That is the classic symptom of blossom end rot.

JenM wrote:My tomatoes are rotting! Some of the fruits show a dark patch at the blossom end. Is this blossom end rot? I will try to post a picture.

Jen

I agree, that sounds like Blossom End Rot or BER for short (most internet searches reference the acronym). I usually find that it affects only the first fruits but if you continue to see it you may want to cross reference some of the "solutions" found on the web. I use quotations only because there seems to be about a dozen different reasons why you would get BER. Last year, since I use the Earthbox, I used a mix of garden lime and water and added it to the reservoir. I'd like to think it helped (I didn't get BER anymore) but then again it could have just affected the first fruits. Good luck and keep us posted...

interesting tidbits from the best extension service in the country:

http://learningstore.uwex.edu/pdf/A2607.PDF

Thanks everyone! The affected tomatoes are in my Earthbox and I did use the dolomite that came with the kit, so there should be enough calcium. My husband did fess up that he let my Earthbox go dry while I was out of town last weekend ( ), so I am assigning that as the tentative cause. The two immense tomatoes I have really do need to be watered twice a day-- wow.

Thanks again-- I will report back! I appreciate your help-- it is great having access to such expertise as I re-learn how to garden!

Cheers, Jen

Question. My black pineapple tomato plant (ananas noire) is growing well and there have been lots of flower buds. However, it hasn't produced any fruits. The flowers never really blossom. They kind of show a little bit of yellow and then fall off before fully blossoming. What's going on? My other tomatos are doing well (early girl tomato, jubilee etc.) so it can't be pollination problem. Help?

Blossom drop can be caused by a nutrient deficiency. It can also be caused by cool or hot temperatures. If you are in the greater Chicagoland area, I'd say temps are not the problem unless it's someplace where it's getting a LOT of reflected heat or something. I think it can also be caused by not being pollinated, however, which may be the most likely.

I did a quick search just to see what I could find. Interstingly, in this threadabout tomatoes that suck, your tomato was listed as one that never produced a fruit!

See this about the pollination issue. This may solve your problems. If gentle shaking doesn't work, try your hand at pollinating them yourself.

Given that the person above never got a fruit, I wonder if this plant doesn't need a bit of wind or something to help it pollinate.

janeyb wrote:Reading this forum motivated me to try to plant something beside flowers this year. I bought some tomato plants (Early Girl??) that I put in pots. I have two questions. Do I need to now bring them back inside or are they ok weather-wise? Also, the gardening person helped me to pick out the potting mixture (some sort of Miracle Grow for Flowers and Vegetables). After planting, I looked at the bag and it was Miracle Grow for Plants. (The first bag had been ripped and I took the second one without looking at it since I thought they were all the same.) Do I now need to add something to the soil? or will that potting mix be ok?
Thanks for your help. If these work, I'll be excited to try planting more things.

I have tomatoes, but I think they are growing in spite of me. I'm guessing it's time for some fertilizer, any suggestions? I water them when I remember (about once a week). I didn't see any advice on when or how much to water. Do I need to do anything to the plant other than pick off the ripe tomatoes? This is the first time I've planted anything edible. They've been outside in pots since April 20, bless their little hearts.

I don't think I'd plant Early Girl again next year, the skin is more thick than I like. (I'll need to research types that are more tasty yet hard to kill.) If anyone can suggest some specific plant care tips, my tomatoes and I will be grateful.

In my experience Early Girl does not do well in containers, producing smaller fruits with tougher skins than the same variety grown in the ground. I usually start one or two extra plants as insurance against cutworm or other early damage and have potted up the extra Early Girl in a very large pot or container on several occasions rather than compost a good looking plant with some fruit set. The result was always disappointing. I have grown Early Girl for over thirty years because they are the best very early standard tomato I have grown and they keep on producing well unlike many early varieties. Early Girl will grow over six feet tall in a garden. My main season tomatoes are Big Beef and San Marzano, neither of which is a good bet for containers for different reasons. Big Beef is a beefsteak type and will easily go over eight feet tall. San Marzano produces a reasonable sized plant for a container but is somewhat prone to blossom end rot. I have three Gold Nugget plants in containers that are producing heavily. Gold Nugget is a very early determinate yellow cherry tomato with good acid and pectin levels and tends to produce for a fairly long time for a determinate variety.

