Blossom End Rot

[cmpman1974]

I have reviewed several articles about Blossom End Rot on tomatoes and how it is a physiological issue.

I am at the point where I am ready to stop growing tomatoes. I grew 15 plants this year. They started off great, topping 6 ft in height for some. They were loaded with tomatoes.

Well the bad news....To date, I have not got to taste one ripe tomato. 50+ off the vine with Blossom End Rot severely. This problem has gotten worse the last two years.

I don't know what to do. I live in Michigan (zone 6B). Our rainfall has been so little this summer. Driest year I can recall in over ten years.

My soil is alkaline and I've been working on trying to lower it. It has high clay content, but I have established raised beds 1 ft high three years ago. These have better soil. Ph was measured at 7.8 through the local extension office.

Should I just dump powdered lime in the planting holes next year regardless? I have to do something. What a waste of a season to get nothing out of the hard work.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I don't have the means to install an automatic watering system so that's out.

Chris

[dcarch]

What varieties are you growing?

dcarch

[feldon30]

A pH of 7.8 is definitely a red flag. I'd correct it pronto.

Since you are using raised beds, what is the soil makeup in them? FYI, topsoil is a poor addition to raised beds.

[Suze]

Originally Posted by cmpman1974

Should I just dump powdered lime in the planting holes next year regardless? I have to do something. What a waste of a season to get nothing out of the hard work.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I don't have the means to install an automatic watering system so that's out.

I suspect lack of water/uneven watering is the main issue. Could you maybe do some soaker hoses?

I will say I do "lime" my soil, in addition to using soaker hoses. I don't use powdered lime (hydrated type) in planting holes, but I do scatter dolomitic lime on the planting surface per application instructions. I figure it gets watered in eventually, lazy way of doing it.

This is both in my raised beds here, and also at my previous residence, where I grew most plants in containers and some in raised beds.

[Razorback04]

Chris,

You didn't mention whether or not your tomatoes were mulched. A good mulch would probably help you a lot by keeping your soil moisture at a much more even level. My brother told me that I was wasting my time trying to grow tomatoes in our family garden because "they all get Blossom End Rot and fall off". Ignoring his advice, I went ahead and planted some, mulched them well, and to date, I haven't had 1single tomato get BER. Early Blight, yes, but no BER.

I suspect lack of water/uneven watering is the main issue.

I'm also leaning towards this as the culprit. Lately, our weather has turned dry and I've noticed that a lot of my young watermelons have BER. None of the watermelons showed any sign of this until the last week or so. The difference? It's now extremely dry.

Is water available at all? A 5 gal. bucket with a tiny hole in the side is a very, very efficient way to water a single plant. Just fill it up with a garden hose and leave it alone. If the hole is small enough, it'll take 30 minutes to an hour to empty the bucket and virtually all of the water soaks into the soil.

Ph was measured at 7.8 through the local extension office.

It seems strange that soil with a ph that high would have a lime deficiency. Did the extension office test specifically mention lime?


Have you tried adding pest moss to your bed. It won't help with a lime deficiency, but it'll lower your ph and help loosen your soil.

[cmpman1974]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I put sulfur down this year to try to lower the Ph. My city has super high clay content. The 1ft raised beds are filled primarily with compost, peat moss, top soil (not in huge quantities), leaf compost, and other organic materials. I tried for years to amend the native soil with little success. I tried gypsum and other clay breaking products.

i'll need to retest Ph again at the end of the season.

The watering ideas are good. I need to think of an efficient method. I currently do mulch well.

My last soil test showed no lime deficiency. However, maybe calcium is locked up in the soil.

Peat Moss seems to be a useless addition to the soil 2-3 years after application though. It seems to cake up badly. I have to constantly break up clumps. I plan on dumping a lot of spent potting soil in my beds at the end of the year, but it is primarily peat moss. I do need to do something with it though.

Chris

[PaulF]

I agree with the watering and the techniques mentioned, especially the soaker hoses. I also have high pH in my area and the extension recommended sulpher addition. The first year I did not notice a big drop in pH, but added elemental sulpher again this year along with compost for organics to aid the soil health. Last year was a better one than the year before and this year has been great.

Another soil test after the growing season will tell me how things are going so next year I can help even more. I would say work on the organic material as much as you can and continue with the recommendations by your soil tester. It may take a while to get things the way you want, so hang in there.

[dice]

Your soil may not actually be deficient in calcium
(lack of moisture makes it impossible for the roots
to take up any soluble calcium), but if it is, with
a high pH you should use gypsum instead of lime
as a calcium source.

In a thread a few months ago, alanstrangefruit noted
that in some beds he had amended with a layer of
lava rock (probably the common kind of red lava rock
seen in landscaping, added to his vegetable rows for
the iron and other minerals in it), pH dropped fast,
and by the second season he needed to add lime to
correct it. In your soil, dropping the pH a little is just
what you want (ideal range for tomatoes is 6.5-7.5,
with closer to 6.5 being better than closer to 7.5),
so that is something to consider. The effect would
probably last longer than adding sulfur.

Out here, there is frequently red lava available for free
on Craig's List if you are willing to shovel it up and haul
it (although you have to ask if it was sprayed for weeds
or pests, etc, before using it where you grow vegetables
and hope the previous owner actually knows and tells
you the truth).

[feldon30]

If I were you, just to get some tomatoes (can't live without em!) I'd build 3-4 earthbox type containers and grow tomatoes in there while you are working on correcting the problems in your soil.

You may also want to build a new raised bed and start from scratch with all new soil and ignore the soil underneath.

[amideutch]

Chris, container gardening might be the way to go as Feldon mentioned until you get your soil problem resolved. I grow most of my tomatoes in containers with good success. Reason, don't have any place to put a garden and you dig down a foot and hit sandstone. Have 25 Plants growing in containers at this time. Plus you can set up a drip irrigation system to water them and save on water consumption. Here is a link that might interest you. Ami
http://www.tandjenterprises.com/tand..._gardening.htm