2022 Garden Thread

[Stonedfish]

Asking the tomato experts.
What do I have going on here?
Only on one plant and only on three fruits, which I cut off.
This is on a purple Cherokee.
Too much water?
Thanks for your input.
SF

 

[Mossback]

Looks like blossom end rot. Cherokees seem to get it sometimes. Adding calcium to the soil is the recommended approach.
Is that the bottom of the tomato ?

If so, thats my guess.

 

[Stonedfish]

Looks like blossom end rot. Cherokees seem to get it sometimes. Adding calcium to the soil is the recommended approach.
Is that the bottom of the tomato ?

If so, thats my guess.

Yes, that is the bottom.
Thanks for the suggestions.
SF

 

[TicTokCroc]

Asking the tomato experts.
What do I have going on here?
Only on one plant and only on three fruits, which I cut off.
This is on a purple Cherokee.
Too much water?
Thanks for your input.
SF

View attachment 25409

I go through a lot of eggs so I bake the shells then crush them for a calcium soil amendment. This is a 5 gallon pail full of crushed shells, probably weighs 25lb.

 

[tkww]

Inconsistent watering is said to encourage blossom end rot. I haven't seen suggestions about too little or too much being the cause. But tomatoes as a rule don't like it super-wet. If you are overwatering them you'll notice the fruit can swell and skins split. (This being separate from the cracking that some varieties do.)

But I would definitely lean towards calcium deficiency. You might see this with other veggies too--peppers, zucchini. My solution has been to use bone meal.

 

[Mossback]

Bone meal is a good thing in general to add to the soils.
Some varieties are just more prone to it.
Cherokees were one we almost always had some end rot with, Romas too.
Goes with the territory, we always checked the bottoms of the fruit, if it showed signs of rot, we kept an eye on it and then if it progressed, chucked it.

 

[Gary Knowels]

I had a big problem with it last year in my summer squash. I complained to my mom and she said she just puts a Tums in each hole at planting and that seemed to fix it for her I tried it this year, but my squash are just now blooming, we'll see in a week or 2.

 

[Mossback]

I had a big problem with it last year in my summer squash. I complained to my mom and she said she just puts a Tums in each hole at planting and that seemed to fix it for her I tried it this year, but my squash are just now blooming, we'll see in a week or 2.

I have heard of folks doing that, never done it myself. I tend to shy away from those sorts of things, a friend swears by epsom salts, which has no calcium at all (magnesium sulfate), but maybe the magnesium aids in calcium uptake...

Typically a well balanced tomato fertilizer has 2% or so calcium in it, so we just fertilize heavy every year, but some varieties just always have a few end rot.
We grew 5 straight years in the same soils, but ammended and fertilized every year, so issues were minimal...
This year no large scale tomato growing, so the soils get a break, and we do too.

 

[Gary Knowels]

The dahlias are starting to bloom, I especially like the colors on this one.

 

[Mtnwkr]

I too use the Tums method to treat end rot. My zucchini started having issues a few weeks ago, a tums broke up and watered in and now they're looking good!

 

[Gary Knowels]

My beets really struggled this year. High germination rate them almost all of them stalled out before developing true leaves, but the few that gor going are ready for harvest. The white one is a variety called avalanche.

 

[Stonedfish]

I ended up getting some of this, but in a different container.
It recommends using 4 tablespoons to two gallons of water and to use it ever 5-7 days.

Question for the tomato experts. Should I have started using something like this when I first planted or just as fruit starts to set and onward from there?
Just planning ahead for next year. So far, only 5 tomatoes with rot which I've removed.
I never really had a rot issue, but I'm growing varieties this year that I've never grown before.
SF

 

[mcswny]

My beets really struggled this year. High germination rate them almost all of them stalled out before developing true leaves, but the few that gor going are ready for harvest. The white one is a variety called avalanche.View attachment 25675

We actually had the exact opposite--just an absolute bumper crop.

My absolute favoriute variety is Badger Flame. I like to mandolin them super thin, and eat them raw with some good olive oil, lemon and ans salt and pepper

 

[Mossback]

⁷

I ended up getting some of this, but in a different container.
It recommends using 4 tablespoons to two gallons of water and to use it ever 5-7 days.

