire so you can pull the wire and remove it right away... Would that work?
That's perfect! :mrgreen:

I have to say this: One more note safety, since you are grinding them down to dust/near dust, wear a dust mask or do it in some kind of enclosed container (I have seen people do it inside plastic bags) OR do it outside and make sure not to inhale. That powder won't really kill you unless you have some kind of respiratory issues, but it can cause irritation.

MSDS for Calcium Carbonate:
http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/c0330.htm
http://www.rigchem.com/MSDS/ExcalCalciumCarbonate.pdf

[WAbedroomponics]

Ok thanks I was thinking of using one of those magic bullet blenders because the only thing I use it for is grinding food for my guppie fry

[urbanfarmer]

SPEAKING OF THAT, what do you feed them, exactly? I have some Tilapia fry and I am using 50% protein flake, but they don't really seem too interested in it. If I leave them alone for a LONG time the food seems to disappear, but I can't tell if it was sucked up by the filter or they ate it...

[WAbedroomponics]

My guppies are eating 42% protein topfin brand tropical fish flake food they seem to like it they eat how ever much I feed them with now fuss I just have to crunch it in my fingers when they get big enough to eat something bigger then like dust sized food

[WAbedroomponics]

i just checked i was wrong im using tetramin tropical flakes ............. crude protien 47%

[WAbedroomponics]

Ground up peeler fid for adult tilapia is what I feed my tilapia fry they seemed to like it

[urbanfarmer]

Hm, I will try a different food then. Picky little #@$%ers... :lol:

[WAbedroomponics]

Pellet feed lol my phone just totally typoed lol

[WAbedroomponics]

Have you tried feeding them egg???? ':-)

[urbanfarmer]

NOPE! Raw or cooked? Just the whites I guess?

[WAbedroomponics]

Look up how to feed eggs to guppy fry there's alot about it

[WAbedroomponics]

Yeah I've heard it works well lol

[123abct]

So I did that and a day or two after I had a lot more tomatoes! (Havent been here in a while..) I crushed them to nearly dust and took the pH which was still a little below neutral.

I have an aquaponics paper due in 4 days which needs the overall mass of the cherry tomatoes. None of them are red or even close to ripening. I have a lot of regular-sized tomatoes that are growing in size and more to come but like I said, none are red :(

What should I do now?

[urbanfarmer]

So I did that and a day or two after I had a lot more tomatoes! (Havent been here in a while..) I crushed them to nearly dust and took the pH which was still a little below neutral.

I have an aquaponics paper due in 4 days which needs the overall mass of the cherry tomatoes. None of them are red or even close to ripening. I have a lot of regular-sized tomatoes that are growing in size and more to come but like I said, none are red :(

What should I do now?
It depends, what is your paper on exactly?

If you have run into a deadline, then you may have to just harvest and weigh. It may or may not affect the results of your paper significantly... but that depends what your paper is on...

[rfeiller]

be careful feeding egg, it is a perfect grow medium for bacteria. i fed egg yolk to all of the tropical fish fry that i raised it is a wonderful source of nutrition. don't feed the egg white (save the arguements about nutrition). depending on your set up you can feed the egg yolk hard boiled and pulverized dropping in only what they can eat in a fairly short period of time. (i never have figured out this 3 minute or 5 minute limit rule someone came up with in the dark ages of aquarium keeping) i always allow a lot more time then that. usually up to an hour. you will have to test that for yourself. i don't like feeding starving fish in a feeding freenzy and thats what you end up with limiting their eating time it creates a great dispariety in growth and size.
you can buy bakers pure powdered egg yolk. it's large quantities (25lb bags) and unused portion must be kept in the freezer or at least refrigerated. this is sprinkled on top of the water.
the way i fed it to the fry was to place the fry in large white plastic bowls, egg yolk made into a paste, being a combination of hard boiled yolk, raw yolk (as a binder and adheasive), and with or without powdered egg yolk. i would stick the paste to the sides of the bowls and no matter what the species of fry they would go to it and pick it off. this is labor intensive but produced the fastest growth.
there is a product by OSI called APR (artificial plankton and rotifer) that was developed for the shrimping industry, for feeding the young shrimp. it has appetite enhancers in it. it too can be sprinkled on top of the water or mixed with raw yolk to for a past or small balls. it comes in quart cans.