Feel the soil a couple of inches down in your containers. That will give you a good sense of whether more water is needed. You want to keep pretty stable moisture levels in the soil. Wildly fluctuating moisture can set off the metabolic disease blossom-end rot even when soil calcium levels are high.

Watering containers tends to leach fertilizer out. Does the Miracle Grow for Flowers and Vegetables potting mix contain slow-release fertilizer? If not, using Miracle Grow for Tomatoes at one tablespoon per gallon of water every 10 to 14 days may be in order. This fertilizer has slightly higher nitrogen and much higher potassium relative to phosphorus the the regular Miracle Grow and better matches tomatoes nutrient needs once fruit has developed some size.

Bill/SFNM wrote:

thaiobsessed wrote:I noticed your plants had fruit a month ago. Will it really take a whole month for them to ripen? I'm impatient (and excited about my gardening 'success') and hoping it won't take that long.

Patience, grasshopper!

They did take that long, but I am in a totally different growing region with very cool nights and very hot days. Well, actually, until recently, the days haven't been all that hot. I expect the new fruit (and there are tons!) will ripen quicker.

More cherry tomatoes today!!! I can't believe I spent the first part of my life despising tomatoes!

Woohoo!!! 1st little blush of color on my sweet 100's. I am very excited as plants usually wilt the moment they see me coming. So, I guess it will be about a month for the fruit to ripen (assuming the fruits take another week to fully ripen).

Excellent, Thaiobsessed!

I got my tomatoes in a bit late as I didn't decide to even order seeds until April 1st. I have nothing of color happening on the Black Prince or Momotaro, but the Honey Bunch Grape started coloring about 3 days ago. As of today, one of them is getting quite rosy. I imagine that in 3 more, it will be in my mouth! The Momotaro and Black Prince are about 10 days longer, I think, so hopefully I'll see some color on them within a week, two max. Here's hoping!

I have about 100 tomatoes on the Honey Bunch Grape, so once they start, I expect to be eating them frequently. The Momotaro and Black Prince are much more measured, each having no more than 20 tomatoes at this date. Still, they should provide some delicious salads within a month.

My bush Lima beans turned out to be pole beans! Fortunately the green beans are bush as promised. The Okra (which died early and had to be replanted) looks like it has the start of small blooms. Maybe in 3 weeks or so I'll be tasting that, too.

I'm thinking of starting lettuce indoors in mid August for planting out in early September. I don't usually grow lettuce, so not sure if this is too early....but if I wait much longer, I'll not get much of a harvest. Same for the Asian greens. I guess since this is my first year for both, I'll experiment and then know what to do next year.

HI,

If this summer remains as cool as it has been, you could consider planting some lettuces now. If there is a typical August heat wave, they might bolt. You might reserve some seeds to plant another wave later in August.

Did the bone meal help your tomatoes?

Regards,

JenM wrote: The two immense tomatoes I have really do need to be watered twice a day-- wow.

I was surprised just how much water my two tomato plants use. I fill them (one EB with hot peppers and one with two tomato plants) up before I got to work and again when I get home.

Cathy2 wrote:HI,

If this summer remains as cool as it has been, you could consider planting some lettuces now. If there is a typical August heat wave, they might bolt. You might reserve some seeds to plant another wave later in August.

Did the bone meal help your tomatoes?

Regards,

I'm going to assume it's a normal summer, simply because I don't have room yet, anyway. I need some other things to finish before the lettuce can be planted out.

It was lime, not bone meal I wanted to try. Before I used it, I could see the plant deteriorating much too rapidly for a simply calcium deficiency. Since I had another plant in the same container and didn't want to risk passing something, I pulled it immediately. I kept in in water for a few weeks, trying to get it to an extension office, but they wanted me to go to 111th, to the AG school. So, the dead plant now sits in a bag in my dining room, in case I find another place to take it, as I would like to know if they can tell what it was.