Question for the tomato experts. Should I have started using something like this when I first planted or just as fruit starts to set and onward from there?
Just planning ahead for next year. So far, only 5 tomatoes with rot which I've removed.
I never really had a rot issue, but I'm growing varieties this year that I've never grown before.
SF

View attachment 25678

We always had some end rot on Roma, CherokeePurple, sometimes San Marzano also.
Used Dr. Earth tomato and veg fertilizer, and we fertilized heavily, by far more than the list on the bag, both throughuut the entire bed, and a large handful in the soil when we planted. This, in theory, should be plenty of calcium, so never used any calcium supplements.
I would probably use that stuff as directed as soon as I saw flowers form, and regularly after fruit set.
Some varieties just get it, so check regularly by looking at the bottom.

Tomatoville® Gardening Forums

Tomatoville® Gardening Discussion Forums We Speak Tomato

www.tomatoville.com

Forum for tomato geeks....

 

[Dr. Magill]

I ended up getting some of this, but in a different container.
It recommends using 4 tablespoons to two gallons of water and to use it ever 5-7 days.

Question for the tomato experts. Should I have started using something like this when I first planted or just as fruit starts to set and onward from there?
Just planning ahead for next year. So far, only 5 tomatoes with rot which I've removed.
I never really had a rot issue, but I'm growing varieties this year that I've never grown before.
SF

View attachment 25678

I usually use bone meal and epsom salts in the hole at planting. I side dress about mid season with bone meal and fertilizer
An additional option would be a water-in product called cal/mag (calcium +magnesium). I believe the stuff you have treats the problem. The others are more to avoid the problem all together. It probably works

 

[Capt Insano Emeritis]

Picked another trombocini rampicante this morning. This tomato slices and mozerella all sliced, into a bread pan on edge lots of fresk basil chiffanade, sea salt fresh pepper, drizzle of good olive oilgrated parmesan pour slight amount of my marinara frOm last years canninga bit more parmeasan an bake at 350 for 40 minutes… dinner

 

[Dr. Magill]

⁷

We always had some end rot on Roma, CherokeePurple, sometimes San Marzano also.
Used Dr. Earth tomato and veg fertilizer, and we fertilized heavily, by far more than the list on the bag, both throughuut the entire bed, and a large handful in the soil when we planted. This, in theory, should be plenty of calcium, so never used any calcium supplements.
I would probably use that stuff as directed as soon as I saw flowers form, and regularly after fruit set.
Some varieties just get it, so check regularly by looking at the bottom.

Tomatoville® Gardening Forums

Tomatoville® Gardening Discussion Forums We Speak Tomato

www.tomatoville.com

Forum for tomato geeks....

Good link
Thanks

 

[Capt Insano Emeritis]

Good link
Thanks

Good link
Thanks

Good link
Thanks

Good link
Thanks

I had some beginnings of blossom end rot on a potted orange banana tomato. I over watered and the pot repetedly and it is not draining well enough even with pottery chards in bottom and freeable soil…. So layed off daily watering to torture it a bit and dry out some. I top dressed with bone meal. The tomato is for Lillie jeannes grand daughter and it is 7’ tall. So i picked ant tiny toms with tip staining. Some of the larger ones were fine. That should do it. Tomatos respond to mid season stress well. They hitch up their suspenders and fight like hell to produce or so i have observed over the decades

 

[Capt Insano Emeritis]

I had some beginnings of blossom end rot on a potted orange banana tomato. I over watered and the pot repetedly and it is not draining well enough even with pottery chards in bottom and freeable soil…. So layed off daily watering to torture it a bit and dry out some. I top dressed with bone meal. The tomato is for Lillie jeannes grand daughter and it is 7’ tall. So i picked ant tiny toms with tip staining. Some of the larger ones were fine. That should do it. Tomatos respond to mid season stress well. They hitch up their suspenders and fight like hell to produce or so i have observed over the decades

This page was acting very strange a little while ago- locking up and such

 

[Capt Insano Emeritis]