Tomato Help

[Bodo]

I almost spelled it 'Tomatoe'...

I'm hoping someone with a green thumb can help me out.

I have a tomato plant in a rather large (~10gal) container with store bought potting soil. The darn thing is covered in flowers and fruit. The problem is that the fruits are staying small (grape size) but ripening fine. I'm not sure of the cultivar but the fruits should be MUCH larger.

I've fertilized once with a 'tomato fertilizer'. This is my first attempt at container gardening. Any ideas as to why the fruits aren't attaining proper size?

Thanks for your time

[drobbins]

if you don't know the cultivar then why don't you think they're cherry of grape tomatoes?
that's what it sounds like to me
relax, they're good:)

Dave

[smgchandler]

bo if its covered in blooms and the tomatoes are all small you can bet its a tommy toe or cherry type tomato plant - a ten gallon pot is big enough for a couple more - stick you a german johnson or fantastic in there with it and you will have the best of both worlds for your salad and your sandwich - tell ya a funny real quick - my dad took some tomato plants that were offered to him for free (nice looking plants) and he got maybe 100 plants and gave me most of them - well i run another row for late tomatos and planted all of them - come to find out they were out of a pasture and were all tommy toe plants - not a waste of time but it sure does take a lot of them to make a quart of tomaoes LOL - needless to say i planted another row for my late tomatoes

[hummingberd]

They're probably a small variety. Pulling off some of the flowers might help make the fruits larger...

[Dale Hodges]

Sounds like someone mixed up the labels, I planted a navel orange tree that turned into a grapefruit.:)

[nsmith1957]

If the variety is not cherry or the one of the smaller varieties, then you have too much nitrogen. With too much nitrogen the plant will appear healthy and green. Foilage will grow quickly. But it will not produce fruits of any size. Do not use Amonnium Nitrate for fertilizer all the time. Only use it to bring the nitrogen up from dangerous levels of too low.

I had a hydroponic hobby greenhouse for a few years a few years back and I learned this the hard way. I used Amonnium Nitrate for my main source of nitrogen. What I wound up with was fruit that only weighed about 1/10 lb where they should have been in the 1/2 to 3/4 pound range.

"A well fed tomato plant will not produce very big fruit."

[Bodo]

Thank you all for the replies.

I'll just 'go with the flow' on that plant. I planted a couple Hierloom 'maters out in the garden. I'm hoping that they were marked correctly!

[dragonfly]

You would probably do better with a container at least twice that size too (keep in mind for next time;)).

[Bodo]

20gal for a tomato plant? Guess I better start looking around the local nursery for tree pots!

Thanks again