Q. & A. How many times can you count on a Rutgers tomato plant re-flowering?

tomato blossom 09

Dean Norris left this comment on a previous post “Clyde’s Advice on My Rutgers Tomatoes, My Container Vegetable Garden”

“I find it interesting that it re-flowers and sets fruit after the initial crop. I am in Arizona and wonder how many times you can count on re-flowering.”

Resident Planning Geek: I’ve found that my Rutgers tomato plants have re-flowered twice or more during their life span, and they are still alive. I’ve had 3 counts of flowers producing fruit. My plants continue to re-flower in the fall. I’ve noticed now 100_1136 however that these blossoms aren’t resulting in fruit. Instead, the flower blossoms now, and wilts, and drops off.

Current Circumstances. The seasonal change might be the reason my plants aren’t producing more fruit. They are no longer in their ideal environmental conditions: heat and lots of sunlight.

The last fruits began over a month ago. Since then, the weather here has fluctuated and, in total, the temperature is dropping. They don’t get the heat that they thrive in. The nights became much cooler in September and I moved my plants indoors. They don’t get as much sun light inside though they are on a ledge overlooking a huge glass pane and receive a good amount of light. My plants have fruit on the vine, but the fruit aren’t growing significantly bigger. I’m considering plucking them and letting them ripen on the counter instead. It’s a toss up.

I’ve prevented 2 major blights and worked really hard to keep my plants alive. One blight was in the summer, and I had to cut major branches off. In late September/early October I trimmed of infested leaves, and that’s the reason the plants look scraggly now. I think my plants benefited from the first pruning. The grew back just as thick and produced fruit. Now, without the sun and heat I think, they’ve not filled out.