My tomato plants are flowering well but the flowers and very small fruits are dropping off and not setting. It has been very hot during the day. The plants otherwise look green and healthy. Why are they not holding fruit?
3 जवाब
When tomato plants look healthy and flower well but the flowers and tiny fruits drop without setting in hot weather, the most likely cause is heat stress rather than a pest or disease. Tomato pollen does not set well when day temperatures cross about 35 C or nights stay very warm, so the flowers abort. Excess nitrogen, water stress and very low humidity make it worse. Use shade net or grow during cooler windows, keep soil moisture steady with mulching and drip, and avoid over fertilising with nitrogen which pushes leaves over fruit. Heat tolerant varieties set much better in your conditions. Some growers use a recommended plant growth regulator spray to improve set, but use it only on KVK advice and at the right dose. Confirm there is no thrips or virus involved by checking the flowers closely, and ask your horticulture officer for the best heat tolerant variety for Anand.
Heat tolerant varieties were the real fix here in Gujarat. The old variety dropped everything in May, the new one held fruit much better.
Mulch and steady drip moisture stopped the swings. When the soil dried then got flooded, drop was worst.