I don't think it was late blight (it was too early), it could have been early blight. It wasn't likely a wilt as this was all new potting mix and the tomato next to it was fine...but, I've not dealt with too many tomato diseases having been extra lucky for the many years I've grown them. This is the first tomato plant in over 25 years that I've lost.

Yay!!! My first ripe sweet 100. Actually, my first tomato ever...

Looks delicious! How was it? It's fascinating to me how satisfying growing your own food can be.

I just picked my first even Honey Bunch Grape today. It's not quite ripe, so haven't tasted it yet. There were three all turning, so I picked them before something could befall the, lol.

tem wrote:I"m really hoping I didn't kill most of my plants this past weekend.

I had some critters eating my parsley and some of the tomato & pepper leaves so I mixed up some dish soap and vegetable oil and sprayed the leaves.

A day or so later, the leaves on my broccoli had discolored, many leaves on my peppers dropped off and tomato buds that seemed to have been viable were withered and dead, leaving only 1 small, small growing fruit on 6 plants. My purple cherokee has a handful of healthy flowers but otherwise, zip, zilch, nada. One potted brandywine is pretty much totally dead.

One probable bad thing was that I didn't use pure soap but the anti-bacterial stuff from under my sink.

Is there anything I can do to salvage the situation ?

Update: it took another few weeks, but my tomatoes are finally starting to produce, as are the peppers. After my mishap above, I trimmed all the dead branches off the tomatoes, which, I think, forced all new leaf growth from the top. This finally got flowers/fruit going in the last couple weeks. Now I'm worried that the weather won't cooperate for the next 20-30 days until I can harvest !

What's also strange is that even the 4 pepper plants I had potted on my deck seem to have kicked in with the last couple weeks and are fruiting like crazy-- like girls in sororities synchronizing their cycles

This is definitely a crazy summer.
My herbs are loving the weather (except the basil). Lots of oregano, rosemary, the sage is going gangbusters, and the thyme is all right.
The peppers have fruit, but it's small and stunted. I'm not likely to get any big bells at this rate before frost. The stress may improve the jalapeno heat, though.
The tomatoes -- early, late and in between -- are fruiting like crazy, but it's been a couple weeks and nothing's showing any sign of breaking (turning color). They're heavy enough that they're knocking over the cages.
The tomatillos are doing fine, but they'll do fine from deluge to drought. I only had one from-seed plant survive, but a few volunteers came up on the edges.
As cool as the weather has been, my gai lan has all bolted.

And here's the weird one: I picked a half-dozen pea pods this morning (off the two remaining plants) and there's new flowers.

Wondering if anybody has any clues as to what we are doing wrong...

We have 2 squash plants growing in a large container in our backyard. The plants have grown quickly and grown well, and we've had dozens of blossoms grow and subsequently wither and die. Not a squash to be found. Not one.

Any thoughts?

--Rich

RAB wrote:Wondering if anybody has any clues as to what we are doing wrong...

We have 2 squash plants growing in a large container in our backyard. The plants have grown quickly and grown well, and we've had dozens of blossoms grow and subsequently wither and die. Not a squash to be found. Not one.

Any thoughts?

--Rich

I'm very curious about this as well as I had the same experience in my last garden (in ground).

My garden is also growing in a strange manner. Is it this summer, the fact that I'm a first time container gardener or a combination of the two? My hot peppers are going crazy (especially the habaneros) but my tomatoes are just struggling along. I realized, almost too late, that tomatoes grown in a container need 10x the water that they would in the ground and started a far more disciplined watering program, but to date, I've only gotten 2 ripe fruits off my plants.

I'm reassured that over the last week they have begun to bear fruit like mad and am hoping for a good tomato crop soon. It just doesn't feel like summer until you are up to your ears in tomatoes.

Ursiform wrote:I'm very curious about this as well as I had the same experience in my last garden (in ground).

Hmmmm, could be a Logan Square thing. Kinda like a Bermuda Triangle for squash perhaps?
--Rich

I'll hazard that your squash is not being pollinated. Do you have blooms that have little baby squashes and ones that do not? The ones without are the males, the ones with are the females. A pollinator needs to transfer pollen from the males to the female. When that doesn't happen, the blooms fall off.

