Blossom End Rot

jflournoy · June 28, 2014

This is not a post asking how to eliminate BER, because I've seen there are a dozen different answers for that and someone, somewhere, says that all of them are useless. I'm growing some maters in containers and in the ground this year. They have all been planted for about 5 weeks now. Today I snipped several with BER from 7 different varieties (Cowlick's Brandywine, JD's Special C-Tex, Orange Minsk, Pruden's Purple, Polbig, Mountain Glory, Big Beef). I am fertigating with Texas Tomato Food, which claims to eliminate BER. I was skeptical of those claims when I bought it but I figured I would give it a shot. So far, not many of my plants are showing tomatoes with BER, but it certainly hasn't eliminated it.

My main question here, for those of you who have had BER issues in the past in your gardens, is: Are there certain tomato varieties you have grown that have never gotten BER in your garden or growing area, or at least very minimally?

Thanks.

KarenO · June 28, 2014

BER is not a problem for me here in general but I can say with confidence that in my area, I have never seen a heart tomato or a paste with BER. Maybe next year try some elongated varieties.
KarenO

jflournoy · June 28, 2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by KarenO

BER is not a problem for me here in general but I can say with confidence that in my area, I have never seen a heart tomato or a paste with BER. Maybe next year try some elongated varieties.
KarenO

I have several heart varieties I planted this year (Anna Russian, Brad's Black Heart, Mazarini, Wes), but so far, Brad's Black Heart is the only variety where the plants are consistently doing well. Of the others, I've had several die. There are some small tomatoes on some of those and so far, no BER on them. Keeping my fingers crossed. I'm just looking for some heirloom varieties (any and all shapes) that have a general consensus of not being prone to BER.

Salsacharley · June 28, 2014

Last year I grew Cream Sausage and it produced about 50 tomatoes, every single one with BER. It is a pepper shaped tomato and it is a paste. Right next to it was Box Car Willie and it had BER early, but got over it. On the other side was Michael Pollan and it had BER on about 75% of the fruit, which was absolutely exasperating to me.

I'm growing Michael Pollan again this year and the first fruits had no BER, but to my consternation a later truss all had BER. There are several trusses with no BER. I am really trying to be consistent with watering and fertilizing this year. The container Michael Pollan is in is only 5 gal, but the neighboring 5 gal containers with Beauty King, Maglia Rosa and Russian Cossack don't have any BER. I do believe certain varieties are extra sensitive to BER as Cream Sausage and Michael Pollan are examples.

feldon30 · June 28, 2014

BER is hitting my Wes and JD's Special C-Tex this year. I went light on fertilizer and lime this year and am regretting it.

jflournoy · June 28, 2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by feldon30

BER is hitting my Wes and JD's Special C-Tex this year. I went light on fertilizer and lime this year and am regretting it.

JD's is one of the ones I disposed of today that had BER. It was growing in a container. I have several others planted in the ground and have not seen any BER on them - yet.

**carolyn137** · June 28, 2014

I can plant variety X in one year with no BER, plant it again the next year and lots of BER and I know that's true for many tomato growers b'c of all the variables associated with the development of BER. And I can cut and paste my so called standard post on BER which is in several threads here, which goes into a discussion of most of the variables, many of them environmental and also pointing out that the internal physiology of varieties can be different, which also is a factor.

The only kinds of varieties that I've never seen any BER on fruits are cherry tomatoes and species ones such as the currants, S pimpinellifolium. And that's with about 4,000 different varieties grown to date.

Carolyn

jflournoy · June 28, 2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by carolyn137

I can plant variety X in one year with no BER, plant it again the next year and lots of BER and I know that's true for many tomato growers b'c of all the variables associated with the development of BER. And I can cut and paste my so called standard post on BER which is in several threads here, which goes into a discussion of most of the variables, many of them environmental and also pointing out that the internal physiology of varieties can be different, which also is a factor.

The only kinds of varieties that I've never seen any BER on fruits are cherry tomatoes and species ones such as the currants, S pimpinellifolium. And that's with about 4,000 different varieties grown to date.

