Problem: Plants Bearing Too Early

[NJCher]

Anybody have an idea what's causing this?

First, I'm in Zone 6, northern NJ. My plants normally do not bear fruit until mid-July and August. They will often go right into October, clear to the end, bearing fruit.

This year, however, is different.

My vegetables--tomatoes, eggplant, peppers--are all putting off blooms way too early. They've been doing this since early June. I put them out in mid- to late May. Some of them were plants I started (many of the heirloom tomatoes) but others were plants I purchased from the nursery.

Right away they wanted to go to the flowering stage. Knowing that the plants need a good root system to really produce in late July/August, I've been cutting off the blossoms and feeding with liquid bonemeal (Bloom-A-Long, 0-12-0). I've been told the liquid bonemeal will help them develop a strong root system. It doesn't seem to change their ways, though: I just see another round of blossoms. The liquid bonemeal is supposed to be given to them once a month.

Link: http://www.cleanairgardening.com/liquidbonemeal.html

Instead they seem to want to bear fruit now because they are all again flowering. My concern, of course, is that this fruit will be small and dwarf-sized.

The same goes for my strawberries. What a disappointment. Lots of berries but all are small in size. Just not worth the trouble.

Anybody have an idea of what's happening here? Maybe I need to provide more compost?



Cher

[bearfan454]

1. I pinch off the yellow tomato flowers for at least 5 or 6 weeks.

I like for the plant to be between 2 and 3 feet tall before I let it start flowering.

[japple]

2. Same problem here in Georgia. I think it's because we

really didn't have Spring this year--went straight from Winter to Summer. I usually grow a variety of corn that has short stalks and it normally grows about 5" high with 2 or 3 ears. It matures in mid to late August. This year, however, it is already ripe and ready to pick, and I think it's due to the excessive heat we had during May and June. Sad to say, I won't have any corn to put in the freezer this year. The stalks are only about 3 to 4 feet, with one, maybe two small ears. The corn we had on Sunday was super sweet and very good, and I've saved a few ears for the 4th, but that's about all we'll get. Edit to add: It's a lot of work and water to produce so little. Am thinking about eliminating corn next year unless we catch up on rainfall.

[LiberalEsto]

3. Stress?

When plants are stressed, they often start blooming. It's a desperate attempt to reproduce before they die.

Pinch off the flowers and give them some extra TLC, maybe some compost tea or manure tea.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. Silly question: the product is called "Bloom-A-Long," right?

It sounds like the plants are reacting properly by setting blooms. Perhaps they need more nitrogen for leaf and stem growth right now.

[bearfan454]

5. Bloomburst works really good too.

At this stage, I use 2 scoops of Miracle Grow for Tomatoes along with 2 scoops of Bloomburst in my sprayer that goes on the end of the hose. I do this once a week. Expert Gardener makes Bloomburst. Walmart has it here.

[Jersey Devil]

6. No. Jersey here too - I just let them bloom and

it looks like I am going to have a tomato crop I can pick in 2-3 weeks, pretty early. Same for the italian peppers, though it is strange that the bell peppers seem to be behind everything else.