Drat, I have been watering religiously every day and according to the weather but had to remove 6 good tomatoes from 2 plants due to blossom end rot. I am going to have to refine my watering again and have set bottle waterers in place to help even out the process. BER is due to a lack of calcium and the most likely cause is an inability of the plant to transport the water high up the plant. The affected tomatoes were higher up. The plants affected are ferline and old brookes, both medium sized tomatoes. My strillos are all ok
I need to research a better water holding compost for next year. My compost is fantastic and is made very locally and is heavily peat based, great for seeds and young plants but I am now thinking that much of the water is going straight through as it dries very quickly
I've got BER too, but only on my plum tomatoes, Roma and San Marzano. It's the first time I've grown SM and most of the fruit so far is affected. They've been watered exactly the same as my 'ordinary' toms which are all fine, so there must be other factors at work. I'm chopping off the nasty ends and freezing them ready for pulping later, waste not want not....
mine were green so are now in the bin. I have been around all my tomatoes and thinned out the leaves to help. I did this last year and had a fantastic yield of tomatoes so have done the same this year, I have taken 3-4 leaves off per plant and they look nice and airy now with plenty of leaf left to help the new tomatoes develop. I see we are going up to the 30s again in a couple of days, so I want to give the plants a better chance
When you say your compost was made locally, do you mean home made compost? The last couple of years I have used on planting out the contents of my wormery at the bottom of the pots and then the contents of my compost bins. Chucked crushed eggs shells around the pots to deter slugs and I think they decompose and add calcium to the soil.
Are you growing under cover in pots or in the border, or growing outdoors?
I agree about the calcium uptake or lack thereof, but this could be down to over feeding with potash as well!
Because tomatoes have seperate water and feeding roots the method of watering and feeding can help!
I sink a plant pot at the base of each plant which i fill when I am only watering, as the water roots are a deeper level, the pot gets the water to these roots.
I don't use the pot when feeding!
When feeding I add the water/ feed to the surface of the soil.( where the feeding roots are)
I find this method tends to keep much of the potash away from the water roots meaning they are taking up less potash each time you water, i.e. if you always water the surface this takes surplus down to the water roots meaning they are getting potash at every watering as opposed to just water.
I always think this excess of potash feeding particularly through the water roots causes the calcium imbalance, which creates the potential for BER
I am no chemist but I find I rarely have BER so I must be doing something right!
There is a picture here;
http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Tomato/Tomato.htm (http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Tomato/Tomato.htm)
Quote from: Tee Gee on July 16, 2013, 00:22:29
I am no chemist but I find I rarely have BER so I must be doing something right!
I am so glad you don`t have BER. This is my first time after 30 years of very successfully growing tomatoes and yes I use growpots and always water in the outer ring and feed in the inner ring
my compost is professionally made 8 miles away and is almost all peat, really good stuff which I buy by the bag but I think that is the cause ie the difficulty re keeping the moisture consistent. I will not make my own as I don`t actually get enough hm compost from my bins and it all goes on allotment beds. I have 19 good strong tomato plants, all in large buckets with growpots on top. I think I`ll perhaps just be adding moisture retaining granules next year
I water every 2 weeks with
http://www.organiccatalogue.com/p445/CHASE-ORGANIC-TOMATO-FEED-1-Litre/product_info.html
I read somewhere that it is good to wet the feeding soil with water before feeding, so another thing to consider. Plants look fine this morning after the leaf removals, gave them all a bit of water and will use a moisture meter later to see the state of play in the compost. Nice and misty for a change today but has been relentlessly hot and sunny here for a long time. Garden is sunken and is a sun trap, so 30 when surroundings are 27
just an update to say that all my tomato plants are looking much better, cutting more leaves off and watering twice a day, not just once, has had the desired effect. All my cans have had just a couple of drops of washing up liquid in them and that helped a lot. I moved all the portable ones to semi shaded positions, to give them some respite from the baking sun. My back garden is surrounded by higher ground levels and also faces south, so is a sun trap, which is not always good
Have given them a little feed today of very dilute comfrey. No more curled leaves this morning
Glad your toms are improving - what's the why of washing up liquid in the cans? Have I missed something?
Soap and washing-up liquids act as a short term wetting agent, though liquids do contain other ingredients too, and soap is often perfumed. Soft soap might be a better bet?