A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening Great plants, no fruit

I'm fairly new to gardening, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I hope you all help me!

I started a raised bed garden this year with bagged soil and some manure. I have not added anything else to the soil. It gets 6+ hours of sun, mostly late morning & afternoon. I water by hand every other day if it hasn't rained until the soil looks nice & moist. I use a liquid fertilizer when watering once or twice every 2 weeks. I have deer netting around the edge and staked into the ground to keep things out. I don't use a pesticide but smush any bugs I see when I'm out there.

I have beans, corn, cucumbers, melon, tomatoes, peppers, carrots & some herbs. All of my plants look gorgeous and healthy - lots of green leaves, no yellowing, no wilting, no bug-eaten leaves or blooms. My beans have taken off like crazy. My cukes are doing great - lots of blooms and we've had a few delicious cukes so far! My melons have blooms, but no fruit yet. My corn has been one problem. It looked great at first, and now it seems to have stopped growing. The plants look healthy, but they're not growing. I have it in 2 rows of 3 plants each.

What's bothering me most is my tomatos & peppers. I have 3 plants of each. All the plants look healthy, are growing tall (3+ feet). I have everything staked, and it doesn't look like the plants are getting weighed down at all. But I have NO blooms or anything! The peppers had blooms for a couple days, and then they disappeared (birds, bugs?) and I have not seen any new blooms since. I haven't even seen a bit of a bloom on the tomatoes. Like I said, the plants look healthy, but just no blooms.

Any ideas of why I'm not getting any fruit on my peppers & tomatoes, or why my corn stopped growing? Thank you so much!

what are the temps where you are CaniacRN? we have another topic going right now on the same subject. evidentally very high temps will cause blooms not to set. or no bloom to bloom.
there are a ton of other things that could have contributed, but the temp is my first thought.
ohter thoughts would be too much fetilizer. VERY rich soil WILL produce a very healthy plant but no friuts, I believe.

I am in NC. Weather this year has been hot, but actually a little cooler than normal. I think the highest it's gotten has been mid 90s (versus the occasional 100+ day). It is a bit humid, but that's the norm.

fluctuations in temp can also add to slow or no bloom/friut production.

I don't know a thing about gardening in N.C., I barely know what I'm doing here, in texas. but, check out the thread in the tomato growing forum titled 'Too hot for blooms to set?' check that out while your waiting on other responses here.....

best of luck.

Given what you've said about your climate, I'm guessing you're at least in the Piedmont, if not further east. Cricket's right about the temperature, especially night time temp, but if you are where I think you are, I don't see that as being the problem. Maybe Bestoffour will chime in, she's in the Piedmont, I think.

What variety of tomatoes are you growing? 3' tall isn't all that tall, but it would help to know what kind of tomatoes you have. Also, how long ago did you plant them?

As for the peppers, many times it will seem like the flowers have fallen off, but it you look again in a day or two, you'll see that the fruit has set.

One other critical thing comes to mind-- what are you fertilizing them with? If you created raised beds, and amended the soil with manure, AND are fertilizing with a balanced fertilizer (e.g., 10-10-10, or another with a proportionately equal amount of N-P-K), or one even heavier on the nitrogen (the first #)) you're plants are in a nitrogen-rich environment that promotes vegetative (stems, leaves) growth, as opposed to reproductive (flower, fruit) growth. If this is the case, I'd recommend that you STOP fertilizing IMMEDIATELY! Continue to water as you have, but in a couple of weeks, begin watering with a weak solution of a fertilizer specifically for tomatoes/peppers.

Stay tuned. Peppereater will be along shortly to provide details!

Sorry-- I don't grow corn. But I'm sure we'll get you some tomatoes & peppers. :wink:

Corn needs lots of nitrogen.I use 24-12-12 fertilizer and it works great on my corn. Next year,plant corn where beans,peas,or other legumes grew before. It also needs water;water twice or three times a week. I didn't give my corn fertilizer and it stopped growing.I gave it some and it began growing again.

The corn may be transitioning to the flowering stage and so appear to be doing nothing. Look for any signs of flowers, they may take off quickly when the time is right. Give the tomatoes and peppers a bit more time, then report back, you should be seeing signs of blossoms by now. When did you plant, what varieties, and what do you see at the leaf axies and branch tips? Have you fertilized lately? DON'T! not yet. YOu could force vegetative growth and inhibit flowering. Maybe give it a week or two and use a high phosphate fert.

For your tomatoes and peppers if they had blossoms and dropped then it could be one or more of the following issues. Temperatures too high or too low, or large fluctuations in temperature from day to night, lack of pollination,too much or too little nitrogen. Just something that might part of the problem.

tomatoes are more sensitive to high temps than peppers. My first guess, since neither are showing any sign of blooms, is, as stated above, too much nitrogen. The advice to water and fertilize the corn is also good advice, although I rarely have grown corn. Never use a fertilizer with extremely high N (34 is very high, 20 is somewhat high) use a 10-20-10 or balanced (10-10-10 or 20-20-20) fert on the corn as a side dressing and I think you may see results. Keep in mind that corn needs very intense sunlight but will tend to be stunted or ruined by extreme heat.

I live in Dallas and my jalapino peppers are not producing much fruit either.

They do have blossoms but very few peppers.

I usually collect several bushels from my plants by this time of the year.

And I have no idea what the problem is.