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Norfolk, UK

Well, maybe.

I’ll caveat the below and don’t pretend for a minute that i’ve followed all of this, but it was an interesting science publication (with additional references to others) on what i’d suggest might be mega blooms (?) which came up on a search.

Talks about the impact of low temp (inc night temp) and references similar results from Gibberellic acid or cytokinins externally in other papers. (Both I think in seaweed extracts)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC35026/#!po=73.0769

Be interested to hear what anyone else takes from it. I followed er... some of it, so happy that to hear translations :D

8/9/2018 2:33:06 AM

Norfolk, UK

Or of course, if i’ve got the wrong end of the stick! :)

8/9/2018 2:35:23 AM

Norfolk, UK

Another one for you - written from the point of view of ‘screening’ varieties for catfacing with some interesting snippets in the text. Interesting to think of it as a potential breeding tool for screening offspring F1 hybrids too.

Obviously they are trying to avoid it, to get more marketable fruits - but if you look at it from the other point of view might be interesting.

http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/26/5/583.full.pdf

8/9/2018 3:17:13 AM

Central NY

The first article started to hurt my forehead about two paragraphs in...that is definitely science...I’m pretty sure gibberish acid adds to GGD...(good growing days to the lay person)...

8/9/2018 9:12:29 AM

Wixom MI.

Lol....Porkchop me too. I got as far as knowing that i have mad tomatoes !!! Lol.... :-)
I have to read this when i have sometime and a bottle of wine !!! Lol....:-)

8/9/2018 10:09:34 AM

Central NY

Yea...me too...wintertime ...all pieces to the puzzle in those articles...thanks for posting saladDoug...

8/9/2018 12:47:47 PM

Grittyville, WA

Cant read it yet but i do suspect temps could have an affect...does it say low is good?? And the ferts championed by bnot and/or amino acids also must help...!? I have not heard of using gibberelic...yet.

8/9/2018 1:10:58 PM

Norfolk, UK

Yes, that’s what I thought I bit of it!

@Glenomkins yes - low is good. A marginally more readable passage from the second paper:

[Catfacing] arises as a result of a proliferation of ovary tissues, particularly of the locules and style, during flower development (Saito and Ito, 1971; Sawhney, 1982). As the ovary enlarges, the abnormally large junction between the fasciated style and the ovary fails to close properly, leaving a large,irregular scar. Exposure to 17/8C (day/night), imposed for at least 6 days, has been identified as most effective for inducing the disorder (Saito and Ito, 1971). Sawhney and Greyson (1971) discovered that locule proliferation could also be brought about by application of GA to the plant during ovary development. Increases in catfacing been reported as a result of plant apex re- moval (topping) (Wien and Minotti, 1988) and after early axillary branch removal (Sikes and Coffey, 1976). The present study was conducted to determine if GA foliar sprays can induce catfacing at what freq and concentration etc.. (according to paper it did).

All grist to the mill. Possibly. If the wine is a good one! And strong. :D

8/9/2018 1:36:36 PM

Norfolk, UK

And from first paper:

....Many of these flower and fruit abnormalities have been reproduced by exogenous treatments of young flower buds with GA3 or cytokinins, suggesting a role for these plant hormones as mediators...

8/9/2018 1:41:51 PM

Grittyville, WA

Catfacing I assume is any blossom scars or irregularities under the tomato... I will check it out when I'm at a real computer... Thanks for the info and link. Getting the right blossom is half the battle maybe this will help those who are struggling.
This is getting to be le and less like growing a pumpkin...

8/9/2018 3:47:57 PM

Lebanon, Oregon

Thanks for the read. I use a tomato and blossom set spray from Bonide. It is in an 8oz spray bottle. The ingredient is Cytokinin.
I only use it on few. Last year I used it on some flowers. It gives way to strange shapes I've noticed. This year I used it on the 7.19 LaRue. I sprayed the flowers 5-7 days ago. The tomatoes are the last two in my diary. Whether it makes a difference in the final weights, I don't know.

8/9/2018 4:08:47 PM

Valencia Spain

hey rebek interested if u get seeds from using blossom set ived used Ga3 u get no seeds

8/10/2018 10:40:09 AM

Wixom MI.

