I'm a new gardener (this is my second season). I seemed to have over fertilized my two 4X4 raised bed gardens. Most of my tomatoes have blossom end rot, and the peppers are lush and beautiful ... but very few flowers (and no peppers at all yet).

Is there anything I can do to salvage this growing season? Will bone or blood meal help, or is that something I should do for next year. How about egg shells? I've already sprayed the plants with a foliar applications of calcium, but I read on this forum that this may not be all that helpful.

Any suggestions to keep a struggling newbie from becoming totally discouraged???

I'm in central New Jersey.

Many thanks!

Brian

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

les

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

> 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.

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

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'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.

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.

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