Hi elkski,

I posted a reply to a thread entitled "tiny whitish bugs". It's about thrips, a very tiny insect which can cause a tremendous amount of blossom drop. I know you said you don't see any bugs, but these little suckers are so small you could easily overlook them, even with a substantial infestation. You might want to check my post on that thread for some additional info. Western Flower Thrips are common in our part of the country.

Good Luck!
AZ Kayla

Many of my blossoms are falling off. I dont see any bugs. It has been wet here and last night was 55

The most common cause of blossom drop, and there's a FAQ about this at the top of the main tomato forum, is high temps, above about 90-95 for a period of time or night temps above about 70.

When conditions are wet the pollen clumps making it much less effective, so that could well be your problem. Clumped pollen at any temps is useless.

So like many others I guess you'll just have to wait until conditions improve.

That's not to say that thrips might not be involved and you certainly look for them, but they wouldn't be considered as a major cause of blossom drop.

Carolyn

Elski,

I totally forgot to mention another cause of blossom drop and that's growing in too rich soil or overfertilizing.

Both can inhibit both blossom formation as well as fruit set, aka blossom drop which indicates lack of fruit set.

Carolyn

Case in point by Carolyn. I over fertilized last year, excessive manure in MG, and was awarded with vigorous growth plants that had no interest in fruiting. All the other conditions were perfect for pollen exchange and I maybe got one beefsteak from eight huge plants. The other side of the garden was not fertilized the same way and I got loads off of Early Girls and 100's. Further research on the web showed some pro growers avoiding manure all together. Growquest.com has some good tips on what their guys are doing to create yields. Good luck.