Yes, that is it! Watch your watering schedule and make sure your fert contains some calcium.

Thanks. FWIW I put ground eggshells in my planting holes when I planted my tomatoes, even though I have read on the forums that it won't do much for BER this year. I figured at the very least it would be good for the multitude of worms that inhabit my veggie garden. For fertilizer, I applied a load of well-aged cow manure to the top of the bed before planting.

It is caused by inconsistent soil moisture levels and/or excess nitrogen fertilizers.

Here is a link that might be useful: BER FAQ

There was some good info on this subject in Organic Gardening Forum last time I visited there.

From an article I wrote a few years ago.

$$$$$$$$

Blossom End Rot (BER) is one of the most common tomato problems seen in the early part of the season. It is a physiological condition, not a disease caused by a fungus or a bacterium or a virus. Therefore it cannot be treated.

And as I'll explain below, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to
prevent. BER has nothing to do with the blossoms, it refers to the fact that at the end of the tomato opposite the place where the tomato is attached to the stem, called the stem end, is the bottom of the tomato, which is called the blossom end. You often can see remnants of the blossom attached to that end as the tomato forms. At the blossom end one sees a flattened area that looks
leathery and initially brown and then black, as the fruit rots.

BER is said to occur when there is uneven watering, drought, heavy rainfall, excessive nitrogen fertilization, rapid plant growth or root pruning during cultivation, high winds and rapid temperature changes. So lots of conditions have been associated with BER. But the rapid plant growth and nitrogen fertilization are both common to conditions seen early in the season, and indeed, that is when most BER occurs. Then it usually just goes away.

BER occurs because under the conditions just stated, Ca++ moves from the fruit into the vasculature (stems) of the plant. Or, some feel that Ca++ never reaches the fruits becasue under stress demand for Ca++ exceeds supply.This lowered amount of Ca++ is what causes BER. Excessive rates of transpiration (kind of like sweating in humans) also is involved in Ca++ displacement. Thus, the plant as a whole is NOT Ca++ deficient, the Ca++ has just been displaced.

Many books and magazine articles tell you that by adding Ca++ in the form of lime or eggshells, for instance, that you can prevent BER. That does NOT appear to be true. It was several years ago that I found out that University field trial experiments have so far failed to show that BER can be prevented by addition
of Ca++. I recently e-mailed my friend at Cornell who told me all this two years ago, to again confirm that it was still true, and will update you, if necessary. Peppers and many cole crops are also susceptible to BER and there's quite a bit of literature on BER and Ca++ for those crops also. The results are the same; addition of Ca++ does not prevent BER.

Some data strongly suggests that foliar spraying with Ca++ is of no use because not enough gets to the fruits to do any good. And it's known that the sprays for fruits that are sold are usless. No molecules can get across the fruit epidermis. If they did, just what do you think would happen to the fruits when it rained.LOL

Not all varieties of tomatoes get BER. Some never do, others are horrible. That's not surprising since certainly there are slight physiological differences between varieties. After all, almost all garden tomatoes, with the exception of the currant tomatoes are in the same genus and species, Lycopersicon lycopersicum. And we humans are all in the same species, Homo sapiens, var. sapiens...and look how different some of our physiologies are.
Whoa!

So, BER is a physiological condition, cannot be cured, and current
literature data suggests it cannot be prevented. It occurs on some, but not all varieties of tomatoes, is usually seen early in the season and then stops, for most folks. It would be nice to say that you could even out your watering, prevent droughts and heavy rainfalls, ensure even and not rapid growth of plants and not disturb the roots by shallow cultivating. But on a practical basis, I think we all know that's almost impossible. So, BER has never bothered me, I just ignore it, and it goes away with time.

Adding Ca++ to soils that are Ca++ deficient makes sense, but few soils are. And if soils are acidic, Ca++ is not taken up well but addition of Epsom Salts to the soil can aid in Ca++ uptake in such acidic soils.

Many folks add Ca++ and then see that BER disappears. What they fail to realize is that BER is going to go away anyway, as the season progresses. And that's becasue as the plants get larger they are better able to handle the many stresses that can induce it. So one cannot correlate addition of Ca++ to disappearance of BER. Universities have done so many stidies on this already
becasue BER is a billion dollar problem in the commercial veggie industry.

Of all the stresses that can induce BER thetwo that are most under control of the home gardener are fertilization and water delivery.

That is, too much fertilizer causes plants to grow too rapidly and is perhaps one of the major causes of BER developing. Too rich soils do the same thing. Plant growth simply outstrips the ability of Ca++ to get to the fruits.

