Mr. stripey and Aunt Ruby are not cooperating.

[Merelyatheory]

My Mr. stripey plants are lush and happy it would seem but they will not produce fruit. The first flowers bloomed over three weeks ago but the tomatoes are still smaller than a pea. With the exception of the fruit they are two of the best looking of my wal-mart bought tomatoes. I could be crazy in thinking they are connected but a few of the plants I started from seed that got damaged had odd variations in the first tomatoes but they seemed to grow out of as more flowers bloomed. Is this that? Do they have some emotional baggage they need to work out from life in the store? Could they grow out of it and start producing or do you just get bad plants sometimes?

I also bought an Aunt Ruby's German green from the local greenhouse, I took a couple clones and put them in containers. The momma got put in the garden with plenty of room. All three plants have no petals. It looks like they are growing normally but when they should be blooming they are empty inside.

I don't know, any ideas?

 

[Merelyatheory]

I just went out and got a good look and I think the aunt ruby's might be growing out of it. Some of the newest flowers look like they will bloom normally.

 

[digitS']

. . . Do they have some emotional baggage they need to work out from life in the store? Could they grow out of it and start producing or do you just get bad plants sometimes? . . . I don't know, any ideas?

Something that I have noticed with my tomato starts wasn't all that encouraging. I usually take the smaller plants and put them in the corners of the flats where they will have more room and less competition from their bigger sisters. First of all, the hybrids tend to all be about the same, it is the heirlooms that are more variable.

Anyway, if they were kind of puny when first I transplanted them, they were kind of puny weeks later . . . Maybe it is "once a weak sister . . ." I still hope that isn't true with each of the smaller plants that I feel are something special to start off with. At least, putting them in special places helps me keep track of them.

I grew Stupice one year (and practiced using the corrrect pronunciation of that name around DW once too often, apparently ). From what I'd read about them, they seemed to be a real good choice for this part of the world! No one said that they tended towards deformed fruit. I think I had 3 or 4 plants. They all had fruit that prompted my wife to start calling them my stupid tomatoes :/. BTW - are your Mr. Stripeys the variety with the larger fruit?

I think it might help for you to take a look at this, Merely: Timeline of a Tomato Truss.

Steve

 

[hoodat]

Just a comment. You have to be careful when buying greenhouse plants, especially from big box stores. Unscrupulous growers like to pawn off their bad plants on big box stores where the staff won't recognize a problem. I bought some green peppers last year that brought in blight with them. They looked fine in the store but two weeks later they started showing the yellow patches in the leaves that are typical of blight. That's too quick for blight to develop if it wasn't already in the plants. I won't be able to grow any peppers or tomatos in that area for three or four years or I'll just spread the blight. Plenty of other unrelated plants I can grow there though so no biggie.

 

[Merelyatheory]

This year I was unprepared for my own interest in gardening. I only started two kinds of tomatoes but in great quantities, Burpee organic roma and early treat hybrid. Every one of them sprouted. I regret not starting a larger variety. Next year I am not going to regret anything. With the ones I started it was kind of a game show where 100 of each kind was started and I narrowed them down to the roughly 6 roma and 5 early treat that are in the ground and handful I kept to experiment with. I kept the best instead of picking the best of the selection at walmart. in the case of the german green and two Japanese black trifele, they were the last three tomato plants that the greenhouse had. I was looking to find something different and I lucked out. If nothing else I bought a priceless lesson.

 

[wifezilla]

Just a comment. You have to be careful when buying greenhouse plants, especially from big box stores. Unscrupulous growers like to pawn off their bad plants on big box stores where the staff won't recognize a problem. I bought some green peppers last year that brought in blight with them.

Last fall I ended up with peppers infested with aphids. I over winter peppers inside and bought these on clearance to grow along with my chiltepin pepper plant. After battling the bugs for months I finally just threw out all my inside plants. Boy was i pissed off. My hot pepper plant was 3 years old and a great producer!!! I will start anew early next spring with new pots, new dirt and SEEDS!!!

 

[momofdrew]

I have had unscruplous greenhouse growers sell me deseased plants that includes box stores ie...wally world.. home depot and lowes... I now either grow my own from seed or go to a reputable green house who will stand behind their plants...

 

[dinkadoo]

Here in central S.C. the heat is the main nemesis of proper flowering and fruit set. We just completed our 51 st day between 95 and 100 and that has been since the middle of May! It has been an adventure just to get a bloom or two on my heirlooms. Hang tight; with your location you should be ok. I have tried the black trifele and had a ton of fruit but with one small problem, they tasted like the peat pot they came from. Well, not really but very bland. Hope your's responds well and turns out good-always experiment! As a suggestion try a Black Krim or, one of my top 3 a Cherokee Purple. These are grown in the Applachians(N.C.) where nights are cool and days are usually in the mid 80's.I have had success with them here but i have to shade them in the afternoon. Also, try a Violet Jasper- they're a 1-2 ounce salad tomato with a killer old time taste. Plus they produce like crazy. I've found these at rare seeds .com. Wish you well.

 

[stepstephens2]

Mr. Stripey, did you say? Last year I bought a Mr. Stripey and he grew to gigantic proportions- and gave me 4 tomatoes! When things weren't happening with the plant the way they were with the others (Early Girls & Black Princes- which gave me tons of tomatoes) I dug around a bit online for opinions on him. The majority of people said that Mr. Stripey also had produced little or no tomatoes for them, as well. There were some people that stuck up for the plant and that made me keep holding out hope for a tomato miracle. I wish I would have just pulled the stupid waste of space out. So, some things I noticed about the plant: It didn't start to blossom until the end of the growing season (I'm in zone 9.) Once it started blossoming, 99.9% would drop off (I tried spraying some with an epsom salt solution at one point, but they still dropped.) When I did discover tomatoes on it, they were HIDDEN under the tomato plant on the bottom side of the vines and had pulled the vines to the ground. It produced large tomatoes (3 1/2 lbs. about) that were super sweet. Because they were super sweet- they attracted ants from out of nowhere that ate 2 of the 4 tomatoes I found over night.