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Blossom End Rot
Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 3:20AM
This is most irritating.
Blossom end rot can be caused by a calcium deficiency or irregular watering. I suspect the latter. If I don't water first thing in the morning, the plants wilt by 11:00. The problem is that we have lots of afternoon thunderstorms, so the plants end up drowning later on in the day. I can't win. I have read that the first flush of fruit is the hardest hit, so I suppose I should resist the temptation to cut down the vines. It's just so frustrating! I'm not getting many tomatoes, and the ones I do get don't even taste good enough to justify the effort I put into growing them. The plants aren't even pretty; they're all weedy and mangy looking, plus they've been chewed to bits by every sort of bug I can name. Urhghth.
Reader Comments (13)
Uh..oh......
I have been irregular in my watering too....
Keeping the moisture level under a tomato plant is important, but calcium deficiency is the root of the problem. Ironically, calcium deficiency is aggravated by excessive water. It is also aggravated by a build-up of salts in the soil and excessive nitrogen. Tomatoes should not be given regular plant food because it is too high in nitrogen. The nitrogen will cause lush growth and less fruiting and it will set the stage for blossom end rot. The cause of blossom end rot is complicated and when it happens, it is very disappointing. :[ It could clear up but it might take a while.
My plants are doing fine so far. Our weather has been difficult. First it was dry and now it is wet. Next week will be dry again. I need to go into the woods to gather old pine needles and leaves from the floor and use that to mulch my tomato plants.
I hope I am not being too chatty in your tomato entries. I find gardening fascinating.
Mangy is a perfect descriptive word for tomato plants!
Sorry you're having such a time with your plants, Melanie.
I'm a novice when it come to gardening but when we had our house my tomatoes grew fine. My trick? tums in the ground when we planted the plants. We used 3 i think spread around the roots. It worked like a charm. My plants were strong and beautiful. I so miss gardening.
Donna, I love that you are chatty on my tomato posts! Gardening is one of my favorite things. Someday I'll live in a house more than one or two years at a time, and I will be able to conduct experiments with my plants. It'll be great!
I have not put any fertilizer on any of my plants. I did put some bagged compost in the pots with the tomatoes because I was afraid they wouldn't grow well in such small containers. (They're large pots, but probably not large enough.) I wonder if soaking the pots to leach any salts out of the soil would help, or if the excess water would just aggravate the situation.
Michielle, using Tums is a nifty trick. Maybe I'll try that next year. :)
Well, I learning what not to do when it comes to tomatoes. :) I'm sorry that these lessons are coming at the expense of your garden and fruits of your labors.
Yep, gardening is a huge learning experience, that must be why I love it so much. :)
Melanie, I just don't know what would help. I've not grown veges in pots before. My mom has and she used 5-gallon pots for her tomatoes. Her tomatoes got blossom end rot. Her biggest challenge was keeping them watered. Dry soil leads to blossom end rot too. Once in a while my t-plants, and they are always in the ground, get blossom end rot. The only thing that I can determine is that tomatoes can not bear to have the soil dry completely out nor be completely soaked for any great length of time. Pots that are designed for vege growing are large and provide even moisture. I wonder how a couple of leaky 2-liter bottles would do. Of course the leak would have to be just right. Just give them an IV. lol
I had several tomatoes that looked just like that. I did manage to grow nice fat beautiful tomatoes only to have the nasty crows pick at them and eat them. I cannot wait to come see your nasty tomatoes and disgusting worms.
Sorry that your tomatoes are having such a rough time. After all that time you put into them I wish that you had some good fruit.
Yuck! I hope you figure it out and get some nice juicey tomatoes. :)
Me too!! This condition shouldn't last forever. If the newest tomatoes don't have it, then it might already be over. I have forgotten what size the tomatoes are before they show the brown spot.
The ones that are marble sized to golf ball sized look good; also, anything as large as the palm of my hand looks good. We'll have to wait and see what happens with the smaller tomatoes.
I was out there this evening picking little inch worm thingies off the plants. I think they have done more damage than the stupid hornworms! And I'm really tired of spraying bug poop off my plants. Poop bothers me. I'd rather just pretend it doesn't exist, but the last time I tried that I was knee deep in bug poop before I knew what hit me. Yuck.
Kelley, I can't wait, either. I will serve you a very interesting salad in celebration of your first evening with us. :D
"Just give them an IV."
LOL I wish! I thought about doing that with the bottles, but I'm pretty sure it would do a lot of damage to the roots. I should have done that when I planted them. You're right, though - the leak would have to be just right, and I am just not the gal you'd call upon for that sort of precision. LOL