Last week, I believe, I discovered a horrific development in my garden:
My immediate reaction was, “eeuw, gross”! It really does look nasty. It was soft and squishy, too. Double eeuw.
This is one of the first tomatoes to appear on my Pruden’s Purple plant. At first I thought I had come across late blight, but the leaves looked pretty good and healthy, as did the surrounding plants. So, I did some research and came to the conclusion that this tomato suffered from blossom end rot.
I’ve been keeping an eye on the remaining tomatoes on this plant, and they all look good so far. The tomatoes on the Silver Fir, Amish Paste, and mystery tomato also look fine – still green and firm, no rot.
My understanding is that blossom end rot has to do with the plant’s inability to absorb enough calcium and/or water. I have ordered some seaweed extract to add to the soil to bump up the calcium content in the soil, in case BER becomes more prevalent.
I’ve also heard that it can crop up after a heat wave, and that’s exactly when it showed up on this tomato. We’ve been in the middle of another heat wave this week, but it hasn’t been nearly as intense as the one just after July 4. I hope this won’t set any BER into motion.
Here’s hoping for healthy tomatoes from here on!
Too late for this year, but there’s an easy way to get plenty of calcium to your tomatoes: Keep your egg shells for a couple of weeks before you’re ready to plant. Crush up a couple shells for each plant and mix it in with the soil under the roots.
For now, if you really grind them into powder you can mix it with water and pour it on now and probably still get most of the benefit.
Hey Drew, thanks! I am definitely going to do the crushed eggshell next year, especially if I choose to grow this tomato next year. Not sure how prolific it will be (this is the first year I grew Pruden’s Purple, but if it only gives me a few tomatoes, I probably won’t choose it again. Good suggestion about the eggshell powder. If I have troubles after the seaweed application, I’ll definitely try that. Thanks for the tip!
Hope the seaweed helps!
Thanks, Ginny! I hope so, too. So far I haven’t seen any more rot apart from the two tomatoes on the Pruden’s Purple.