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Occasional Contributor
Posts: 15
Registered: ‎07-20-2010

My tomato plant isn't flowering!

About 4 weeks ago I planted a study Beefsteak tomato plant in my backyard bed. I have a rental house with gardening service, and the beds in the back yard are covered with tarps which have pebbles over them -- the head gardener suggested cutting a hole in the tarp, planting the tomato and replacing the stones. He said the soil underneath is exceptionally good (it did seem to be -- lots of earthworms when I dug!). So that's what I did. The plant has done exceptionally well - it has bushed up and really grown. It's about four or five times the size it was when I planted it, and it's dark green and very lush. Lots of branches, lots of leaves.

Trouble is -- no flowers yet! And no flowers = no tomatoes! Early on I noticed some little buds sort of inside toward the main stem, but they withered and fell off in the first couple of weeks. It seems like the plant is growing so big and bushy it's spending all its energy putting out new leaves and branches?? Should I prune it back? How can I force it to bud and bloom? Could the pebbles be retaining heat and making it grow too fast? It's in an unshaded area which gets lots of sun - I live in Southern California, so it's "June gloom" time right now, which means it's actually overcast from about dawn till noon, but bright sun after that the rest of the day. I heard there's a spray hormone you can buy that encourages veggies to bloom? Any suggestions?