I picked the first large ripe tomato and this is what it looked like on the bottom.
What is causing this? Freak occurrence or something that will happen again?
I picked the first large ripe tomato and this is what it looked like on the bottom.
What is causing this? Freak occurrence or something that will happen again?
June 11, 2010 at 7:17 am |
Blossom end rot, I think. I forget what causes it. I googled it and got 820,000 hits, several of the top ones looked good.
June 11, 2010 at 7:18 am |
Thanks! I’m on it!
June 11, 2010 at 9:33 am |
Needs more calcium! Baking soda and seaweed as a foliar spray should work.
June 11, 2010 at 9:35 am |
Thanks! I’ll try that this weekend.
June 11, 2010 at 9:35 am |
Definitely Blossom End Rot.
Caused by a calcium deficiency or something–Down here it basically means that the plant has to evapotranspirate (aka sweat) a bunch of water because the plant got too much water at some point. Plants sweat through their leaves, so after heavy rains the plants suck up a bunch of water, but then send all of it to the leaves and therefore all the nutrients end up in the leaves instead of the fruit.
Usually the solution is to just not water as much…but of course there are always those stupid rain storms that go and dump 4″ of water. I had a problem with it for the 2 years I had tomato plants in the ground without good drainage–I didnt’ have a problem with it last year which was the first year I had plants in raised beds.
June 11, 2010 at 9:46 am |
Hmm, it could definitely be all the rain. I also have the beds heavily mulched and definitely kept them well-watered out of fear of not enough water. Everything is such a delicate balance!
June 11, 2010 at 9:44 am |
Definitely blossom end rot! In fact, I’m editing Trisha’s tomato segment right now. She brought in some “glorious” examples.
The problem does seem to go away later; it’s generally the first fruits that are effected.
June 11, 2010 at 9:49 am |
Hopefully it won’t affect the others. The cherry tomatoes (other than the ones attacked by bugs) have been beautiful and delicious although they are in a different bed. I grilled some of the cherry tomatoes the other night with shrimp and sausage (recipe link below). I highly recommend it for the carnivores out there!
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2010/06/grilled_shrimp_and_sausage_skewers_with_smoky_paprika_glaze
June 11, 2010 at 2:16 pm |
Hi,
To much water, reduce watering.
June 13, 2010 at 10:09 pm |
I grind up a calcium tablet and sprinkle it into the hole before I plant my plants. It helps some but I occasionally get a first fruit with it. You probably won’t have any other problems with it. Later on when we get a lot of rain the fruit will just split.
June 17, 2010 at 8:08 pm |
Hmm, that is a good idea. One of these days I am going to get around to scanning my soil report and posting it for advice. It was actually pretty good because the previous farmers used tons of manure when amending the soil.
June 13, 2010 at 10:10 pm |
Ellie, are you going to the next Go Go thing at Jenny’s? I don’t think you want to miss this.
June 17, 2010 at 8:09 pm |
I think I might be able to. We have plans to travel that day but now that the Go Go is earlier I think I can make it.
July 17, 2010 at 10:41 am |
Definitely have seen this before. It’s from too much water exposure. There was a small bit of flooding in my garden back in ’06 and I saw my tomatoes have the same type of brown crust.