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  1. #1
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    Have Flowers, No fruit

    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?

  2. #2
    Moderator urbanfarmer's Avatar
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    Re: Have Flowers, No fruit

    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)

  3. #3
    Moderator urbanfarmer's Avatar
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    Re: Have Flowers, No fruit

    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.

  4. #4
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    Re: Have Flowers, No fruit

    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?

  5. #5
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    Re: Have Flowers, No fruit

    "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.

  6. #6
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    Re: Have Flowers, No fruit

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

  7. #7
    Moderator urbanfarmer's Avatar
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    Re: Have Flowers, No fruit

    Quote Originally Posted by 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?
    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?

  8. #8
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    Re: Have Flowers, No fruit

    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..

  9. #9
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    Re: Have Flowers, No fruit

    Uf it is in a greenhouse

  10. #10
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    Re: Have Flowers, No fruit

    Quote Originally Posted by 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)
    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?


    Quote Originally Posted by 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.
    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.


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

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