Mulching to help ensure even delivery of water also can be done and is also one of the two major causes, IMHO, of BER.

BER appears usually on half ripe fruits but also can appear on grass green ones.Lack of Ca++ only occurs at the blossom end of the fruit and it causes tissue destruction which leads to that papery greyish/blackish lesion appearing.Now sometimes that lesion opens up and fungi and bacteria enter and that causes the rotting and also the appearance of fungal growth on and in the lesion.

Just pick off any BER fruits that appear and soon the next fruits to ripen will BERless.

Many books, magazine articles and websites still say to add Ca++ as lime, eggshells, etc, and seem not to be aware of all the research that has been done in the last 20 years. But many books, magazine articles, are now sharing this newer information about addition of Ca++ not being able to either prevent or cure BER except in rare situations of low Ca++ soils or acidic soils.

I suppose it will take another generation for the right information to be present everywhere. And from my own experience i can tell you that there will be folks who will get madder than can be when they read this kind of info becasue they simply believe otherwise. So be it. LOL Addition of modest amounts of Ca++ aren' t harmful, but I feel strongly that folks should know what's going on with past and current rsearch re BER and Ca++.

Hope the above helps.

Carolyn

Thanks for all the useful links folks.

Thanks Carolyn for all that info. and for working hard to spread the truth about BER.

My Roma were badly infected with BER last year and I was so disappointed that I ripped both plants out. Should have had more patience!

Linda

Hi Carolyn, I am glad to read your post as I have been ripping my hair out with BER on my Cuor Di Bue plants and a few on Bloody Butcher, and on a dwarf, Tasmanian chocolate. I would say that I am probably guilty of over fertilizing. What's interesting is that on one plant there are some large fruits that are BERless and yet some of the newer, small ones are getting BER. So I am going to be mindful of the over fertilizing and it's true, it's very hard to regulate all the conditions home gardeners have to balance, especially container growing.
Now I am going to hopefully better manage the fertilizers. Maybe my hair will grow back, LOL!

Thanks for all the posts particularly Carolyn. I pulled 3 tomatoes the other day that had BER and it is good to know what to expect.

My experience with BER has been exactly what Carolyn described; generally no matter how much of it there is occurring early, the plant eventually gets over it as the season progresses. Yes, it is heartbreaking when those first fruits you've been so proud of finally start to get their growth groove on and BAM, the BER shows up. And for people like myself and Carolyn who have a short growing season anyway, it's really annoying because you want every tomato you can harvest. But I take the BER fruits off the minute I see it forming. It may be that your entire first wave of fruits develops it. Patience and perseverance are key. Don't throw out the entire plant only because of BER, then you've really wasted your time and money. If the plant has other problems, perhaps, but don't let BER alone be the reason you do.

yeah I got the same problem.....2 things happened this year that never happened in other years.....1. excessive rain and 2. I started using compost tea.....the recipe I used had bird guano in it so I think I may have given them an overdose of nitrogen

It's true, the BER will correct itself. I'm still finding the occasional one on the CDB, but it almost stopped. I think the plants just grew too fast and couldn't take in the calcium properly. I probably over fertilized although in containers you flush out nutrients with frequent watering. It's been a different growing season...

I found those three tomatoes out of 15 plants and have not seen any since. One with maybe a dime size of it on the bottom but it almost ready to pick so I left it on. It is nice to know BER is not something like a disease that will spread.

These gardening forums are pretty helpful for beginners like me to get some help from the veterans.

I have had two varieties with pretty heavy BER this year, and surprisingly, NOT my San Marzano's. Now I just need to find my garden diagram so I can figure out WHICH two varieties they are!!!!

CH

Ha ha! My garden diagram is posted on the fridge so it's easy to find!

My Rosé de Berne plants are still producing the odd tomato with BER, while everything else is clear. Naturally, I grew three of the Rosé de Berne variety and only one of everything else - sigh!

Linda

Interesting stuff.

One thing which occurs to me is that if you reduce the number of toms on the plant then it will have 'less mouths to feed' with Ca+. I assume people remove the affected fruits on the plant and so this is why it recovers, less mouths to feed?
Of course it may be developing new fruits at the same time but then I guess the root (and plant) is also developing so there calcium per tomato available.
I am a beginner and I left the bad fruit on last year unfortunately, then some other disease went right through all the plants, possibly aided by the bad fruit?
Anyhow I will be removing affect fruit asap this year.

I am getting to be of the opinion that I am making a rod for my own back adding fertiliser and water, who did this when they grew in the wild?

