What to do when tomato fruit set is low? Master these methods to easily improve it
Tomato is a common plant in our daily life, with a uniquely sweet-and-sour taste and a very high vitamin content, and it can be paired with many dishes. Many people grow some at home, but during the growing process they always encounter poor fruit set and low fruit set in tomatoes. So how can tomato fruit set be improved? Let's take a look.
1. Lower the temperature
The ripening period of tomatoes coincides with the hot season. If tomatoes are kept in an environment above 35°C for a long time, the plant's nutrient consumption will become excessive, which will block flower bud differentiation and cause poor flowering and fruit set and flower and fruit drop. So during hot periods, you should find ways to lower the growing environment temperature so the plants grow and develop at a suitable temperature. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., you can cover with a shade net to reduce light intensity and achieve the cooling effect. In addition, you can also spray inside the greenhouse with a sprayer or sprinkler irrigation system to increase humidity, and the cooling effect is also quite good.
2. Prevent excessive vegetative growth ⟧7⟧High temperatures will cause excessive nutrient consumption in the plant, and will also lead to vigorous vegetative growth that far exceeds reproductive growth, causing excessive vegetative growth of branches and leaves, which is extremely unfavorable for tomato flowering and fruiting. You can spray plant regulators to balance the vegetative growth and reproductive growth of tomatoes. Commonly used growth regulators include 500-fold diluted mepiquat chloride solution or 1500-fold diluted chlormequat solution. Spraying them inhibits the vegetative growth of tomatoes, enhances photosynthesis, promotes the reproductive growth of tomatoes, and thereby improves fruit set.
High temperatures cause excessive nutrient consumption in the plant and also lead to overly vigorous vegetative growth, far exceeding reproductive growth, which causes the plant to produce excessive leggy stems and leaves. This is extremely unfavorable for the flowering and fruiting of tomato plants. Plant growth regulators can be sprayed to balance the vegetative and reproductive growth of tomatoes. Commonly used growth regulators include mepiquat chloride at 500 times dilution or chlormequat chloride at 1500 times dilution. Spraying them inhibits the vegetative growth of tomatoes, enhances photosynthesis, and promotes the reproductive growth of tomatoes, thereby increasing the fruit-setting rate.
3. Proper fruit thinning
Many farmers in the early stage use the method of keeping 5-6 fruits per truss, which can suppress plant growth, inhibit excessive plant growth, and promote fruit set. However, in this way, there are too many nutrients in the lower part of the tomato plant and insufficient nutrients in the upper part, which will affect fruit set. Therefore, the excess fruits in the lower part of the plant should be thinned out in six rounds. The first time is when the fruits grow to the size of a soybean; remove oversized, undersized, and deformed fruits. When the fruits grow to the size of a grape, mainly remove deformed fruits to reduce nutrient consumption and promote flowering and fruiting in the upper part of the tomato.
4. The concentration of the flower-setting hormone must be reasonable
If the concentration of the flower-setting hormone is too high, it will cause hormone poisoning in the plant, resulting in deformed fruits. Therefore, the flower-setting concentration must be appropriate. It is recommended to use 2 ml of 2% 2,4-D, dilute it with water into 1 liter of mixed solution, then add 4 ml of brassinolide and 2 g of chelated boron. After testing, the effect is very good, and it can improve the fruit set rate, with fewer deformed fruits.
The above is an introduction to related content on how to improve tomato fruit set. We hope it can help you. If you want to learn more related knowledge, please stay tuned to us.