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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 28, 2021 15:56:28 GMT -6
In my mind, tomato blossom end rot was always caused by too much water and poor calcium uptake. So, whenever that has occurred in the past, I've treated it with Agricultural Lime, thinking that would solve my problem in the short-term, then keep the thought in the back of my head that I'd need to add pelletized Lime as an amendment come Winter.
This week. I've come upon a situation that I've never seen before. I have one plant out of twenty-six plants that is exhibiting chronic blossom end rot. Probably over half the fruit on that vine have been discarded because of it, but none of the other plants are showing any sign of disease or stress.
I have a garden that is just slightly over a quarter acre in size. In 2019, I had a soil test done and found that it was low in pH, (in the 5.4 range) good for growing blueberries, but not so much for tomatoes. I followed my County Agent's recommendation and amended my garden with 800 pounds of pelletized Lime, then again, in 2021, and I still had a low pH, so I amended with another 400 pounds of pelletized Lime. That's 1,200 pounds of Lime applied over a two-year period and I still have an occurrence of blossom end rot, but only on a single plant, which leads me to ponder if the tendency toward blossom end rot might be a genetic factor on this one plant, being how none of the others seem to be affected?
Just something to think about ...
Here is a really good document from the University of Michigan addressing questions about soil acidity and Lime:
www.canr.msu.edu/resources/facts_about_soil_acidity_and_lime_e1566
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jun 28, 2021 21:01:01 GMT -6
I don’t have the experience and expertise that you have in these mattters, and I haven’t grown but a small fraction of the tomatoes that you have, but I do a lot of reading to try to learn. Over on the Tomatoville forum where I read but don’t post, people seem to agree that paste and plum shaped tomatoes are more likely to have blossom end rot than others. I certainly don’t know what genes or other factors may be involved in that.
I noticed my son’s Heidi had rot on one of the little green tomatoes tonight. It’s in a container, and it’s hard to be consistent in keeping that watered evenly. It’s kind of a dry/soak situation even with an olla buried in the pot to try to maintain moisture. In that case, I’m assuming it’s the hardship of being in a container that is causing the problem rather than the genes of the variety.
What variety is your one plant?
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 29, 2021 3:00:35 GMT -6
I can't say that I don't have a lot of experience, but I wouldn't go so far as to say 'Expertise'. I'm just learning as I go along like everyone else. The afflicted plant is some sort of a flat-lobed, beefsteak-type tomato. I'm not sure of the variety specifically. It's one I've picked up in trade at a seed saver meeting back in March or April. It's in a concrete reinforcement wire cage and is about 4 and a half feet tall right now. It's covered in green tomatoes a little larger than golf ball size right now, but about half of them have been pulled off due to blossom end rot.
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Post by macmex on Jul 2, 2021 8:49:54 GMT -6
In my experience most ribbed beefsteaks are more susceptible to Oklahoma extremes in weather. Bet it's just the variety.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 4, 2021 19:47:45 GMT -6
We solved the blossom end rot problem this afternoon by frying up a batch of green tomatoes. It's always tough for me to pull green tomatoes for frying, knowing they'll be ripe tomatoes if I leave them alone. The blossom end rot took care of that dilemma for me.
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Post by theozarkan on Jul 5, 2021 14:14:16 GMT -6
I usually don't have much problem with it. One year I had one cluster on one plant that had it. All the rest above and below it were okay but one bunch got blossom end rot. Talk about a head scratcher.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jul 14, 2021 14:14:56 GMT -6
Does anyone have any idea what is causing small discolored tomatoes on some of my plants? It’s happening on the Thessaloniki variety which usually has round red tomatoes, not large but usually bigger than what’s pictured here. We had tons of rain last week, and I’ve had splitting on other varieties. These just seem to have stalled and look odd to me. I would think heat stress, but it has been mostly in the eighties, and there have been more clouds than usual. The plants themselves look healthy. I picked these this morning and brought them in to see if they would ripen normally. I just wondered if anyone had any insight about it.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 14, 2021 18:45:11 GMT -6
Hmm, I've had that happen here before but don't know what causes it. Mine would have little white or green spots inside that looked to be unripe when harvested.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 4, 2021 21:41:12 GMT -6
Has anyone ever encountered a store-bought tomato that had sprouted seeds inside it when first cut open?
