Garden Questions & Problems

Question from Christine:
Yesterday I discovered 6 green tomatoes, 2 1/2 “-3 1/2″ diameter, with BER on 2 different plants in different beds, Burpee Sweet Seedless. I have been diligent about watering very deeply only once a week (just once I watered 2 days early) and fertilizing on a regular schedule and finally put some bagged mulch down about a week ago. I grew them from seed started indoors and they are in raised beds with fresh-this-season soil. I live apx. 5 miles from the ocean in the extreme southern end of Carlsbad.

— I used blossom set spray beginning June 1st, 2 or 3 applications. I’m a bit confused about 2 things:

I read in your book or website that the spray is a hormone. The one I bought lists only calcium from calcium citric acid. Is that considered a hormone when used on plants? The brand I have is BONIDE TOMATO AND BLOSSOM SET SPRAY and the directions say to spray the blossoms and adjacent foliage until completely wet (it says spraying the whole plant is best) at one or two week intervals. Is that just overkill? so you’ll buy more? Your directions were to spray at 10 day intervals only 3 times, just the blossoms as I recall. Does that mean only 3 apps for the life of the plant? I’m thinking of all the blossoms to come. Is there a calcium drench I should use? I would think eggshells would be too slow.

— Regarding watering:

There are a few interplantings such as basil, bell peppers, alyssum, carrots, lettuce which vary in distance from the tomatoes between 9″-14”. My concern is that some of these need more water and I have been trying to spot water them, but I wonder if this is creating an irregular watering situation for the tomatoes contributing to their BER. Does the water go straight down or sideways as well? Do you think the interplantings are too close? Maybe I should sacrifice those for the tomatoes.

Answer from Pat:
I realized last year that all the blossom set sprays sold in California seem to only contain calcium. (I cannot change the info in my book until the next edition in 2020.)

Calcium blossom sprays seem to work. However, I wish I knew why they no longer contain kinetin or some other plant hormone, when my experience showed these sprays to be extremely effective. As far as I know calcium is mostly used to combat blossom end rot. That has not been a problem for me, but I have had similar problems as you have had and I am sure it is caused by wood products in fast draining soil. In your re-written statement you continued to say “with BER on 2 different plants”. I was joking about that before, but to ask you in clear language, what in the world do you mean?

Regarding the interplanting, I wouldn’t worry about it this year. From your description, personally it sounds as if the tomatoes are drying out too fast and perhaps lacking nutrients as I said before. Water only goes straight down, not sideways, or only slightly. Some research has been done on this and the pattern from drip seems to look like an elongated onion underground and also the shape depends on the type of soil. My experience is that many gardeners are underwatering with drip in raised beds. Veggies need an inch or two of rainfall a week at least and in fast draining soil often more. Potting soil is causing problems when gardeners filled raised beds with it. We should fill raised beds with garden soil.