Blossom end rot?

[Liza]

Hello All,

Can anyone tell me how to stop tomatoes from getting blossom end rot? I have nice plants, blooms and then the tomatoes go all brown on the bottom and look sort of like a wet sack. Sometimes the tomatoe does turn red but it is all sick on the bottom.

The vines are starting to look all weathered and rolled but I am watering them at least every other day.

So now I have sort of sick plants.

Any help out there? PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[MullersLaneFarm]

Your soil is calcium deficient and probably too high in nitrogen. make sure your tomatos (this can also affect peppers) doesn't get too dry between waterings.

Sprinkle some lime around the base of each plant ....

 

[halo]

You can also crush some eggshells and sprinkling them around the plant.

 

[MullersLaneFarm]

that (crushed egg shells) helps with keeping the slugs away, too

 

[flopshot]

blossom end rot can be mitigated by spraying with a commercial product containing calcium but it's not allways the best way. planting later helps, controling moisture and using a lower nitrogen higher phosphate fertilizer helps. pluck off the first few blossoms to give the plant time to establish a better root system. won't hurt to pinch off some leaves either to allow the nutrients to go to the blossom / fruit. in any event, don't worry. blossom end rot will fade on it's own. kind of like those first few eggs....

 

[Big Chicken Little]

Maintain the soil pH around 6.5. Liming will supply calcium and will increase the ratio of calcium ions to other competitive ions in the soil.

Use nitrate nitrogen as the fertilizer nitrogen source. Ammoniacal nitrogen may increase blossom-end rot as excess ammonium ions reduce calcium uptake. Avoid over-fertilization as side dressings during early fruiting, especially with ammoniacal forms of nitrogen.

Avoid drought stress and wide fluctuations in soil moisture by using mulches and/or irrigation. Plants generally need about one inch of moisture per week from rain or irrigation for proper growth and development.

Hope this helps !! I had these problems 2 years ago and followed this info and now all is good.

Good luck

 

[Liza]

Thank you for helping everyone.

We use Alaskan Fish fertilizer for the nitrogen content. We also live in the Texas Hill Country with lots of limestone. I'm suprised to hear my calcium content is low. We have tons of it in the water do you think the plants can't absorb it?

We were also putting vinegar in the water to bring up the acid content of our soil. Do you think this had something to do with the rot?

I use old chicken coop hay for mulch around all of the plants and my peppers are looking and producing great. It's just the tomatoes that are looking and acting poor.

 

[Scrambled Egg]

Quote:
Yep, exactly what Spinner (MullerLaneFarm) said..missing calcium and nitrogen and magnesium..a bag of gardener's lime will totally cure your problem.

 

[ranchhand]

Hey Liza, I understand, being a former Austinite! (I still am at heart.....)

Please let me steer you to the BYC sister site, www.TheEasyGarden.com .

Most of the members are BYCers too, and know tons about raising plants!

 

[Liza]

Oh..I'm so going there now!!!

Thank you all!!!!