You can act as a pollinator by using a Q-tip. Male blossoms are open for several days; female blossoms are only open for one day, so you'll have to do this daily. You can swab a bit from the male blossom into the female. Or, you can take off the male and brush it up against the female.

Per the tomatoes, depending on when you planted them and the type planted, it's actually early to get a LOT of fruit just yet. I got mine out a bit late and my 65 day plants are just starting to color. Within a couple of weeks, I'll have a steady supply, but not just yet.

All cucurbits (squash, melons, cucumbers, gourds) produce many, many more male flowers than female, and the male flowers invariably appear first, too. Don't panic. Just make sure your female flowers get pollinated properly, either by you (via Q-tip/paintbrush) or by pollinating insects.

My poor garden is suffering horribly; partly from too much shade and partly from the weather (the upside-down tomato garden isn't really good for tomatoes unless it's in a bright sunny location) However, I do have one crop that's loving this weather: watercress. Found some Rebecca's Garden seeds at my local WF, and was amazed to see that it's up and spreading!

Strangely, all eight of my chile varieties are fruiting well, other than the serranos - oddly, none of the four are cooperating, strange from a normally reliable breed. Meh. I'm most pleased with the Bulgarian Carrot's progress - from a runty 2" start in late May to a robust 2' tall specimen, covered with fruit - as well as the amazing self-seeded flock of Bolivian Rainbows. No care, no coddling, no nothing all spring - and now I have five strong, healthy plants, all blooming and fruiting.

I'm moving a potted habanero to the front garden either later today or tomorrow - while reasonably healthy, it's had aphid problems, and so should provide a nice entree for the numerous native red ladybugs in front, while getting full sun for the final two-month push to maturity. Bon appetit, gals!

Woo hoo, we had the first Brandywine from the Earthbox today and it was tasty.



Here it is balanced on my daughter's head, haha. So for scale, those are 5-year-old's hands, not adult hands.

I am still having Blossom End Rot problems, but the Earthbox forum recommends one cup hydrated lime in one gallon of water. My suspicion is that my local hardware store will have the lime. Any thoughts? I did add the dolomite that came with the earthbox kit when I put in the potting soil.

I have also been trying to keep the reservoir more consistently full. Thirsty tomatoes!

Cheers, Jen

Jen, I am almost positive that is much too much lime - I think it's 1/4 cup they recommend. Also, I don't think it will help.

BER is common. It happens in ground, too. It's a billion dollar problem for the farming industry and adding lime doesn't help them.

It's a problem with calcium distribution - the plant is not getting it to the tomato at the right time. This can be caused by many, many things. The only ones we can control are feeding it the right nutrients (which you did when you set up your EB) and consistent watering (which your EB controls). Other than that, certain varieties seem to be more prone for some reason, so you could grow ones that seem to have less problems with it. It usually only hits early on and then stops.

Adding the lime can cause other problems, besides. You can throw everything out of whack.

I understand how hard it is to sit it out. I've never had a major problem with it in my EBs or in ground until this year. I've done everything right to prevent it. One of my plants in the EB, a Black Prince, has 25 tomatoes growing, none with BER. The one next to it? It's a Momotaro and I've already pinched 10 off with it, it looks like 3 more are going to have it, and only about 6 or 7 seem OK. I don't like that! But, I don't think the amount of calcium in the box is the issue, or the Black Prince would be suffering. In the other EB, same ferts, same set up, I have a Honey Bunch Grape. It has over 100 tomatoes on it, I've picked about ten so far, and only 2 fruits on the whole plant have had BER.

ViewsAskew wrote:Jen, I am almost positive that is much too much lime - I think it's 1/4 cup they recommend. Also, I don't think it will help...

ViewsAskew, thank you for the perspective. I will probably not add lime because I don't have time to find any! Moreover, I agree that the cure may be worse than the disease. Putting on my plant biologist hat, I found that current plant biology research agrees with you-- there is an interesting review article from the Annals of Botany (Ho and White, 2005, A Cellular Hypothesis for the Induction of Blossom-End Rot in Tomato Fruit). From the abstract: "It is suggested that current horticultural practices, such as the manipulation of the mineral composition of the feed or the growth environment, are not completely effective in reducing BER because they affect apoplastic Ca concentration in fruit tissue indirectly. Therefore, spraying Ca directly onto young fruits is recommended for the prevention of BER." The idea being that the important Calcium concentration is in the fruit itself. The review is free online, so I will give it a read (http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/95/4/571).

