6 Best Greenhouse Temperature Monitors For Tomatoes That Prevent Blossom Drop
Prevent tomato blossom drop with the right temperature monitor. Our guide reviews the 6 best devices for maintaining stable greenhouse conditions for a full harvest.
You walk into your greenhouse on a sunny morning, ready to see the new tomato clusters, only to find a carpet of tiny yellow flowers on the floor. This is blossom drop, the frustrating result of temperature stress that robs you of your future harvest. The right temperature monitor isn’t just a gadget; it’s your first line of defense against this common problem.
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Preventing Blossom Drop with Accurate Monitoring
Tomatoes are particular about their comfort zone. They set fruit best when daytime temperatures are between 70-85°F (21-29°C) and, just as importantly, when nighttime temperatures stay between 55-75°F (13-24°C). When temperatures spike above 85°F or dip below 55°F, the plant gets stressed and decides it’s not a good time to make fruit. It aborts the mission by dropping its blossoms.
A simple dial thermometer hanging on the wall won’t cut it. Your greenhouse doesn’t have one single temperature; it has dozens of microclimates. The air near the roof can be 10-15 degrees hotter than the air around your tomato plants’ roots. Without a monitor that records daily highs and lows, you’re flying blind, only seeing the temperature right now, not the extremes that happened overnight or while you were at work.
The real goal isn’t just reading the temperature; it’s understanding your greenhouse’s behavior. An accurate monitor with data logging or high/low memory reveals the daily temperature swings. This information empowers you to act before stress occurs—by opening vents earlier, adding shade cloth, or turning on a small heater at night. Preventing blossom drop starts with knowing what your plants are actually experiencing.
Govee WiFi Thermo-Hygrometer for Remote Alerts
Remotely monitor your home's temperature and humidity with the Govee WiFi Thermometer Hygrometer. Get real-time app alerts and access up to 2 years of data with its accurate Swiss-made sensor.
The Govee monitor is for the grower who can’t be in the greenhouse 24/7. Its major advantage is WiFi connectivity, which sends temperature and humidity data directly to an app on your phone. This isn’t just for convenience; it’s for emergency response.
Imagine your exhaust fan fails on a hot afternoon. With a standard thermometer, you wouldn’t know until you returned to a cooked greenhouse. The Govee can be set to send you an instant alert when the temperature exceeds a preset limit, like 85°F. This gives you time to head home or call a neighbor to open a door, saving your entire crop from a single point of failure.
The app also stores historical data, letting you see graphs of temperature trends over days or weeks. This is incredibly useful for spotting patterns. You might notice that your greenhouse consistently overheats by 2 p.m., telling you exactly when to adjust your ventilation or shading. It transforms you from a reactive grower into a proactive manager of your greenhouse environment.
AcuRite Monitor with Greenhouse Temperature Probe
Accuracy in a greenhouse is all about location. The AcuRite monitor with a wired probe directly addresses this. The main display unit can sit in a convenient, shaded spot, but the small probe on the end of a long wire can be placed precisely where it matters most: right at the level of your tomato blossoms.
This solves a huge problem with all-in-one units. A monitor mounted on a sunny wall or sitting on a high shelf will give you a wildly inaccurate reading of the conditions your plants are actually feeling. The probe allows you to measure the canopy temperature, which is the data you need to make good decisions. You can even move the probe around to check for hot spots or cold drafts.
While the wire can be a bit cumbersome to manage, its reliability is a significant plus. There are no wireless signals to drop or batteries to replace in a remote sensor. The AcuRite provides targeted, accurate data where it counts, which is the foundation of effective climate control.
SensorPush HT.w for Long-Range Data Logging
For the grower who wants to truly understand their greenhouse’s personality, the SensorPush is a powerful tool. It’s a small, durable Bluetooth sensor that excels at one thing: collecting and storing a massive amount of data. It can hold weeks of temperature and humidity readings right on the device itself.
Its long-range Bluetooth means you don’t have to be standing right next to it to sync the data to your phone. You can often connect from your house, downloading the latest information without trekking out to the greenhouse. This data can then be viewed in detailed graphs, allowing you to analyze trends over the entire growing season. You can see exactly how a cloudy week affected your nighttime lows or how much a new shade cloth lowered your midday peaks.
