I've seen this type of thing fairly frequently. Sometimes a pollinated tomato blossom will sit in a "dormant" state for as long as a month or more before actually growing. I've never been able to pin down what the exact cause is, but it seems to have a connection with how much "extra energy" the plant has. In other words, if my plant has tons of fruit already on it, the newer blossoms seems more likely to go dormant until some of the tomato fruit ripen and come off. Then - when the plant has more juice to spare - the sleepy buds awaken and start growing. Kevin

Sprinklers also increase the humidity even more in the vicinity of the bloom and high humidity can gum up the pollen making pollination impossible. Not to mention - like a hard rain they are blossom bashers. ;) But yes, as Taz said and as the many posts here on it attest, blossom drop is a very common problem this time of year, every year. More so the further south one goes. Here it is 'normal', if one can call it that, given our temps and humidity. And without lots of luck, it will continue for us until early Sept. and then fruit starts setting again. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Blossom Drop FAQ

All parts of a tomato plant have the same genetic material -- except the seeds in the growing fruit. Those seeds contain genes from the plant it's growing on as well as genes from the plant the pollen came from (which might be the same plant or a different plant). So yes, the cloned plant will still be a Better Boy. This is true whether the plant is hybrid or open pollinated. If you have room, why not let multiple suckers grow on the current plant, then use them to start multiple new plants? Placing a sucker or branch in wet dirt is supposed to produce a better root system than if the new plant is started in water. Depending on the weather, you might want to give the new plant partial shade for a few days. And water it regularly, of course. Technically, you should remove blossoms until you see new growth (if you don't, the plant will take longer to establish).

Ali Khat, I'm in So CA also, on the coast. Unless you have a variety that specifically grows in cooler conditions (two of my favorites I grow successfully in May are Oregon Spring and Siberian), it's still not consistently warm enough (even inland) for good production. Keep on keepin' on with your plants and you'll have success by July-August. Good thing about our area is that, once they are growing and fruiting, our tomatoes keep going into late October or November.