Carolyn

Carolyn, with your extensive experience, surely there are some non-cherry varieties that seem to get BER less often than others, no? I'm a big apple nut. In apple growing, there are certain varieties that are more prone to problems related to calcium deficiency than others, for instance. Aren't some tomatoes more prone to BER than others?

**carolyn137** · June 28, 2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by jflournoy

Carolyn, with your extensive experience, surely there are some non-cherry varieties that seem to get BER less often than others, no? I'm a big apple nut. In apple growing, there are certain varieties that are more prone to problems related to calcium deficiency than others, for instance. Aren't some tomatoes more prone to BER than others?

Yes, as a group, true paste varieties are much more susceptible to BER.

Water and nutrient transport are also very important,from a physiological point of view in terms of differences,

Just to illustrate that, and now not talking about BER specifically, in the field where I grew tomatoes there were several low spots and when there was really heavy rain those low spots would fill up with water and many of the plants were under water.

I'd go out there and dig drainage ditches, but here's what I saw.

Plants under water can get no oxygen so the first symptom you see is yellowing of the foliage, then that can progress to the foliage turning brown, and after that, well,RIP.

Clearly some plants of some varieties never went from yellow to brown, while some plants under water in the same low spot did so, which says to me that different varieties handle water differently, which does play into the development of BER in terms of CA++ transport within the plant and also transpiration through the leaf surface.

Carolyn

joseph · June 29, 2014

I have grown my own tomato seed for the past 5 growing seasons, and trialed hundreds of named varieties of tomatoes provided by other growers, and grown thousands of segregating hybrids. I never ever allow a tomato that has BER to reproduce. Doesn't matter how clever the other traits of the plant are. The day I notice BER on a plant is the day that plant dies. As a result, I don't get BER on my tomatoes. Last year I only had BER on one plant and that was part of a trial of new varieties.

So to answer the original post... Yes there are varieties that are much less susceptible to BER, but because I don't keep track of variety names I don't know what they are.

The University of Illinois extension has a partial list: http://ipm.illinois.edu/diseases/series900/rpd906/

bughunter99 · June 30, 2014

Yeah, I tried JD's twice and both times BER was a big problem with the plant. It is definitely the plant. I had Chocolate Stripes growing in the exact same container and it had zero issues.

Stacy

efisakov · June 30, 2014

Brad's Black Heart last year had no BER, this year I have taken one big tomato off the vine because of the BER.

jflournoy · June 30, 2014

Thanks for all the comments.

So far, in the last few days, Orange Minsk, Mr. Bruno and Cowlick's Brandywine have had multiple fruit with BER removed. I am keeping records for future reference. Several others with one or two.

JetStar1 · July 1, 2014

I plant in containers mostly and get a fair amount of BER. Adding cal-mag to the reservoir seems to help.

yardn_gardn · July 4, 2014

I had terrible trouble with BER last year in my Opalka tomatoes, and I did purchase commercial seed. I finally found the seed I had saved from several years ago from a very good crop an am getting no BER so far in the garden. There was one tomato with it in a container that I had saved to give a friend and was late in getting it to her. Does anyone have a good paste tomato that doesn't seem to have BER trouble? I am very fond of Opalka for salsa and just plain eating.

June 28, 2014	#1
jflournoy Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Ohio Posts: 118	Blossom End Rot This is not a post asking how to eliminate BER, because I've seen there are a dozen different answers for that and someone, somewhere, says that all of them are useless. I'm growing some maters in containers and in the ground this year. They have all been planted for about 5 weeks now. Today I snipped several with BER from 7 different varieties (Cowlick's Brandywine, JD's Special C-Tex, Orange Minsk, Pruden's Purple, Polbig, Mountain Glory, Big Beef). I am fertigating with Texas Tomato Food, which claims to eliminate BER. I was skeptical of those claims when I bought it but I figured I would give it a shot. So far, not many of my plants are showing tomatoes with BER, but it certainly hasn't eliminated it. My main question here, for those of you who have had BER issues in the past in your gardens, is: Are there certain tomato varieties you have grown that have never gotten BER in your garden or growing area, or at least very minimally? Thanks.

