I have the exact problem - vigorous vines but no flowering for 2 years now in the same location that 3 years and before I had many beans. My treliis is actually an arbor than can be walked under @ 7 feet high. My pH is 7-7.5, micronutrients are not lacking, N is low but P &K are excessive. Am adding sulfur to lower pH but suspect the problem is something else. I've checked into toxicants from tree roots (not too far away) but not sure on that. I regularly add hardwood leaf compost mixed with grass clippings so am wondering if that is a factor. Sunlight is 6 hours a day so don't think that's the problem. We had severe Spring droughts for the past 2 years, but I've watered every other day though wonder if I was getting enough down for uptake during the bloom period. Temperatures were excessive - mid 90's- so am suspecting that as the main culprit. Am to the point of pruning the layering vines in hopes of getting results when things cool in the Fall. I've typically had excellent blooming & bean production just before the first frost. Other experiences? Advice?

I second the advice to get a soil test. It is relatively inexpensive, gives you a lot of information and comes back fairly quickly. You can get it through your U of A extension service, I think it is probably still up on Campbell. Until you do that, you're really feeling your way around in the dark. You should also let them know about your specific issues, there might be extra testing they can do for some common chemicals. Burning in and of itself should do no harm, only add to the alkalinity of the soil, but who knows what they used to suppress the fire...? No idea if that would affect it or no. Your soil will cake up if you are working wet clay, a big no-no. The mulch and compost is great for softening the soil and make it more moisture retentive, so checking it wouldn't be a big deal, and even then you can just scratch a little back. Mulching is *huge* in desert gardening, be it organic or even rock - anything to aid in cooling the roots, especially of non-desert plants of the type you're planting. I'm guessing you're saying that your soil is a mixture of sand and clay and not that you're mixing the two - that would = cement, and could be a part of the problem. Have you seen any of your plants growing well in your neighborhood? Also, longer term residents might be able to tell you if something happened on your site. But from your description, my best bet is that the holes that you're making in the caliche may not be sufficient to let the roots spread out; you might want to dig one of the dead plants out and see if it stretched out beyond the original root ball, or did they run into caliche immediately? You also want to test your drainage - caliche tends to form in sheets and if you had to get thru one, there is a good chance of another below it. Anywho, "they" now say that it's much more important to make a wider hole than a deep one, for the root spread problem precisely. BTW, I wouldn't waste my time asking folks at Lowe's for plant advice, although they put a few through some master gardener classes, few have the experience to do much more than scratch the surface of gardening. And steer manure... well.... unless it's really well composted, you're adding a lot of salt to an already salty soil. I saw an ad on Craig's list for horse manure today, you might think about that or the city of Tucson used to make compost out of their clippings and give it away. Hope this is helpful, best of luck to you!

These are Long Keepers variety, non-hybrid, I save the seeds myself year after year. The 1 month seedling stems have been this long for the last 2 weeks, I don't see any change in stem length, There seems to be a lot of roots. I have been growing the same seeds in the same window for about 20 years without ever having any problems, in fact I have two west facing windows where I have grown tomatoes wthout any issues also, those west windows now have had poor growth also to where I stopped using those windows. The poor growing seems to have started 4 years ago when the the older windows were replaced by thermo-pane windows, I blamed that in 2009, 2010, in 2011 the tomatoes grew just fine in that same thermo-pane window just like they did for the previous 20 years in the older windows. I blamed something else, then it hit me again this year after a great 2011. I'm going to install a piece of plexi-glass in that window to replace the lower sash to eliminate the thermo-pane effects. I will also re-pot the 1 month old seedlings and place them in my garage which has old window glass and the seedlings will get sun from the east, south, and west at the same time and see if the recover. We don't plant around here in the northeast PA until about the 1st week in June so I do have about a 6-7 weeks to catch up and I really don't like these Long Keepers to ripen until the very end of the growing season, so later planting is a plus. I just finished up eating the last few Long Keepers at the end of March. They store so well during the winter and taste a lot better than what I get in the store during the winter around here. Bob P.

Sooooooooooooo, eggzactly what is it that you think we can do for you? Obviously, you aren't new to growing tomatoes and you said that you haven't done anything different this year from previous years. My suggestion would be to just go in the house and occupy yourself with things that you can control. LOL To me, this is like watching the kettle boil. Your plants will move along at their own pace, whether you are staring at them or not. Cold weather not only halts growth but it also sets the plants back. Relax. Your tomatoes will do just fine all on their own. There's no magic potion, incantations or solid state device that will make them grow any faster.