[urbanfarmer]

be careful feeding egg, it is a perfect grow medium for bacteria. i fed egg yolk to all of the tropical fish fry that i raised it is a wonderful source of nutrition. don't feed the egg white (save the arguements about nutrition). depending on your set up you can feed the egg yolk hard boiled and pulverized dropping in only what they can eat in a fairly short period of time. (i never have figured out this 3 minute or 5 minute limit rule someone came up with in the dark ages of aquarium keeping) i always allow a lot more time then that. usually up to an hour. you will have to test that for yourself. i don't like feeding starving fish in a feeding freenzy and thats what you end up with limiting their eating time it creates a great dispariety in growth and size.
you can buy bakers pure powdered egg yolk. it's large quantities (25lb bags) and unused portion must be kept in the freezer or at least refrigerated. this is sprinkled on top of the water.
the way i fed it to the fry was to place the fry in large white plastic bowls, egg yolk made into a paste, being a combination of hard boiled yolk, raw yolk (as a binder and adheasive), and with or without powdered egg yolk. i would stick the paste to the sides of the bowls and no matter what the species of fry they would go to it and pick it off. this is labor intensive but produced the fastest growth.
there is a product by OSI called APR (artificial plankton and rotifer) that was developed for the shrimping industry, for feeding the young shrimp. it has appetite enhancers in it. it too can be sprinkled on top of the water or mixed with raw yolk to for a past or small balls. it comes in quart cans.
WOW, thank you. Great advice, I will give it a shot.

It looks like egg yolk is 16% protein and 27% fat by weight. I am surprised it works so well. My guess is that mother nature makes it in such a way that it's perfect for baby critters of all sorts... maybe more digestible or balanced amino acid and fatty acid complexes for growth.

It looks like the dried egg yolk powder costs 500% - 600% more than AquaMax fry powder... Do you know any DIY way to make it? According to the web, it's been used for hundreds of years... I can't imagine people were buying it off eBay that long ago :lol:

[rfeiller]

I have never dried it. I would find egg to dangerous to play with. I preferred the paste. Try the local wholesalers for the powdered yolk.

[urbanfarmer]

Follow these simple steps to making your own powdered eggs.

1. Scramble your eggs in a bowl. Pour them in a saute pan and cook until done.

2. Drain the excess grease for a few minutes on a paper towel.

3. Break the eggs into tiny pieces.

4. Spread the eggs out onto a baking sheet.

5. Dry at 135 degreesF for at least 10 hours.

6. Run the eggs through a blender until they form a fine powder.

7. Store your powdered eggs either in a heavy plastic bag, or a jar with a tight lid.

Cook your eggs in a light, non-stick spray, for quicker drying time.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2304324_make-powdered-eggs.html

[rfeiller]

i failed to mention, i usually used more then one hard boiled and one raw egg yolk put them in a zip lock bag blend them together squeezing the bag and mashing them until it becomes a smooth paste. flatten out the mixture in the bag to about 1/8" thick put unused portion in freezer. it will last for months. as you need it break off a piece let it thaw and use.

[urbanfarmer]

i failed to mention, i usually used more then one hard boiled and one raw egg yolk put them in a zip lock bag blend them together squeezing the bag and mashing them until it becomes a smooth paste. flatten out the mixture in the bag to about 1/8" thick put unused portion in freezer. it will last for months. as you need it break off a piece let it thaw and use.
This method seems easier!

I wonder if using a dehydrator could work too...

[123abct]

The paper is just a summary on what we learned about aquaponics by doing this experiment for about half a year.

No one really mentioned an answer for my question...
Why are my tomatoes not ripening? How do I make it get red faster? Any DIY solutions?

[urbanfarmer]

The paper is just a summary on what we learned about aquaponics by doing this experiment for about half a year.

No one really mentioned an answer for my question...
Why are my tomatoes not ripening? How do I make it get red faster? Any DIY solutions?
Please update your profile so we know what part of the world you are located in...

Okay, so you are saying they are not ripening? This means you have flowers and fruit now, but it's staying green? If you have green tomatoes, you will have to wait until they turn red or pick them and put them in a plastic air tight bag to force them to turn red.

Here is a link on the topic: http://www.wikihow.com/Ripen-Green-Tomatoes

[davidstcldfl]

No one really mentioned an answer for my question...
Why are my tomatoes not ripening? How do I make it get red faster? Any DIY solutions?
They seem to take forever...especially the 1st ones of the season. I just wait....and wait some more. They taste so good... :D

[urbanfarmer]

No one really mentioned an answer for my question...
Why are my tomatoes not ripening? How do I make it get red faster? Any DIY solutions?
They seem to take forever...especially the 1st ones of the season. I just wait....and wait some more. They taste so good... :D
They really taste amazing. I just picked the first few of the season. WOW!

[WAbedroomponics]

She's from my area

[rfeiller]

Tomatoes require hot weather to ripen quickly.
The cold nights we are having in San Jose has really slowed mine down, even in the greenhouse.they have been forming almost two months still haven't reached full size and are green.