wow-- mine did the same thing! started shoots all over the place when I brought her in! I heard on here from someone I can't remember who now, said that Fall was when they go into growth mode? So maybe that's it. I can't tell you about the roots falling/dying off, mine never did, just got bigger on the mother plant til I potted them, so IDK what will happen if just left,(was a "had to" situation) but this time I am going to find out! I don't need any new Spider plants! plus, I would love to see it with a lot of babies just hanging. My Bonnie Spider is larger than yours, and the new shoots are not nearly as long, (maybe because it is a different kind of Spider? maybe?) But it is very intresting to see other types of the same "family" of plants~~ I think anyway. Yours is very nice looking btw~ :)Love all the little babies she has! Marjie

Mark, There are several possible reasons. Tomato plants are individuals and not clones, so they all will not act the same as one another. They'll have their own individual responses to the conditions in which they're living. Once you've grown tomatoes for a while, you'll even notice that a specific variety performs differently (and even tastes differently) in different years. You cannot compare peppers to tomatoes because they are not exactly the same. Hot peppers, in particular, are not as affected by the heat/humidity as tomatoes are, for example, so they tend to set fruit all summer long. Some sweet peppers do so as well, although some of them slow down in the worst of the summer heat. Fish Emulsion isn't really high nitrogen, or at least not high enough to impede flowering in and of itself. Most fish emulsions have an NPK ratio of either 5-1-1 or 5-2-2, which hardly is an exceptionally high amount of nitrogen. Is the issue you're seeing that no flowers are forming at all or is it that flowers are forming and dropping off because fertilization is not occurring? That's a key issue because they are separate problems. If no flowers are forming, then the plants are not mature enough to set fruit and carry a load or there is too much nitrogen (which means your mix has too much nitro because fish emulsion alone wouldn't do it) or some other sort of nutritional imbalance. Or, it could mean they are not receiving enough hours per day of sunlight. If flowers are forming and falling off unpollinated, that's blossom drop and it generally is related to high heat/high humidity. The larger the fruit a plant produces, the more that flowering/fruitset seems to be impacted negatively by heat heat/high humidity. So, even when the heat and humidity are high, many of the bite-size tomatoes (whether they're classified as cherry, grape, currant, plum or pear-shaped) flower and set fruit just fine, but a few of them do not. Varieties that produce really large fruit often do not flower or set fruit well in high heat and high humidity. Some varieties that produce smaller slicer or saladette types will set fruit at high temps almost as well as the bite-sized ones do. Every tomato variety reacts differently, so some may have blossom drop when nighttime lows are exceeding 72 degrees, but others might not see blossom drop until nighttime lows are exceeding 75. The same is true with high temps. For some varieties, 92 degrees appears to be the point at which fertilization ceases but for others it might be 95 degrees. Then, if you have high humidity, that can make pollen sticky so that it clumps together and does not shed from the anthers like it should. Conversely, in very low relative humidity you may see fruit set even at high temperatures. My best guess is that part of the problem is the varieties you chose...most are mid-season or late-season and not early season. So, they flower and fruit a bit later than tomatoes with a shorter DTM. Keep in mind that DTMs are estimates only and your actual results may vary quite a bit from the DTMs. Part of the problem is undoubtedly the high humidity and/or high heat or some combination thereof. If you are getting blossoms and they then abort without setting fruit, it could be the heat or the humidity, but it also could be poor air flow. If the pollen is a little sticky and isn't shedding from the anthers, you can help it along with thumping each individual blossom or by gently shaking the tomato cage. Also, while you don't want to keep the soil heavily saturated, you want to keep it evenly moist and not let it dry out too much in between waterings. This is especially true of tomatoes in containers as uneven watering can contribute to blossom end rot. If your plants are cycling from dry to moist and back to dry again, the plants may not feel like they're receiving consistent enough moisture to carry fruit. With regards to the varieties you listed, Brandywine is late, late, late and produces poorly in our heat. Arkansas Traveler is a late one and usually doesn't bloom for me until sometimes in June, and then those fruit are ready to pick by August. Black Krim and Cherokee Purple usually flower for me in late May, but this year they aren't, so I think it is the weather because they're certainly large enough, have consistent moisture and are in well-amended soil with good fertility. Some years Roma can sit and wait forever before it blooms, but once it does, it sets a lot of fruit and they are ready fairly quickly. Black Cherry sometimes is slow to start flowerings and setting fruit, and sometimes not. Sometimes it slows down more in the heat of the summer than other cherries do and sometimes it doesn't. It is kind of a garden diva at times, but it gets away with it simply because the flavor of the fruit is so good. I don't know what your temperature and humidity have been like for the last two or three weeks, but mine have been too hot on some days for fertilization to occur but not on others. Remember that I said that plants are individuals? I have right around 100 tomato plants and some have already produced several ripe tomatoes, some of which have been quite large, and others haven't even bloomed yet while a few have set and ripened a lot of smallish tomatoes. That is pretty typical behavior. Also, tomatoes in containers do not peform exactly like those in the ground. Remember that tomato plants in the ground can send their roots out searching for more water or more nutrition if they need it, but plants in containers are trapped in the containers so cannot help themselves in that same manner. So, tomato plants in containers have a smaller margin of error than those in the ground and they may stunt or stall if they are not happy. Some years I have as many as 40 tomato plants in containers. This year I have 9. Why? Because I was expecting a hotter-than-average and drier-than-average growing season and I knew that tomatoes in containers would struggle more in those conditions. Thus I put fewer of them in containers, and my smallest containers this year are 20-gallon containers. I have grown tomatoes in containers as small as 5 gallons, but tomato plants in containers that small are hard to keep happy and often do not produce well in our climate. For maximum production, they need larger containers that hold more moisture, that allow their roots to spread out and that keep their roots cool. Don't overlook the possiblity that the heat is just baking the roots of the plants in containers. Dawn

