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Gardening: Rotten bottoms
(DenisProduction.com / stock.adobe.com)
By Clarence Schmidt
RottenTomatoes.com reviews and rates movies and shows using it Tomatometer.
A "red tomato" means a positive review and a "green splat tomato" signifies a rotten one.
Back in my days, the audience expressed dissatisfaction by throwing things at the movie screens. The weapon of choice was an inedible tomato, often thrown with a high degree of accuracy. Some of my friends went on to become semi-pro pitchers.
Clarence Schmidt
But as the saying goes, "the older you get, the better you were." Today, I couldn't make the cut for a Little League team.
Well-grounded horticulturists graphically call it blossom end rot. "Rotten bottoms" would have sufficed.
Blossom-end rot (BER) is a common problem with tomatoes. To a lesser extent, it also appears on bell peppers, cucumbers, eggplants, melons and summer squash. This article focuses on tomatoes.
BER appears as a sunken, bruised and gross looking splotch on the fruit. That unsightly spot enlarges, turns brown, begins to rot and becomes even more gross.
The damage appears when fruits are still green and half their full size. There's no need for insecticides or fungicides. Keep the plant, but discard the fruit. It does not spread to other plants. However, nearby plants might be affected since they share similar growing conditions.
The usual causes: Too hot. Too cold. Too wet. Too dry.
Blossom-end rot is treatable and preventable. It's not a disease. It's a physiological disorder caused by a plant's inability to absorb enough calcium through its roots.
It's also possible that calcium is absorbed through the roots, but settles in only one small section of the plant. So, the rot can still occur even if there is some calcium in the stems or leaves. Tomatoes need a continuous supply of calcium to prevent the rot.
Insufficient watering is the cause 80 percent of the time. Calcium only moves into the plant when there's ample moisture. If you forget to water, do not overwater. Stick to your original schedule.
Tomatoes need roughly an inch of water per week. Water at ground level, not over the plant. Maintain consistent soil moisture to a depth of 6 inches.
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Weeding and digging around your plants could damage the roots and interfere with nutrient uptake.
An excess of nitrogen, magnesium and potassium in the soil causes the plant to grow faster than the calcium can move throughout the plant. As needed, use a fertilizer high in phosphorous (e.g., 4-12-4).
Check your soil using a pH meter. For tomatoes, the pH should be 6.5 to 6.8 (slightly acidic) for the best results.
If a soil test determines it's needed, work in some lime (contains calcium) into the top 6 inches of soil.
You can also use a foliar spray that contains a kelp or calcium solution every 2 weeks to help the leaves absorb calcium.
Mulch with a 3-inch or more layer of straw, grass clippings, peat moss or wood chips to conserve soil moisture.
Apply aged (not fresh) manure or compost. Tomatoes have huge appetites.
BER happens more frequently in container-grown plants since the soil is susceptible to fluctuations in moisture.
If you're using store-bought soil, it may have enough calcium in it already. However, if you're growing in older soil, calcium levels may be depleted. If so, add bonemeal, gypsum or lime.
The number of "remedies" I've heard equals the number of tomato varieties, or about 10,000. They include rice hulls, calcium tablets, milk, fish parts and antacid tablets. For me, this is a typical breakfast.
Other "fixes" that are out there include soil conditioner, powdered and non-fat milk, coffee mate and crushed oyster shells.
According to the North Dakota State University Agriculture and Extension, "Epsom salt doesn't stop blossom end rot — it leads to more of it … It contains no calcium at all."
While egg shells are a good source of calcium, you may want to save them for the compost pile where they'll break down a lot faster.
Dr. William Albrecht, professor at the University of Missouri, found that "most soils have enough calcium, but need a release agent to free the calcium. That would be boron, found in 20 Mule Team Borax."
San Marzano, Orange Banana and Better Boy are tomato varieties that are prone to BER. Some resistant tomato varieties: Blue Beauty, Stupice, Glacier, Black Cherry and Mortgage Lifter.
According to a University of Illinois study (ipm.illinois.edu/diseases) these varieties "have a low incidence of blossom end rot: Celebrity, Fresh Pack, Jet Star, Manapal, Mountain Pride, Pik Red, Sunny and Winter."
Of course, everyone knows that the best way to fix a tomato is with tomato paste. On the Tomatometer, that lame attempt at humor deserved a splat.
Schmidt is a Poway resident with over 40 years of gardening experience.
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