Blossom End Rot
Question from Christine:
Sorry about the confusion with the 2 emails on the same subject – not sure what happened. And also the confusion of ” with BER on 2 different plants”. I meant to say that the BER (blossom end rot) was present on 3 tomatoes from one plant growing in one of the raised beds, and also on 3 tomatoes from another plant growing in another separate raised bed.
You also mentioned something about how you were “joking about that before”. It sounds like I must not have received one of your responses to my email from yesterday as I was having email trouble for part of the day. I’d love to hear the joke!
I may have also given the impression that I have a drip system, which I do not. Just hose watering as close to the ground as possible. We filled both of the raised beds with garden soil from City Farmer nursery in SD purchased by the sq. yard and I was told it was equal parts compost, decomposed granite, and …., hmm can’t remember the 3rd thing. The 8 tomato plants I have got planted with dry veg fertilizer, crushed egg shells, worm castings, mychozzhal fungi on the root ball (I’m sure I spelled that wrong), and bonemeal, and get monthly veg fertilizer.
You said the roots are probably drying out. Is it best to increase the amount of deep water given just once a week, or deep water 2 times per week? Sorry again for my obsessiveness and thanks for putting up with my endless questions!
Answer from Pat:
You should have seen the mental images I had of your tomatoes when I Googled BER and discovered it meant “Beyond Economic Repair.” My vision of your tomato plight included an enormous panoply of products you had purchased to cure these benighted plants from the multiple disasters afflicting them. So please erase my former advice from your mind, that was designed to cure blights and various hitherto unknown disasters and result in “RI” (Rapid Improvement) thus returning your ailing plants to “STH” (Super Terrific Health).
Now that I understand you were talking about Blossom End Rot, of course, your own diagnosis was correct. The problem you are having results from mixing plants together with differing requirements. In raised beds it’s better to devote one whole bed to tomatoes or at least one half of it and grow the plants requiring more frequent watering in another bed or at least another area. Regarding your fertilizing program, it’s fine and all that good stuff helps. Even simply using commercial organic fertilizers recommended for tomatoes works fine and usually one needs more than the packages suggest since organic fertilizers work slowly. Also, tomatoes like peppers need magnesium. Spray with Epsom salts (1 teaspoon in a 1 pint bottle of water in handsprayer like one uses for moistening laundry before ironing.) to provide magnesium. This could help prevent blossoms dropping off also.
You are right that crushed egg shells don’t provide calcium quickly enough and anyway if roots of tomatoes have swings of wet and dry conditions, they cannot take in the calcium even if it’s there for them. Our irrigation water alone contains plentiful calcium. You are not alone in having plants with BER—now I’m doing this too!—Farm advisors have told me that even commercial growers have the problem because of watering with a drip system. It’s a problem trying to give the plants even soil moisture and not too much and not too little. Commercial growers (other than organic ones) fertilize with Calcium Nitrate to try to prevent the BER—Hey, this is catching!— You are right in hoping that the calcium blossom spray could help if sprayed all over the plant and on the backs of the blossoms. It should help. Have a look at the site for Gardens Alive for other cures. http://www.gardensalive.com/product.asp?pn=2840