blossom end rot tomatos

[Billy's lad]

i have some blossom end rot in some of my tomatoes in the greenhouse

They are in growbags with halos and are watered regularly

has anyone else suffered this and are there any cures ?

[Thelma Sanders]

You may be watering regularly, but are the growbags drying out between waterings? They need enough water and nutrients (calcium is needed) to be able to support plant growth 'til the next watering.

Adding a little calcified seaweed or garden lime to the bags may help with the uptake of calcium, as well as supplying enough water.

[Snoop Puss]

I've got the same in one of my tomato beds. I forgot to add ash while making it up. The other bed, to which I did add ash, is fine. So, I'll be out tomorrow with a sprinkling of ash when I water.

[Aberdeenplotter]

You may be watering regularly, but are the growbags drying out between waterings? They need enough water and nutrients (calcium is needed) to be able to support plant growth 'til the next watering.

Adding a little calcified seaweed or garden lime to the bags may help with the uptake of calcium, as well as supplying enough water.

There is no cure but applying a solution of calcium nitrate in water (the only soluble form of calcium) can help in prevention. I personally don't use growbags and instead use growbag compost in buckets. It's much easier keeping the plant roots moist imho.

[Mikey]

This is an interesting article on the use of Epson salts to avoid BER, which explains how one nutrient excess can create an subsequent nutrient deficiency. Getting the best out of tomatoes is quite an exacting science no wonder commercial growers prefer hydroponics you can control the nutrients compounds going in more accurately.

https://harvesttotable.com/epsom-sal...epper-growing/

[4Shoes]

My Alicante tomatoes had it - See

https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...ml#post1609495

Chriss11 has some tips see the link above.

It was only the Alicante that suffered - probably because they were larger. Bush and Cherry were ok.

Think it was just poor watering. The Tunnel was around 40 to 50 most of the day. Leave wilting and compost drying out by time I returned. ended up letting them sit in water half of the day. then dry out slightly until watering @ suppertime.

[Jimmy]

My Alicante suffered as did some of the Country Taste
Both in GH growbags
The Country taste were massive and did well, I just chopped the ends of the affected ones.
Jimmy

[Mikey]

Interesting 4shoes, I had BER on some of my early Cuore di Bue this year, initially I put it down to the plant drying out as it was so hot last month and I had little sun shade for my greenhouse at the time.

A little research brought up calcium deficiency as the culprit but, the internet is a wonderful thing hence why they suggest not typing health symptoms into google as you are clealy about to pop your clogs any second!!!

I think if BER is more noticable at the start of the year as Chris's article suggests it might have something to do with the support structure of the plant itself. I have only ever had the issue on my large fruited varieties, never on the cherries which are maintained in an identical manner (this might be coincidental in my case). I sometimes get splitting on my cherries if I'm a little overzealous with the can though.

So I wonder if it could be that younger plants with thinner stems and less well developed root systems cannot get the nutrients quickly enough to large fruiting variety tomatoes. Tomatoes and potatoes are part of the same family and potatoes never have large fruit on their flowers, stretching a theory here (bear with me!!) as we've never cultivated potatoes for their fruit to my knowledge they might actually be closer to the original aztec tomato size.

All tomatoes are genetically modified hybrids anyway, so BER could be a natural phenomenum caused by our manipulation of the plant to suit our needs.

[MarkPelican]

I find I get more blossom end rot on the longer varieties of tomato (san marzano and the like) but this year it seems to have been particularly bad. My white zebra have been decimated by it.

[Billy's lad]

The blossom end rot has ended and I am getting decent toms off the affected plants now

I didnt do anything different or change anything , the weather is cooler and the plants more mature so still not quite sure about why , however I am chuffed that the plants havent been a dead loss

I picked everything that was ripe yesterday had about 5kg and spent yesterday afternoon roasting them in batches with garlic and my oregano and basil and then sieving and reducing down now have 6 750ml pots tucked away in the freezer

[It never rains..it pours]

Last year had it on quite a few, this year none. Think only difference was adding 1g of lime per 1 litre of soil this year at planting. Pleased to hear you are now getting some great toms

[toastiesmurf]

Overwatering?

It happened to me a month or so ago. I was overwatering. My understand is that over or underwatering is nearly always the cause of this. The plant can't take calcium to the fruit end. There's enough calcium in the soil, so adding more isn't necessarily the solution. I watered with more care and picked off badly affected fruit and then the problem stopped.