June 28, 2014	#5
feldon30 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2006 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 5,346	BER is hitting my Wes and JD's Special C-Tex this year. I went light on fertilizer and lime this year and am regretting it. __________________ [SIZE="3"]I've relaunched my gardening website -- [B]TheUnconventionalTomato.com[/B][/SIZE] * [I][SIZE="1"]*I'm not allowed to post weblinks so you'll have to copy-paste it manually.[/SIZE][/I]

June 28, 2014	#7
carolyn137 Moderator Emeritus Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a Posts: 21,169	I can plant variety X in one year with no BER, plant it again the next year and lots of BER and I know that's true for many tomato growers b'c of all the variables associated with the development of BER. And I can cut and paste my so called standard post on BER which is in several threads here, which goes into a discussion of most of the variables, many of them environmental and also pointing out that the internal physiology of varieties can be different, which also is a factor. The only kinds of varieties that I've never seen any BER on fruits are cherry tomatoes and species ones such as the currants, S pimpinellifolium. And that's with about 4,000 different varieties grown to date. Carolyn __________________ Carolyn

June 29, 2014	#10
joseph Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2013 Location: Cache Valley, N/E of The Great Salt Lake Posts: 1,244	I have grown my own tomato seed for the past 5 growing seasons, and trialed hundreds of named varieties of tomatoes provided by other growers, and grown thousands of segregating hybrids. I never ever allow a tomato that has BER to reproduce. Doesn't matter how clever the other traits of the plant are. The day I notice BER on a plant is the day that plant dies. As a result, I don't get BER on my tomatoes. Last year I only had BER on one plant and that was part of a trial of new varieties. So to answer the original post... Yes there are varieties that are much less susceptible to BER, but because I don't keep track of variety names I don't know what they are. The University of Illinois extension has a partial list: http://ipm.illinois.edu/diseases/series900/rpd906/ Last edited by joseph; June 29, 2014 at 12:49 PM.

June 30, 2014	#12
efisakov Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: NJ, zone 7 Posts: 3,162	Brad's Black Heart last year had no BER, this year I have taken one big tomato off the vine because of the BER. __________________ Ella God comes along and says, "I think I'm going to create THE tomato!”

June 28, 2014	#2
KarenO Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Vancouver Island Posts: 5,922	BER is not a problem for me here in general but I can say with confidence that in my area, I have never seen a heart tomato or a paste with BER. Maybe next year try some elongated varieties. KarenO

June 28, 2014	#4
Salsacharley Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2013 Location: New Mexico Posts: 2,052	Last year I grew Cream Sausage and it produced about 50 tomatoes, every single one with BER. It is a pepper shaped tomato and it is a paste. Right next to it was Box Car Willie and it had BER early, but got over it. On the other side was Michael Pollan and it had BER on about 75% of the fruit, which was absolutely exasperating to me. I'm growing Michael Pollan again this year and the first fruits had no BER, but to my consternation a later truss all had BER. There are several trusses with no BER. I am really trying to be consistent with watering and fertilizing this year. The container Michael Pollan is in is only 5 gal, but the neighboring 5 gal containers with Beauty King, Maglia Rosa and Russian Cossack don't have any BER. I do believe certain varieties are extra sensitive to BER as Cream Sausage and Michael Pollan are examples.

June 30, 2014	#11
bughunter99 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: zone 5 Posts: 821	Yeah, I tried JD's twice and both times BER was a big problem with the plant. It is definitely the plant. I had Chocolate Stripes growing in the exact same container and it had zero issues. Stacy

July 1, 2014	#14
JetStar1 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Missouri Posts: 18	I plant in containers mostly and get a fair amount of BER. Adding cal-mag to the reservoir seems to help.

July 4, 2014	#15
yardn_gardn Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2014 Location: Central Idaho at 3200 elev. in zone 5b, maybe 100 frost free days Posts: 77	I had terrible trouble with BER last year in my Opalka tomatoes, and I did purchase commercial seed. I finally found the seed I had saved from several years ago from a very good crop an am getting no BER so far in the garden. There was one tomato with it in a container that I had saved to give a friend and was late in getting it to her. Does anyone have a good paste tomato that doesn't seem to have BER trouble? I am very fond of Opalka for salsa and just plain eating.