Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just curious if anyone has had this problem with their aquaponically grown tomato plants or possible insight? Some things I've read is that hot temps will cause it, but our neighbors plants are doing fine (conventional soil). Any ideas? TIA folks.

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Bees... are there bees to pollinate the flowers..

Welcome to the Bauer World of BCC and having to hand pollinate every flower before the die and drop off..

I have not seen an insect near my plants, other than moths and the likes..

I seriously wonder what this world will be like in a few more years, after the big boys have had their way with their indescriminate killing of everything that is needed for bio-diversity, and then augmented with GM crops that won't need fertilization ..
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Hmm...I'll check that out, but I see bees all over the property, and I could swear I've seen them buzzing the beds, but I'll confirm. thanks for the suggestion.

If they are inside a greenhouse it's probably a pollination problem as Bui Doi mentioned. If they are outside I'd ask what's different between the two patches of tomatoes other than the soil or AP. If there aren't many pollinators around, your neighbor might be hand pollinating (could be just giving the plant a shake - sometimes that's all it takes).

Nutrient deficiencies, temperature, humidity, air pollution, low or high nitrates are also possible causes. It's unlikely that it's air pollution, temperature or humidity because of your neighbors plants but I would look at the nitrate levels if it looks like you have plenty of pollinators around. Since a deficiency could cause problems, if you have some pics of the tomato plants we might notice something if you post them.

What are your readings for nitrate, temp and pH?

http://www.njfarmfresh.rutgers.edu/documents/BlossomDropinTomatoes.pdf

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Shaking... I had not heard of that..

It will give the neighbors, something to talk about .. .. "... and he was out there trying to choke his tomato today.."

SONICATION... a new word..... Perhaps one could make a SONICATOR to do that job. .. a vibrating stick that you move among the plant to "shake the crap out of it.."
.. Peter
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Nitrates are almost zero, but it doesn't seem to be harming the other plants, pH is 6.5-6.7, and temp is ~70 degrees. Here's a vid...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRZ-ONE ... e=youtu.be

Checked out the video. Your lettuces and kale look great . The tomatoes look pretty good as well. I asked about the nitrates because if they are high then you get a lot of green growth at the expense of flowering (they look like they have plenty but not too much). I think everything is fine with the tomatoes probably just a slight difference in the temps because the water doesn't seem to hold the heat quite as well as the soil does overnight. It's also possible that humidity played a role since the plants are still pretty close to the media and tank. I'd give the hand pollination a try for now. There is some additional information here - https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs1195 that gives more detailed on the temperature and humidity and how it affects tomato blossoms.

Cheers

Thanks Scotty,

Went down this morning and the one plant in question has a few more new blossoms, so we'll see. Our San Marzano, we've just discovered, is now setting fruit. We'll check out that article. Muchas gracias my friend.

Hi Pinegrove,
nice system and seems to be producing really well......
I did notice on that particular tomato the leaves have curled up edges.... this "from what I have read is a copper def', might be worth looking into to see if that would cause a flower drop.?

@PineGroveDave - Hi, you can take a look at the attached link, it is very informative in regards to symptoms for deficiencies.

http://trueaquaponics.com/deficiency-guides.html

Regards

Could be a lot of things. I don't think it's anything serious like a deficiency, I think it's a fairly normal physiologic leaf curl. Could be humidity, could be wind, could be heat - The plant looks pretty healthy otherwise so I'm thinking just wait and see how it goes. Let us know what you do and how it turns out.