I look at the big creeper in the front garden (which is a battle to *stop* it growing) and the (some sort of inedible) cherry tree which produces bucket loads of fruits without any intervention from me, no fertiliser, no water and wonder sometime if I should just leave the plants to their own devices!!

They have had million of years of experience at successfully producing fruit unaided, I have had a couple of fairly disastrous years, watering fertilising and pruning, Sometimes I think the plant would be better off without my 'help' lol.

Even with watering you may be preventing the plant developing a large enough root system because some idiot (yep that is me) dumps a pile of water right at the base of the plant every day. Then when it comes to fruiting that small lazy roots system may not be enough to suck up enough calcium?

So maybe a pampered small root system can suck up the piles of water you throw at it, but taking up calcium may be trickier business requiring a much bigger/wider/deeper system, a system which failed to develop because water was too easy to find???

Bit late for me to change mid season I guess, but maybe next year I will leave some plants to their own devices and see how they get on?

Trouble is I probably will not have the heart to do this or will just water them on 'auto-pilot'.

Anyhow my plants are relatively trouble free so far this year, but that means little as it was in September when all hell broke loose last year!!!

Picture is of a big plum tomato I found recently hidden in dense tomato undergrowth which was hard to get to hence not as much water as the rest, but it looks the biggest tomato I have so far!!! Kind of proves my point in a way???

Looks a darker lusher green suggesting is near the ripening stage perhaps??

esbo, you should definitely not water your plants every day. I have watered once this year, and granted we have gotten a lot of rain, but I like to let them almost wilt before watering again, especially early on so they will throw those roots out far and wide in search of more water and nutrients.

I think the general rule of thumb for a good balance of top growth and root growth is to water deeply once per week, unless you are in the middle of an exceptionally hot spell of 90 degrees plus for an extended period of time, then increase it to 2 times per week until the temperature comes back down.

CH

CH, it was during a recent heat wave here that I watered every day, I probably watered quite a bit a part from that but not a lot of water as I am watering with a can, I noticed some of the bigger ones were wilting at the top.
It was mainly stuff in pots that was watered every day when wilted.

The weather has got milder now so I will not be watering as much, however I will not be changing too much what I have been doing now, will give each plant a little in the evening.
Suddenly starving them of water now might not be a great idea, but they never got huge amounts as I only use waste water not from the tap.

delete me!!

This post was edited by esbo on Wed, Aug 7, 13 at 13:49

delete me

This post was edited by esbo on Wed, Aug 7, 13 at 13:50

CH,

it was during a recent heat wave here that I watered every day, I probably watered quite a bit a part from that but not a lot of water as I am watering with a can, I noticed some of the bigger ones were wilting at the top.
It was mainly stuff in pots that was watered every day when wilted.

The weather has got milder now so I will not be watering as much, however I will not be changing too much what I have been doing now, will give each plant a little in the evening.
Suddenly starving them of water now might not be a great idea, but they never got huge amounts as I only use waste water not from the tap.

delete me

This post was edited by esbo on Wed, Aug 7, 13 at 13:51

delete me

This post was edited by esbo on Wed, Aug 7, 13 at 13:52

lol I was getting error messages whilst post hence lots of repeat posts, not sure if the error has gone.

Well it seems the problem is still there, something about asking if you want to save a .cgi file.

Seems I can't delete the extra posts either only edit.

LATEST SECRET to prevent BER !*/&^??:)D

I have read this recently that POSSIBLY magnesium (Epsom Salt) can help tomato plant to uptake Calcium.

But to veryfy this one has to do it early in the season, just before transplanting. Say, take two spots with Epsom salt, two spots without. Plant your worst BER friendly tomatoes in there (like Roma !!) and collect data.

To me, it has to do something with the soil pH/chemistry. Some varieties have a very narrow tolerance range. Then when the soil temperature may also play a role. Isn't that why BER stops after a while ?

I thing the Epsom salt therapy is worth experimenting and it has no bad side effects on the plants and the gardener. hehe

I mentioned Epsom Salts in my long post earlier in this thread.

It's of use only if the soil is too acidic to allow for uptake of soil Ca++ b/c it raises the pH.

But again,getting Ca++ into the plant does not ensure that BER will not occur b'c of all the other variables I also mentioned in that post,such as all thestresses that plants have to deal with and which can cause maldistribution within theplant.

Leaf transpiration is also an issue and that's related to ambient temps and humidity.

So yes,there are two reasons that no Ca++ is available to the plant,one is that the soil is too acidic,and the other oneis where there is no Ca++ in the soil.

And both conditions are quite rare indeed.

And getting Ca++ into the plant does not ensure that BER will not appear.

Carolyn