Q: My husband and I have the most beautiful tomato plants imaginable. They must be five feet tall now in May. The only problem is that there are no blooms on the plants. Is there a way to force the plant to make blooms?

A: Several other gardeners have posed this same question. The common denominator between them all is that they fertilized with one of the powdered fertililizers that is mixed with water and poured around the plant. Since these fertilizers have a high percentage of readily available nitrogen, my guess is that the plants are simply growing too fast to form flowers.

My recommendation is that you water normally but stop fertilizing your plants completely until they have small tomatoes on them. If your complaint was that you had blooms but no tomatoes, I would note that tomato pollen is air-transferred and that hot, sticky days inhibit pollination.