Epsom salts ! You can use it mixed with the soil at planting and also a spray to spray the leaves as they grow ! It will not stop it on the ones already growing but is used as a preventative on new ones !
Calcium nitrate is one of the very few immediately plant available forms of soluble calcium. It is a common fertilizer near you I bet.
Hiya Odif. My experience with blossom end rot is as follows: It is caused by a lack of calcium. It is not that the soil needs extra calcium fertiliser nor nor per se foliar calcium spraying. Let me explain. It is that the plants are not taking ip calcium properly from the soil which will have adequate calcium in it . This comes from irregular watering schedules and irregular amounts. In order for the water to be taken up and distributed to the areas furthest from the roots there needs to be an adequate flow of water. The fruits are far from the roots and cannot compete as well as leaves for the calcium. Proper watering technique can help this and of course decreasing the foliage later on (pruning). Interestingly, if you add supplemental fertiliser.to dry soil at the base of your plants because the concentrated nutrients in the water will restrict water uptake. Don’t forget that high air humidity will also restrict water uptake from the roots. What to do? 1- Keep soil somewhat moist. 2- Give your fertiliser in a liquid form after first wetting the soil around the plants. 3- use some form of automatic watering if possible. You can also mulch the soil around your plants (I use comfrey leaves). 4- personally I would prefer not to use foliar applications of calcium as the leaves cannot take it up very well. And if you use something like calcium nitrate the nitrate will probably cause the plant to produce extra unwanted foliage growth which is unwanted as you are trying to grow the fruits and as I said earlier the leaves will out-compete fruits for available nutrients. Mate this is just my take on your question. There are other folks that may have other ideas. **you probably already know that BER is caused by adverse growing conditions, not bacterial or fungal agents. The calcium deficiency causes the cell walls to loose permeability and resulting in cell swelling and ultimately loose integrity, and leak. New cell formation is inhibited and the characteristic lesions become apparent.
The most common calcium sources are calcium nitrate, calcium chloride, lime, gypsum, calcium chelates and some organic sources. Speed with fertilizer or wait for next year. Seriously, you do not need to kill it. Calcium is not a major nutrient. To be deficient means you really do not have to get back far past zero.
Ok MY tomatoes are perfect so far, they usually get ber in the very late season. I mulched my tomatoes and I fertilise with comfrey or I get a handful of well rotted sheep manure and mix it in a watering can and fertilise this way. I also mulch with comfrey.
The magnesium sulphate/epsom salt just helps them take up existing nutrient. They eat a lot, and your experiences point me to the idea that your fertilization scheme is short in some areas. I do not use comfrey or know much about it. Calcium is the third most abundant metal on the planet. That it's a metal and plants eat it has my eyes rolling back in my head already. But it does wash away in rain or leach, and there will not be much in organic material. I watched a guy on youtube extract potassium metal from bananas. It took a huge amount, and he used the peels too. The peels had slightly more than the actual fruit. He got this paltry amount of potassium which naturally he threw in a creek to watch it explode for youtube money. Anyway, yeah you could triple your comfrey or something and get there through the end of the season.
I have/had that issue also...the problem with straw bales is that everything eventually leaches out as @Sjoerd and @Dirtmechanic said. I'm playing catch up and put bone meal around all plants, literally just before a hard rain and let it water the meal in. So far so good...waiting for the next fruit to show to see if I was able to give the plants what they need. I now have enough comfrey (one plant is huge) to start regular fertilizing. Good luck to both of us..hehe
@Dirtmechanic As I said they are not my tomatoes, here are some pics of mine. No ber The yellow on the leaves is from the last dying rays of the sun Another picture from the other side. Tomatoes only really ripen here in August.
Ours have started to come in. Bugs want them. I hate bugs. I have planted a couple of german queens for that late or second season. But it gets so hot here in july and aug that pollen will not make so we aim for a mature plant by mid to late aug at the earliest for that second crop I envy your obvious low humidity. Good plants. Ours are out there in 90 humidity at 90f degrees. So much spraying is a lot of work.
I have Comfrey growing on the creekbank. How do you use it as a mulch? I assume you dry it" I HATE BER ! Haven't seen any this year, but it's early.
@Dirtmechanic We have extreme high humidity here in the mountains. The thing that makes it hard to grow tomatoes here and especially cucumbers is the huge temperature difference between day and night. @Growingpains I just shred it up and mulch directly.
I missed a trip down your way from Paris when my wife fell ill and we had to miss a week of touring. I bet its just beautiful around there. The latitude where I live would fall more in north central Algeria.
GP— to mulch with comfrey, you cut the plant down, leaving a couple of leaves. Then you remove any flowers and then lay that at the base of your toms or whatever you are mulching. Chopping the plant down and using that is the fast way, but you could strip leaves off the stalk and just mulch with those. I do not dry them first. Good luck with harvesting your free comfrey.
I bought a Comfrey plant years ago because it was supposedly beneficial for something, so long ago I forget what. I moved it to the creekbank because i liked the thing. It has strayed from the spot it was in. I understand Comfrey leaves help sprains heal, among other uses. I may try some leaves at the base of a couple of tomatoes. Thanks for the info!
