Hello! I am in Downtown Chicago & my neighbors & I all have tomatoes. The plants on the 4th floor seem to do the best & have had Dozens of Fruits! This is my first year trying to grow on my patio & I am going to try growing them upside down. (IÂll post picÂs if it works! Keep your fingers crossed!) I was also worried about Fruiting so I went to Gardens Alive & got Tomato Blossom Set Spray that helps the flowers pollinate! It also works on berries & other veggies too! So it should work on your Blackberries! I'm also going to use it on my strawberries! The website says: "Helps tomato blossoms set fruit despite poor weather or other unfavorable conditions. Use early in the season and get tomatoes up to three weeks earlier! When tomato flowers are fully open, spray regularly for bigger yields all season. Ready-to-use spray contains a natural hormone that also increases fruit set on peppers, cucumbers, beans, eggplants, melons, okra, berries and grapes." I also got the Special Tomato Fertilizer because they say that Tomato's need lots of Calcium or else they might not set fruit or the fruit will be small & I don't have the best soil to use. The Calcium Deficiency might be part of your problem! If you don't want to buy special fertilizer then save your eggshells every time you crack & rinse them out VERY WELL (I've learned from experience! LOL) get a pile of them & Grind them to powder in a Coffee Grinder! Then mix into the top 2 inches of the soil & water well. That might help. I donÂt think you can "OD" your plants on Calcium but IÂm not sure! If they CAN "OD" on Calcium then PLEASE correct me! Hope things work out! At least the weather seems to be straightening out! (I'M NOT TRYING TO SELL ANYTHING just get my fellow Gardeners some Free Stuff! I got a catalog in the mail from Gardens Alive but they also have a website & if you use Coupon Code:(or Key #)141581 you get $25.00 in stuff FREE!! I couldnÂt find a catch but you MIGHT not be able to use it if you have bought from them before! If you take S/H into account & Deduct it from the Product Price Total then you get your order for free! The code expires in July I think so go check them out soon. It might not go through at first on the website so write down what you want and contact customer service about the Discount or mail in the order. That's what I did to order Online & that's the ONLY reason I ordered from there in the first place! Pass the code along to EVERYONE!)

Good, green, lush growth of any plant and few flowers indiate a soil that has an excess quantity of Nitrogen which is keep the plant from uptaking the other needed nutrients that would help with blossom formation and fruit set. This is why periodic soil tests are needed before applying any kind of soil nutrient other than compost, and why all manures should be composted before being applied to a gardens soil, so nutrients are at least somewhat balanced.

edie, in addition to the excellent link that Dirt gave you why not also go to the FAQ link at the top of this page and read about Blossom Drop and read what's there about use of blossom set products. To wit, they were designed to be used ONLY when temps are too cool for normal pollination to occur. In addition, since they allow fruit set in the absence of pollination, a process called parthenocarpy, fruit development is not normal. Fruits can be misshapen, and mealy and there are few seeds ( for sure b'c no fertilization or little, occurs)and of course that's a problem for seed savers. There are many maufacturers of Blossom Set. I don't know which one Burpee is offering. All of them have a plant hormone in them and the one I know best is indole acetic acid. Not worth it unless you live in some place like the PNW, maybe, where Springs are very cool indeed. And there folks often grow the varieties bred by Dr, James Baggett of OSU, which are parthenocarpic to start with. Carolyn

Hormone sprays, such as "Blossom Set", may prevent some blossom drop due to LOW temperatures. However, the resulting fruit are often misshapen. But studies prove that hormone sprays do not prevent blossom drop due to HIGH temperatures. ***** The above is from the FAQ at the top of this page and you might be interested in reading the complete FAQ on blossom drop, which you haven't mentioned. At the day time temps you mention of 60F fruit set should occur, so I'm not sure what the problem might be. If the temps were high then that could cause blossom drop and lack of fruit set, which isn't the case with your conditions, but pollenization goes fine at 60F. Blossom Set was devised for use in cool spring areas such as the PNW where pollenization doesn't happen, but the temps involved are much cooler than 60F. It induces what's called Parthenocarpy which means that fruits develop in the absence of pollenization, so fruit development is abnormal. Such fruits lack seeds early in the season and can have a mushy interior and also be malformed, see the qoute above from the FAQ. The only thing I can think of off hand is that both blossom formation and/or fruit set can be inhibited if plants are growing in too rich soil or are overfertilized with too much N. I don't know if those conditions apply to your tomatoes. Carolyn