How to Prevent Blossom End Rot on Tomatoes, and Best Temperatures for Setting Fruit on Pepper Plants

Question from Ramon:
I am new to gardening and this is only my second year. My first year was hot peppers and tomatoes. The hot peppers did great that year but the tomatoes, I found out later, that I was over watering. This year I went to deep watering every other day and the tomatoes are doing ok but the chilies are slow going. I did start late this year because my mom got very sick and I didn’t plant when I thought I was going to. I went ahead with the garden anyway to see what would happen. I will get a soil tester and pull a plant to see how the roots are doing.

Answer from Pat:
Sorry your mom was sick and I hope she is better now. It’s always best to plant with the seasons, but sometimes circumstances make it impossible. Every year is different and it just means one gets to learn even more. Years ago when things went wrong in the vegetable garden I always felt maybe this was happening so I could gradually find out all the answers. But it turns out there is always more to learn! If you do winter vegetables next fall, however, be sure to plant at the right time. If not planting winter veggies, take the opportunity to put in a cover crop such as scarlet clover and dig it into the ground the following spring prior to planting in order to improve the soil.

It’s difficult to grow good tomatoes with a drip system. I prefer digging a watering basin around each tomato and then soaking the soil deeply once a week or once every week and a half, depending on the type of soil and how well it retains moisture. Sometimes I allow one watering basin to spill into the next one so that one can put the hose down at one end of the row and let it run until it fills up all the basins in the whole row. By watering slowly but deeply, fruit is less likely to get blossom end rot then when plants are watered shallowly and often. One of the farm advisors once told me that commercial growers have a lot of problems with tomato blossom end rot because they water with drip systems. They add calcium to try to prevent it, but it doesn’t work. Blossom end rot comes from uneven moisture in the soil and drip systems seem to encourage that condition, not prevent it.

With peppers you might find the blossoms fall off if the weather gets too hot. Peppers set fruit best when nighttime temperatures are between 60 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit and daytime temperatures around 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit can cause blossom drop.