Tomato blossom set spray

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koshki Grosse Pointe Shores, MI(Zone 6a) May 25, 2012

Does anyone use tomato blossom set spray? Is it helpful, or not?

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Carolyn Salem, NY(Zone 4b) May 25, 2012

Blossom set spray was devised to be used where there are cold springs such as in the PNW where it's often too cold to get good self pollenization. It works by inducing what's called parthenocarpy which means that ovules in the tomato ovary, seeds to be, do not need to be fertilized by pollen.

The downside of that is that fruit development is abnormal and it's possible to get malformed fruits that are sometimes mealy, and it also means that there are very few seeds which is important to those who do save seeds from OP varieties.

If lack of pollenization is due to high temps or otherwise bad weather the Blossom Set spray can't do a thing to help/ The active hormone ingredient is different depening on the specific brand but the most common one is IAA, which is indole acetic acid, a plant hormone.

To answer your question directly, no, I have never used it, and won't be and I also wanted to add that Dr. James Baggett of OSU has bred several parthenocarpic varieties for the PNW and the best known one is Oregon Spring, which I did grow many years ago.

Hope that helps.

Carolyn

Post #9138793
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koshki Grosse Pointe Shores, MI(Zone 6a) May 29, 2012

Carolyn, thanks for your very imformative post!

It's interesting that none of the important information (for cool spring conditions, possible side effects in fruit) are mentioned on the label.

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