The main tradeoff is the lack of a built-in screen; you must use your phone to see the readings. However, for those focused on long-term improvement and data-driven decisions, the SensorPush provides a level of insight that few other consumer-grade monitors can match. It helps you learn from this season to make next season even better.
Taylor Precision Classic Large Dial Thermometer
Sometimes, the best tool is the simplest one. The Taylor large dial thermometer is a classic for a reason: it’s reliable, requires no batteries, and is incredibly easy to read from a distance. In a world of apps and alerts, there’s a lot to be said for a tool that just works, every single time.
This is the perfect backup system. Even if you have a fancy digital monitor, placing one or two of these in different parts of the greenhouse gives you an immediate, at-a-glance confirmation of the current conditions. If your digital sensor is reading 75°F but the dial in the sun is screaming 95°F, you instantly know you have a radiation error and need to move your sensor.
Its primary limitation is obvious: it tells you nothing about what happened when you weren’t looking. It has no high/low memory and no alerts. But for its intended purpose—providing a quick, dependable spot check—it’s an invaluable and inexpensive part of any greenhouse toolkit.
ThermoPro TP65 Digital Wireless Hygrometer
Easily monitor indoor/outdoor temperature and humidity with the ThermoPro TP65. Features a large, backlit touchscreen for easy reading and a 500ft wireless range to track conditions from multiple locations.
The ThermoPro TP65 is a great solution for monitoring multiple areas without a significant investment. It comes with a large, backlit base station and a single wireless remote sensor, but it can be expanded to monitor up to three remote locations at once. This is perfect for understanding temperature stratification in your greenhouse.
You can place one sensor down low near the soil, one at canopy level, and keep the base station at eye level. This setup will quickly reveal how much heat is rising and getting trapped at the peak of your greenhouse. Seeing a 15-degree difference between the floor and the ceiling is a powerful motivator to improve your air circulation with fans.
The wireless range is generally strong enough for most hobby greenhouse setups. The base station clearly displays readings from all sensors, along with high and low records for the past 24 hours or for all time. It offers a more complete environmental picture than a single-point monitor, helping you manage the entire space, not just one spot.
Ambient Weather WS-3000 for Multi-Zone Tracking
When you’re ready to move beyond simple temperature monitoring, the Ambient Weather WS-3000 is a significant step up. This system is essentially a data hub that can track temperature and humidity from up to eight different remote sensors simultaneously. It’s for the serious hobbyist who wants total environmental awareness.
With this system, you can place sensors everywhere: one outside to compare ambient conditions, one in your seedling propagation area, another measuring the soil temperature in a raised bed, and several throughout the main greenhouse. The console displays all this data on a single screen, with customizable names for each sensor. You can see your entire operation at a glance.
The console also logs data and displays it in graphs, and you can set high/low alerts for each individual sensor. This level of granular control allows you to fine-tune different zones for different crops. It’s more of an investment, but it provides the comprehensive data needed to manage a larger or more complex growing space with precision.
Choosing Your Monitor: Key Features for Tomatoes
Picking the right monitor isn’t about finding the "best" one, but the one that best fits your needs and how you manage your time. A grower who works from home has different needs than one who is gone for 10 hours a day. Focus on the features that will solve your specific challenges.
Consider these key elements when making your choice:
- Remote Alerts: If you can’t always be on-site, WiFi or cellular alerts are non-negotiable. They are the single best feature for preventing catastrophic heat events.
- High/Low Memory: This is the minimum requirement for understanding daily temperature swings. Without it, you have no idea if your nighttime temps are dipping low enough to cause blossom drop.
- External Probe: To get truly accurate readings for your tomatoes, you need to measure the air at the plant canopy. A monitor with a wired or wireless probe is vastly superior to an all-in-one unit for this purpose.
- Data Logging: For those who want to improve season over season, data logging is essential. It helps you understand your greenhouse’s unique microclimate and make smarter decisions about ventilation, shading, and heating in the future.
Ultimately, the best monitor is the one you will actually use. A simple, reliable thermometer that you check daily is better than a complex system you never set up properly. Start with what you can manage, and upgrade as you learn more about your greenhouse’s specific behavior and your plants’ needs.
Don’t let blossom drop steal your harvest. By investing in an accurate monitor, you’re not just buying a piece of equipment; you’re gaining the crucial information needed to create the stable, stress-free environment your tomatoes need to thrive. Choose wisely, monitor consistently, and you’ll be rewarded with heavy clusters of fruit all season long.
