Last year we grew our vegetables as usual, mostly tomatoes. I did add new topsoil (I had a truck deliver a few cubic yards), and I did apply a quick-acting lime product. Other fertilization (some 10-10-10, I think), was done as normal.

The plants themselves grew quickly, and large. They were very green, and the picture of health. They developed loads of blossoms, which developed into good-sized sized produce. It was looking to be a great run.

And then it stopped. The produce never ripened. We had large seemingly healthy plants loaded with good sized produce which stayed green all summer.

I am not much the gardener, and the only thing I can think of is that the plants might have grown too quickly for their own good, and ran out of nutrients/energy/resources to allow the produce to ripen. Any ideas of the cause and what to do to prevent a repeat? Thanks.

 

Where are you located?
When did you plant?
When was the fruit large but not ripening?
How did the leaves of the plant look when the fruit should have been ripening?

 

Philly suburbs.
Same time as usual, early-mid May.
To clarify, the fruit was healthy-sized, not abnormally or freakish large. The many fruit grew and matured quickly, IIRC, I do not remember the time frame. I believe we look for ripe tomatoes at about mid-July. We have several different varieties, 25-30 plants total. But not much ripening occurred, green tomatoes until we took down the garden.

I recall the habanero plant did the same thing, and it was in a different location, although it had at least some of the new topsoil and the lime.... the plant grew quickly and large, produced a lot of healthy-looking peppers, but most of them did not ever ripen.
The plants (including the leaves) and the fruit all looked healthy, green and robust. Most of the fruit just did not ever ripen. And we have been doing this act for years.

Thanks.

 

Different varieties have different amounts of "days to harvest". So if you didn't pay attention to that, it could be much of the problem. To expect tomatoes in July you would need a very early variety. Weather and location can have something to do with it as well, too cool (shade) or too hot (next to a building or on a hot patio) and they may not ripen as quickly as well.

If they didn't ever ripen as you say, then you probably purchased a late variety. Green tomatoes will usually finish ripening if you take them inside. Room temperature is the ideal temperature for ripening.

 

As stated, we do roughly the same things every year, including varieties, plant and anticipated harvest times. Same vendor of seedlings. The tomatoes are my elderly dad's thing, I believe he plants juliet, early girl, better boy and big boy plants, among others.
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We simply look for, not necessarily expect, ripe tomatoes in July. But the tomatoes, all varieties, never really ripened.
Same house, same location. Garden gets plenty of sun. We did not have a problem with too much rain. I do not remember it being outrageously hot, although I just saw that the city (we are a few degrees cooler, usually) had one of the hottest summers in terms of AVERAGE temperature (not daily highs). But I am guessing that the tomatoes should have ripened as the weather cooled, that is ripened later, rather than not at all.
And my dad did do that for some of them. But I guess that we expected that at some point, they would ripen on the plant, just later than usual.

 

What was the composition and pH of the top soil you used ? I guess that the limestone you used conflicted with your garden soil....somehow. Maybe the rain frequency had something to do with this. It is an encapsulated lime that swells up and puts out the product when rain or irrigation hits it. What were the minor minerals of your 10-10-10, down towards the bottom of the description on the bag ? Apparently there was no blossom end rot ?
Was this calcium or dolomitic limestone ?

 

I'm just going to mention that I'm in Philly and our tomatoes didn't do well at all last summer. Some plants just died (never had that happen in the 40 years we planted) and the ones that survived either got black spots or stayed green. I got a few here and there, but nothing like we usually get. My neighbors didn't die, but were either green or had the black spots. My son's did a bit better but also weren't as good as usual.
I just wonder if this area got some weird tomato plants for some reason.

 

Since you said multiple species and varieties of plants looked good and produced fruit that didn't ripen. The most likely culprit is running out of season. Poor fertilization, over fertilization, over/under watering, soil/water pH, diseases and insects all leave signs. If there are signs of distress that's one thing but healthy plants producing fruit that makes it to 90% and then stops sounds like season.

 

I didn't test the topsoil, I just give it a look-see for excessive mulch, sand, rocks, wood, cans, bottles, etc. Bear in mind that the topsoil would have been mixed in with the existing soil.
Rain should not have been an issue. Too little rain and we will water it. I don't remember a problem with too much rain, and even then, the garden is reasonably well drained.
It is the Walmart stuff, and I don't see that information on the bag. We have used it for years without problem.
No problems with the plants or the fruit that I recall, except for the non-ripening. There might have been a piece here or there that had an issue, but overall, everything looked good..
OK, that's interesting. Maybe there was a weather factor that I just did not appreciate. As stated before, the records did state that it was one of the warmest summers based on average temps.
Calcitic
I am not sure what you mean by "running out of season". We planted roughly the same varieties, at the same time of year. I don't recall having a cold spring, early summer, etc.. Do you mean that the plants might have grown and matured quicker than normal and that screwed things up?

 

On a separate note, my dad was looking to mulch his plants. My knowledge is that mulch serves to keep weeds out and moisture in, but more particular people might argue about a pH issue. We will be having triple ground hardwood mulch trucked in soon for our beds, but I also am going to likely be chipping arborvitae and blue spruce cuttings soon. (He has used grass clippings before, but I don't think it is good, it stinks until it dries, and this means that yours truly will have to generate (bag) the clippings.)

 

pH really isn't important if the plants are doing well as their doing well indicates that the pH is close enough. However if the plants are showing signs of stress or starved of certain nutrients then pH is the first thing to check.

 

I forgot to mention that also, with grass clippings at this time of the year, you would have to wait for several mowings/weeks to pass before you can use grass that has recently been treated with weed control.

 

Yes, my impression is that it does not matter unless there is a real problem. I would guess that when they create these varieties, they make them tolerant to a reasonable range of pH.

Tomatoes were planted a week ago, and juliet and early girls are blossoming. If we have the same problems this year, I might look to do soil testing.

 

If there is a problem the plants should tell you. For example pay attention to things like leaf color and if new leaves look good but older lower leaves are yellowing. Or, if the fruit does OK then suddenly gets a black spot on the end.

 

Agreed, (north/west of Philly)
Last year we got large plants, but then cool fall so that you had to bring fruit inside for it to ripen.

I went with the trick of laying out the tomato plants along the fence, then draping a canvass drop cloth over them at night. We had tomatoes going until late October last year