Comments on: Your Questions Answered: Black Bottomed Tomatoes

By: Mel

Mel — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:27:07 +0000

Glad to share the goofiness! :)

By: Gayla

Gayla — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:36:52 +0000

Jennifer: Remove them. They will grow a bit but the rot will spread. Better to allow the plant to put that energy into healthy fruit.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:34:04 +0000

One quick question: is it better in terms of potential future good-fruit production to pull off the BBMs (black-bottomed maters!) when the end rot first appears or let them go all the way, so to speak?

I have been pulling mine off, because they’re so sad to look at, and bc there’s no point letting them ripen all the way. Will this damage the plant in some way?

Tks!

By: Gayla

Gayla — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:12:50 +0000

Mel: Cracked me up! Not wrong, excellent.

By: Mel

Mel — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:17:48 +0000

Is it wrong that when I read this, I sang, “Black Bottomed Maters make this rocking world go round!”?
Yes?

Right.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:21:15 +0000

Gack! Thanks for a VERY timely article.

This never happened to me before except for a volunteer tomato growing in a blighted bed last year… but this year, it’s everywhere; all my full-sized tomatoes in containers are affected (not in the ground, or the cherries)!

I’m worried that I mixed in a lot of worm castings and I have tremendous gorgeous foliage… and the thickest, sturdiest trunks you could imagine. It may also have been because of all the rain we had this spring.0

Anyway, I thought the jumbo size of the plants would bode well for the quality of the fruit, so imagine my horror to discover the ends rotting today… :-(((

Will attempt to water consistently and also spray kelp meal liquid directly on the blossoms.

By: Ginger

Ginger — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:38:34 +0000

I have eliminated this problem with my tomato plants by being extremely consistent about watering. Also watering deeply, at the base of the plant only (not touching the leaves) has just about eliminated the spread of blight.

By: Joanne

Joanne — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 01:38:14 +0000

I’ve heard that planting the seedlings deep, well up to the first set of leaves, helps promote a healthy root system better able to get water. Since I’ve done so, there’s been very little blossom end rot.

By: The Garden Monkey

The Garden Monkey — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:31:23 +0000

Blossom end rot, is caused by a lack of Calcium, itself due to lack of water.

Basically it is too hot for the plant and rapid transpiration means it canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t get enough water (containing Calcium) up from it roots. Covering with fleece will help. It will reduce water loss and also growth – the later will make the fruit tastier.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:11:07 +0000

I’m so glad this got posted – I’ve been having a similar problem with my yellow squash. I assume the same goes for other plants, not just tomatoes? I water regularly (and we’ve had a wonderfully wet spring) and my dirt has been gardened well and is nice and black. (All my tomatoes and other plants are just loving it.) The plants are growing so well – the leaves and blossoms are nice and big, but the weird thing is that I’ve already harvested 3 *huge* and delicious squash, the rotting black ones show up randomly. Any suggestions for something like this?

Thanks a bushel!
Amanda