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General discussion regarding the techniques and methods used to successfully grow tomato plants in containers.

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Old April 3, 2013   #16
MikeInCypress
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I grow most of my 50 to 60 plants in 5 gal and under pots, self watering containers, and home made earthtainers. In my experience, the prime cause of BER is irregular watering and drought stress. Paste tomatoes always have some BER for me. Salad and large varieties may have BER early in the season but then it goes away. I've added Dolomitic Limestone this year to my new potting mix for the new containers and the supplement for the existing containers. We will see if this helps.

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Old April 21, 2013   #17
Elliot
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Quote:
Originally Posted by swinefka View Post
Last year I grew tomatoes in a 5 gallon bucket and I added agricultural lime to it and still ended up having end rot but my grape tomatoes didn't. What can I do to make sure I don't get it again?

Add the calcium supplement early. Once the tomato forms and you see a discoloration on the green tomato, you lost the battle for that one tomato
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Old April 24, 2013   #18
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Self watering containers are new to me. Do they keep the soil moist/wet at all times or does it ever get a chance to partially dry out?
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Old April 28, 2013   #19
eddie46
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Use dolomite lime to get your trace elements as well. This will prevent BER.
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Old May 2, 2013   #20
Urbanfarmer
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Quote:
Originally Posted by swinefka View Post
Thanks for responding to my post and here is what I have setup. I used self watering 5 gallon buckets last year but going to an automatic watering system this year with my 5 gallon buckets. Everything grew really nice last year except my regular size tomatoes which had the end rot on them. Here is what I used for a mix in every 5 gallon bucket. I did not test my PH in my soil because I heard as long as I used the cup of lime in my soil it would neutralize it enough to take a lot of the acid out of it.

1/3 Miracle Grow Potting Soil
1/3 Spag Peat
1/3 Organic Compost with Cow Manure
Perlite
1 cup of Agricultural lime mixed in soil
And fertilizer I sprinkled a ring on top of the soil around the edge of the 5 gallon bucket of 10-0-10 phosphorous free fertilizer

All my buckets to have lids on them to keep the moisture in the soil and that seemed to work really good. So if anyone can give me any tips on how to keep my tomatoes in great shape besides what I am doing now I would really appreciate it. I will be planting my seeds in another week or so.
"phosphorous free fertilizer"? I'm not understanding why you would use this? Tomatoes need a significant amount of readily available P. Even pure MG potting soil doesn't have enough fertilizer in it to last very long. Compost and cow manure are both very low NPK contributors. By only using 1/3 MG, and using a P-free fertilizer on top of it, you can be sure there isn't enough P to go around, especially once tomatoes set fruit.

Tomato plants are voracious feeders. They will strip a 5gal bucket in no time. You have to keep the food coming and don't stop. In fact, a 5gal bucket is short-changing a tomato plant. That size pot just can't keep up with a 7' tall plant loaded with fruit. Give that rootzone 15-20 gallons, proper nutrition and consistent water, and watch what happens.

Your BER is more than likely caused by a lack of immediately available calcium. Lime doesn't release Ca quickly enough, especially once BER has set in.

I'm not here to simply hawk our fertilizers, but if you just used a properly formulated fertilizer with calcium, you would stand a good chance of never seeing BER again, or very rarely. This assumes consistent watering.

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Old May 2, 2013   #21
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I was going to quote everything that was said above.
But it would be a waste of space.

I simply couldn't agree more with what was said.

In containers tomatoes or any other high energy plant will suck them dry of nutrition in no time.
Where I can get away with one or two applications in a year you will have to do many in a growing season.

You also have to be careful watering and not wash out fertilizer.
This is done by not allowing the soil to totally dry out and water just enogh to keep it moist.

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