I use tanners big stem witch is the cytokinin hormone and i apply it on the plants very early before any flower buds appear when plants are 4"-6" tall. I haven't applyied it since but i have used it the last 3 years and i do get a lot of late season ribbon vine and megablooms !!! Mainly just on my Megazac plants. Im starting to get a lot of these now and we haven't had any cold spells yet maybe a few nights of 55° but no colder than that.

8/10/2018 11:04:24 AM

central Nc

Rebel, I saw on Bonide's website that tomatoes 'ripen up to 3 weeks earlier' Definitely not what we are looking for. Have you experienced this at all?

8/10/2018 11:37:29 AM

Lebanon, Oregon

Last year I used the Cytokinin spray during flowering when it was super high temps. It was a choice of having them not pollinate due to the heat or using this to help them and have some tomatoes. I went around to many megablooms and sprayed. I didn't keep track of which ones. Either way I had good results last year, and yes, some of the tomatoes had few seeds. All tomatoes went the distance. The tomatoes didn't ripen, "three weeks early" like it claims on the website. I only use it out of desperation during the 95+ heat. It works for me.
This year I was more selective on what plants I used it on. The 7.19 LaRue has two tomatoes going on the same plant. They were multiblooms and I wanted all the individual tomatoes to take. With upper 90's temps there was little chance. They are the last two tomatoes on my diary and I can give better updates.
Same thing with a 7.10 Foss flower. Still waiting to see if it took. It's only been a couple of days.
For me using Cytokinin is a tool to be used during times of an unfavorable pollination environment.

8/10/2018 12:35:46 PM

Wixom MI.

My understanding of Cytokinin is it helps divide all plant cells roots leaves stems flowers etc....not just fkor the flower ???

8/10/2018 2:14:39 PM

Newcastle, CA

it says it produces "nearly seedless tomatoes". sounds scary

8/10/2018 6:08:18 PM

Wixom MI.

It Would suck if you grew a seedless world record tomato !!!

8/10/2018 6:28:31 PM

Lebanon, Oregon

Chris, My spray is called, "Tomato and blossom set". I've been just experimenting with this. I've only used it with super hot weather when I am worried that the big flower won't take. It seems to work for me. I notice that parts of the flower becomes contorted, especially the septal (those green long things around the flower). They end up growing large and intertwining into the fruit.
Wint, I'd rather grow a 6 lb tomato with 3 seeds than a 3 lb tomato with 200 seeds. I'm no expert with this stuff. When it's 97F out and my big flowers arrive, I get a little desperate! Just another tool in the bag.

8/10/2018 6:31:29 PM

Lebanon, Oregon

But you will have the world record tomato! Wouldn't you use the stuff too if it helped you get a world record? You bet you would.

8/10/2018 6:33:40 PM

Wixom MI.

Ya i would too. This was the first year i ever had that problem with the heat and it caught me off guard !!! Im hoppi g that i can have a strong finnish with all the megablooms that i am now getting but blight usually kills me in September and i allready have it !!!

8/10/2018 7:17:13 PM

Oak Grove, Mn

I am going to come back to this post in October. Have to think of some crazy idea to try this winter. Thanks for the links SaladDog, but I think I might have to blame SaladDog for a little bit of my wild ideas next winter. :) I got confused...what was the mfactor you are actually getting? I am quite sure we have just barely touched the potential of giant tomatoes.

8/13/2018 6:59:46 PM

Beverly

Lookup Fas/Lc and what causes it, problem is though too much Cyto helps cell division (Great for cell count)....but limits expansion growth (cell size)(overall size)on tomatoes....then hormones have to also be timed perfectly from my studying, or it will have adverse reactions...there are other hormones to study though.! But I believe from reading this site that I will try to improve my SOIL to do the work, as well as trying some experiments myself with different pruning styles which also affects endogenous (natural internal) Hormones of the plant such as removing the apical Leaf of a branch which naturally raises Cytokinin and causes a bud to grow at bottom of Leaf axil-for example.

9/26/2019 8:37:55 PM