Big plants. No fruit

John H asks: Why would my tomatoes grow 9 foot tall and hardly any fruit?

Okay, let's run three scenarios:

• If you never had flowers, then it's probably an excess of nitrogen.  Fertilizers are marked with three numbers: 10/10/10 (Nitrogen/Phosphorus/Potassium).
Nitrogen promotes the growth of leaves and vegetation
Phosphorus promotes root and shoot growth
Potassium promotes flowering and fruiting
Without a balance, and especially without enough potassium, no fruit, no flowers. Work some potassium into the soil – even though by now it's a little late.

• You had flowers but then no fruit. Then there was probably not enough pollination. That's caused by a number of things: Top-watering – which washes off the pollen too early. Or perhaps no bees.  "Collapsing bee colony disorder"  sounds like some kooky alien-intervention thing. But it's serious, especially for commercial fruit and nut growers who depend on bees. If there are no bees, simply shake the plant or (gently) run a small brush on and over the plants to disperse the pollen.

• It could also be not enough sun. One of the best places in a backyard property is an unobstructed south face of a house, fence or garage – if you have it.  You get the direct sunlight and the reflected light off the adjoining vertical surface.