This is only my second year growing tomatoes, and my plants are about as productive as last year. Last year I shook my plants only at the start of the season, and the larger tomatoes (e.g. Cherokee Purple) stopped setting fruit in August. This year I've been shaking them at least every few days since I transplanted them in early June, but again the larger tomatoes seem to have stopped setting fruit this month. Based on my count today, I have just under 700 tomatoes on 27 plants, about 400 cherry tomatoes and about 290 larger tomatoes. Two of the cherry tomatoes (Sungold and Isis Candy) continue to set fruit, but Blush also seems to have slowed down. So far Kimberley and Jaune Flammee have both produced about 20-25 tomatoes, and the fruit on Kimberley started blushing this past week. Of the black varieties Spudakee, Indian Stripe, and Vorlon are producing about 50% more fruit than Cherokee Purple, Paul Robeson, and Gary'O Sena. Here are some photos of the fruit on my plants: The first almost-ripe fruit on Kimberley on August 13th Jaune Flammee has 2" fruit on August 13th Spudakee has 3.5" fruit on August 13th Indian Stripe has 4" on August 13th

It's probably environmental factors. Sounds like yours is related to wildly-fluctuating temperatures. Poor tomato fruit set takes place for many reasons. Prime among them are the occurence of extreme temperatures. When tomato plants experience extreme temperatures, either below 55° or above 90° F, for an extended period of time it may cause developing tomato blossoms to drop off. These blossoms drop off before the tomato fruits can set and therefore the tomato fruits do not develop. Another cause of poor fruit set in tomato plants is excessive nitrogen composition in the surrounding soil of the tomato garden. When the soil around tomato plants has a high nitrogen concentration, this promotes lush leaf growth to the detriment of tomato blossom and tomato fruit formation. Excessive nitrogen is the most common cause of lush foliage with no tomato fruits in the garden. Shading may also account for poor tomato fruit set. Be sure to locate your tomato garden where it will receive no less than six hours of sunlight per day. If the number of hours your tomato plants receive direct sunlight drops below six, it could be the cause of poor fruit set. The last, and often overlooked, cause of poor fruit set in tomato plants is very simply, dry soil. If your tomato plants are not receiving adequate water for their nourishment needs, tomato blossoms will dry and fall off plants.

It's 55, not 65. Zone 6b plants can normally go out in mid-late April but even with the crazy weather this year they should be able to go out this coming week given the forecast. Personally I would remove them before you transplant them outside. That puts the plant back in to vegetative growth and root development mode which should be the focus right now. But you can leave them if you wish. The odds are the plant will kill them off in some fashion anyway due to all the transplant stress. Dave

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