This has never happened to me with homegrown tomatoes, but I've encountered it several times with store-bought tomatoes. Does anyone have any idea what causes this phenomenon?Pardon the wilty look. I meant to get photos earlier in the day, but I was too busy smoking Christmas ham and baking pies today and forgot about the tomato until almost bed time.
Since it was dark by the time I thought about taking a photo, the poor lighting in my kitchen was not able to do this justice.
Being how all green portions of a tomato plant are considered slightly poisonous, due to them being in the nightshade family, I'd say that eating one of these sprouted slices would not be good for a person?
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Post by macmex on Dec 5, 2021 6:13:51 GMT -6
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 5, 2021 19:33:48 GMT -6
Thanks for that post George. 'Vivipary' is now a new word in my vocabulary.
The only other fruit I've seen this happen to is a pumpkin. It was one that I had stored all winter long though. It was time for it to sprout seeds, but sprouted seeds in a store-bought tomato seems an enigma and counterintuitive to me. Sprouting out of season seems like a poor plan for passing on one's genes.
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Post by john on Dec 10, 2021 8:20:58 GMT -6
Great thread, I have found tomatoes from the store with sprouted seeds in them. Too me that was incredibly off putting. Like the cherry on top. The store bought tomatoes already don't taste so great... but then you go and see sprouted seeds inside your tomato. Uggggh! Blossom end rot is definitely a complicated thing I grow over 100 tomato plants every year and I have had a chance to observe and learn about BER. It isn't as easy to solve as simply adding calcium like many garden books will stipulate. My thoughts and observations are as follows; 1. Like George says certain varieties are more prone to it. In my opinion the biggest factor is what Bon mentioned. Watering. If the plant is under drought stress at certain stages in fruit development tomatoes can be more likely to get blossom end rot. I have had years where many of the early fruits succomb to BER, but then once things get going a little things turn around and the harvest can begin. I have also observed that tomatoes grown in pots are much more likely to get BER. It is very difficult to keep sufficient soil moisture in a pot especially when the pot has a huge plant growing out of it. Organic mulches do help quite a bit to keep the soil moisture level stable. I highly recomend a thick layer of hay or (pretty much anything organic). This would be especially important in Oklahoma where the sun is so bright and hot. The grower may not even be aware that his plants are under stress, as the leaves don't have to wilt to trigger BER. My pH is on the low side like yours Ron. I have to fight to get it to 6. Once it is at 6 or better I am happy with it.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 12, 2022 18:50:45 GMT -6
Does anyone remember where George posted about herbicide contamination to tomato plants, through the use of hay that had been used to mulch his tomato plants?
I know I also posted about the loss of several flats of tomato seedlings due to herbicide contamination of topsoil used to fill my seed trays. The topsoil was purchased at Atwoods. That was so many years ago that neither of us remembers if we posted that information on the Green Country Seed Savers website or the Homesteading edu. website. The homesteading edu. website no longer exists.
I'm trying to document cases of herbicide contamination through the vectors of using hay as mulch, and through using cow manure as fertilizer, or using commercial topsoil after weeds were sprayed on their stockpiles before the topsoil was loaded into the bagging hoppers.
Anyone experiencing similar difficulties should post that information below. I'm trying to make our State Agriculture Department, and the USDA aware of this, but they don't seem to think it is a widespread problem.
These are photos of okra plants contaminated by use of cow manure as fertilizer.
I've lost several hundred plants to this lately.
The leaves show deformation as soon as they appear from germination. I've also had several tomato plants affected by this, but I didn't get photos before they perished during the drought and heatwave in July.
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Post by hmoosek on Aug 12, 2022 20:24:58 GMT -6
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Post by woodeye on Aug 12, 2022 23:56:03 GMT -6
heavyhitterokra Wow, so sorry to see this! That is heartbreaking...
hmoosek I betcha that is the one. I just read that thread a few weeks ago, just now re-read it. I would say you did a good job of sleuthing, moose...
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