hi brian,

what kind of fertilizer are you useing and at what strenght
are you applying it and how offen ?, regards.

les

Hi Brian. Well, if you've overfertilized then no sense adding more such as blood meal, bone meal, whatever. Since nitrogen is quite mobile in the soil you can reduce it by a single heavy watering to flood it away. Blossom end rot happens when watering is inconsistent and calcium delivery in the plant becomes insufficient. Usually it goes away after the plant matures more. Hang in there and get the soil nice and healthy and you'll soon become pleased with the results. Best of luck.

Agree that adding more of anything will only complicate the process at this point. Besides the various meals and shells are VERY slow acting.

Plants will adapt with time. They always do. ;) And BER disappears all on its own as the plant matures. A good flush of the soil may help as long as you don't overdo it. Personally I wouldn't as it can also be an additional source of stress for them so I'd strive for just maintaining consistent soil moisture levels - not too much or too little.

Dave

> hi brian,
> what kind of fertilizer are you useing and at what strenght
> are you applying it and how offen ?, regards.

> les

Hi Les,

I put one bag of manure and one bag of commercial garden topsoil in each 4X4 raised bed. After about a month I added Espoma garden fertilizer according to the directions. I did the same last year.

> Blossom end rot happens when watering is inconsistent and
> calcium delivery in the plant becomes insufficient.

Thank you, this was very helpful! It raises a follow-up question, though: what is consistent watering? I've been watering about three times per week (for about 20 minutes). Should I do it every morning instead? Every other day?

Thank you!

Brian

,bbyer,

As a general rule, tomatoes need an inch of water every week. An inch of rain is exactly that, water that is one inch deep. One inch of rainfall equals 4.7 gallons of water per square yard. Cool weather will be less, hot weather more.

Dig down with your finger about 4", is the soil wet, dry, or just right? If it is wet, don't water, if dry then water. If it is just right, check again the next day. Water deeply once or twice a week. Watering daily encourages shallow roots which means the plant is affected more by variations in soil moisture. In my garden during the heat of the summer, I water deeply every 4-5 days, early spring I may only water every 8-9 days and when the weather is moderatly warm (70-80°), about once a week.

Mulching heavily helps maintain a consistent moisture level.

Hope that helps.

Betsy

I realize we live in different worlds, but I will tell you that growing toms in pots is trickier than growing them in the ground... where enhanced roots stabilize the plant and encourage drought tolerance. My rule is to water a potted plant only enough to avert tip-droop.

I've never cured BER so I claim no expertise in that; but I suspect that overwatering is the simplest culprit, in my environment.

One more thing. You don't have to throw mildly-tainted fruit away. BER fruit will ripen sooner than normal fruit, and it is sweet fruit to eat, too. Obviously, the disgusting rot should be cut away with clear margins.

my tomatoes plant start drying out and all the leaves dried and burned crispy, I just fertilized them couple a days ago. how can I save them?

Can you post few pictures ? Like they say a picture can say thousand words.
What you have described in your first paragraph, does not necessarily equal to over supply of Nitrogen in case of tomatoes. And about peppers it needs more info. Peppers have some what different fertilizing needs and perhaps less than what tomatoes require and also they need more balanced fertilizer.

You wrote:
"""I put one bag of manure and one bag of commercial garden topsoil in each 4X4 raised bed. After about a month I added Espoma garden fertilizer according to the directions. I did the same last year. """

I am not familiar with the analysis of ESPOMA and don't know how much did you apply BUT a bag (1 cu-ft ?) of manure mixed in in a 4'x4' bed is not going to cause over fertilizing.

With regard to BER: Can you tell us what varieties are being affected ? I would pitch any and every single one as soon as I find them. Luckily it is an early season problem. I use dolomitic lime as Calcium source also use MG Shake n Feed which also has Calcium and Magnesium. I believe eggshell is a myth. Your tomatoes will be gone way before eggshells break down and converted into Ca++ ions.

my tomatoes plant start drying out and all the leaves dried and burned crispy, I just fertilized them couple a days ago. how can I save them?

Kasey - rather than tacking on a new question to a 4 year old post about different issues could you start a new post please with your questions?

It is less confusing to the readers and you'll get better information related to your situation that way. Plus the answers will get emailed to you rather than to the OP that posted this 4 years ago.

Thanks.

Dave