Sorry, I forgot to post where I am which is zone 6. 1. Yes, I do see a lot of the lower leaves have soil build up on them. 2. Im not really sure why that part of the soil would be much different than the rest. I turned over and mixed that whole area a few weeks before planting. Should I try adding used coffee ground and/or egg shells around its base? 3. I had to start over after my first attempt. Something ate the plants when I planted them. Which is why there aren't as big as you would expect. 4.I know they would need a bigger pot to actually grow. I didn't give them much attention after I took the strong plants to put in the soil. Actually, didn't even expect them to grow at all with the way I left them in the pot. ( I actually have one growing in a pot with potting soil, that I believe is 5 gallon. That one was doing well. Now it is recovering from being over watered ) 5 The peppers wouldn't benefit from being spread out and put into soil, over only spreading them out in the pots? No, I am not using potting soil. Didn't know there was a difference and used garden soil. The only reason the tomato has potting soil, is because I planted it the pot from a fig tree I purchased. Thank you for the response

Baking soda isn't a good idea imo. If it is a strong solution and there are even powder residue on the plant, you should continue to see your leaves burn even more. Just pinch the dead leaves and let it continue to grow. When I started gardening I used it and ended up burning all leaves and killing the plants. Even the alkalinity of it is too strong when it run off and seeps into the soil changing the soil pH. I do use Safer Brand's Sulfur sometimes. Sometimes it's better to just leave the plants along if they're healthy. There are lots of diseases in Florida and my plants are more likely to catch diseases after rain, more often the smaller seedlings. It's inevitable, but a plant with healthy root system and healthy soil is more able to resist. Mulching around the base of the plant to prevent the leaves from touching the soil also help. These aspect are more important than trying to keep the leaves dry imo. The fungal spores will find your plant eventually even if dry, or a diseased soil will get to it. Imo, it's not a good idea to take advice from someone who make too much of a definitive sweeping statement, like NEVER this and NEVER that. I worry too much about little things when I started gardening as well, sometimes it's counter productive to do more for the plant than it need.