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I'm an amateur gardener and I've tried growing sweet peas, yard long beans, cucumbers with no results. The plants grow but never bear fruit. The only thing that grows in my soil is tomatoes. Can anyone explain why only tomatoes grow in my garden?

Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
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Darrin Thomas
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    Could you please give us a little more information about your garden? Do the plants look healthy? Have you amended the soil? Do you use fertilizer? What region are you growing in? – michelle Apr 18 '16 at 14:14
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    Uh the plants look fine but nothing happens. I have a jungle of long beans right now nice and green but no fruit. I added peat moss, potting soil, to the ground with some fertilizer. The garden is in the ground and not in pots. The temp is normally close to 95 degrees right not. I water enough to keep the plants healthy. – Darrin Thomas Apr 18 '16 at 14:17
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    What type of fertilizer and how much? My first guess with healthy plants and no fruit would be that you've added too much nitrogen to the soil, but I don't have enough information on the fertilizer you've added so far to know for sure. – michelle Apr 18 '16 at 14:42
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    I know you're not getting fruit, but do you get flowers on the beans, peas and cucumbers? – Bamboo Apr 18 '16 at 16:26
  • Im very much an amateur myself, but, in addition to soil issues, 2 other thoughts spring to mind - pruning plants is amazing at stimulating fruiting (plant thinks I'm under attack, I better produce progeny), and lighting - particularly in the red end of the spectrum - can, I have read, make a huge difference to fruiting (with blue light being more associated with plant growth an leaves) – davidgo Apr 18 '16 at 19:57
  • Where do you live? What climate / zone? – gorav Apr 18 '16 at 21:01
  • Have you tested the soil pH? – Ben Cannon Apr 18 '16 at 22:35
  • @bamboo yeah I get flowers but no fruit – Darrin Thomas Apr 19 '16 at 00:02
  • @davidgo how do I prune plants? – Darrin Thomas Apr 19 '16 at 00:03
  • @gorav the climate is tropical savanna – Darrin Thomas Apr 19 '16 at 00:06
  • @Ben Cannon Not sure how to test the soil pH. Any suggestions – Darrin Thomas Apr 19 '16 at 00:07
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    Growing temperate plants in the tropics can be tricky. Flowering and fruiting is based on the length of the night, and the night in the tropics is pretty constant. Will do some research, the folks at echo have some pretty good info http://www.echocommunity.org. – gorav Apr 19 '16 at 00:10
  • Depends on the plant, and I can't comment in too much depth (because I've only got experience with Tomatoes and Eggplants). Googling "Pruning PLANT TYPE" will yield lots of advice, and some videos on how to prune your desired plants. – davidgo Apr 19 '16 at 01:08
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    You can buy pH testing kits from most hardware stores or nurseries, or for the more budget conscious there's the red cabbage method - http://www.instructables.com/id/Red-Cabbage-pH-Indicator/ - which I found works a treat, but it does take a little more effort to get an reasonably exact reading, the best way is to use distilled water and then a variety of household items with known pH to test the colours. The red cabbage scale is slightly different to the litmus scale, there's a bunch of images out there but doing your own calibration is best, because results can vary with the cabbage or water – Ben Cannon Apr 19 '16 at 03:34

2 Answers2

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It seems to be a pollination/fertilization issue, because you've said all your plants flower, but only the tomatoes go on to produce fruit. That would indicate there's nothing wrong with the soil ph nor your fertilizer, if you're using any. Are you treating the tomatoes differently compared to the other things you're growing, such as, growing in a different area of the garden, or watering more regularly and so on? Tomatoes don't need insects to be pollinated, movement of air will do it, but cucumbers, for instance, do need pollinating insects, and without those you may need to pollinate by hand. As for the beans, you haven't said which variety of beans, and some do require insect pollination, though many don't. I'm also not sure what you mean by 'sweet pea' - sweet peas in the UK are a flowering climbing plant, grown for flowers, not for fruit. If you think there might be a lack of pollinating insects in your growing area, it would be wise to consider what flowering plants you can grow nearby that would attract them.

The other possibility is that the flowers are dying or falling off before they're able to be pollinated, and that might be a water or temperature issue.

UPDATE: I suddenly noticed you mentioned yard long beans as the ones you're growing - they do, indeed, need pollinating insects to fertilize the flowers. Good in hot areas and pretty drought tolerant, so we're back to the major problem being lack of pollinating insects. In relation to flowers to attract insects, native, or wild plants, and herbs (plants used for medicinal or culinary purposes) are usually the best ones to use, provided they're not too invasive.

Bamboo
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You should look into hand pollination as well if the local pollinators are not cooperating. I had this same issue with my cucumbers and squash when I first started my garden.

  • First, identify the male and female flowers. This is easiest to do by just looking under the base of the flower:
    • Females will have what looks like a miniature squash or cucumber under the flower.
    • Males will have a plain stem.
  • Pick a male flower and expose the "anther" on the inside of the flower.
  • Rub this gently to the center of the "stigma" on the inside of the female flowers.
    • You can use one male flower for several females.

You will be producing in no time, and hopefully from every female flower.

Andy Fox
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    The first paragraph does not add any information so consider deleting. Also additional details on how to hand pollinate would be helpful to an amateur gardener – JStorage Apr 19 '16 at 20:36
  • Indeed, if you edit to add hand pollination details, you'll get upvotes, and then you'll be able to comment.... – Ecnerwal Apr 20 '16 at 16:11