I may try spraying on some Ca-- I have a small amount of calcium supplement I use for my iguanas. Might be interesting-- I don't have enough fruits to do a controlled study, but it might at least make me feel like I'm doing something.

Speaking of varieties resistant to BER, do you save seeds from your tomatoes? I need to find a new heirloom-- I'm not sure I want to grow Brandywines again, this BER is such a bummer.

Cheers, Jen

BER is a bummer and I've had my fair share. As you've read BER happens either with wide variations in watering and possibly a calcium deficiency. Once the fruit is affected, it needs to be picked and discarded. Last year, I tried the lime/water mix and felt it worked but I didn't use it this year (garden lime can be found in the lawn section of many hardware stores - usually for about $5 per 20 lbs).

I've found that BER often happens with early fruits and the later fruits are typically fine. However, this year, I've noticed that my Kellogg's Breakfast plants lost a high percentage of overall fruits to BER. Cherokee Purple is always hit or miss and the San Marzanos (plum variety) were affected as well. After doing some research, I've found that plum tomatoes can often be a victim of BER. My first fruits had BER but since picking those off, I've been fine. The Cherokee Purple, again is hit or miss as well as the Kellogg's Breakfast but both seem to be rebounding nicely.

Keep in mind that hybrid varieties have been developed to not only have higher yields but also have a resistance to various diseases. Heirlooms are more difficult to grow but some claim the taste is sometimes better (including me). You also have to keep in mind that some varieties work better in different climates. It really can be a balancing act.

For an EB or similar planter, I would highly recommend the Stupice heirloom. It's similar to an Early Girl hybrid but I think the taste is much better. Although the fruits are smaller - bigger than a golf ball, smaller than a tennis ball - they grow in clusters and do well in our climate and is an early producer. So far this season, I've grown two plants in an Earthbox and have picked about 7 1/2 lbs of Stupice tomatoes. This week, they're really producing and yesterday I picked about 10 tomatoes which are great for salads, sandwiches, etc. Now, they don't taste as good as the Cherokee Purple but I always have some on hand and some is better than waiting for those 2-3 big tomatoes to ripen on the vine. I'll also recommend the Black Cherry heirloom (cherry variety). This is by far, the best tasting cherry tomato I've ever had and the production has been good as well. They taste like mini Cherokee Purples, deep tomato flavor while maintaining a nice sweetness. The plants grow well here and although it's my first year growing them, I was pointed to them by other roof growers in Chicago that have grown them in the past. One note though, mine are over six feet tall already with no signs of stopping so you'll have to cage/trellis accordingly.

I hope this helps a little. I know its frustrating but it's been a difficult gardening year. Cool temps into summer doesn't help our tomatoes and everyone's garden seems to have been affected in some way. Keep sharing your progress, all info helps. Thanks.

Here's a snap shot of my harvest from yesterday and this morning. You'll see some of those Stupice tomatoes, along with Black Cherry and San Marzano - it's funny, one of the San Marzano plants produces tiny tomatoes and the other is producing the normal size. Also here is the Romanesco zucchini, some Red Swan and Empress stringless bush beans, some Santa Fe peppers and some Chocolate Sweet peppers. There's some herbs as well - basil, thai basil, sage that are going to a friend. Hopefully, you can get a perspective of scale with an 8" chef's knife on the side.



Garden

I had a very nice harvest of a dozen cherry tomatoes last Sunday with another dozen or so still on the vine in various stages of ripening. These are being grown in a pot right outside my kitchen door. Wednesday afternoon I looked out in time to see a chipmunk standing in the freshly sprayed jalapeno powder, munching as fast as his hands could grab the remaining tomatoes. So much for the jalapeno theory. He picked clean the plant. So far he has left the Big Boys alone.