jacobelias
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Colour Difference - Cause of Discoloration in Tomato

Hello,

Kindly see the enclosed picture of the tomato which I have shared, does anyone know what is the cause of this colour difference?
Is is getting decayed?

Regards
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applestar
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Bummer! It looks like your tomato has BER -- Blossom End Rot.

john gault
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applestar wrote:Bummer! It looks like your tomato has BER -- Blossom End Rot.
That was my first thought.... https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic- ... t-zbcz1502

jacobelias
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Thanks for the answers.

Well, before posting here, based on a wild guess I thought it was BER and did a remedial action which is, sprayed diluted milk on to the leaves and to the tomatoes and poured diluted milk on to the top soil.Not sure what I did was completely right or wrong and do not know what would be the repercussions, so fingers crossed.

I do have a question, by adding calcium chloride or calcium nitrate to the soil is considered to be organic?

Regards

bri80
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Definitely BER. Garden centers sell a foliar spray that will provide a quick, emergency injection of calcium. The longer term solution is lots of lime for your soil. I doubt diluted milk will help much but you're on the right track. Get the foliar spray, and lime your soil.

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rainbowgardener
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Some people swear by all the calcium stuff for blossom end rot. But really BER almost never has to do with a lack of calcium in the soil. It is all about inconsistent watering and going through periods of drought stress. Whether or not a particular tomato is going to have BER is determined when the fruit is set. Nothing you do after that makes any difference for that particular tomato, but it does matter for the future ones that are just being formed. Don't stop watering. You don't want it soggy or sitting in water, but the BER isn't about over-watering per se; it is about too much wet and dry cycles. When it's been moist enough and the plant is growing rapidly and then it suddenly dries out, the calcium transport channels get shut down. Cultivating too close to the roots and damaging them or nights that are too cold when the fruit is being set can also cause it. The calcium treatments may help some, if the transport channels aren't working well, then perhaps enriching the ambient environment with extra calcium may help more get through, but it really isn't the cause.

imafan26
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Actually BER is a physiologic problem. It is a relative calcium deficiency due to problems with uptake of calcium from the soil and transporting it to the leaves on top. The calcium is taken from the fruit to keep the plant going.

Some people do add calcium when planting tomatoes as a hedge against BER, but even if the soil was rife with calcium the BER could still happen because the real problem is getting regular water to the different parts of the plant.

Tomatoes are heavy feeders. They need regular feedings of fertilizer and they need regular watering.

I did not have problems growing tomatoes in SIPS because the reservoir always has water so the soil never dries out. I do give my tomatoes in pots some balanced fertilizer that contains micros. It does contain potash of magnesium but apparently the potash is too small to count in the analysis. Still I have not had any problems with BER in SIPS or in my regular 18 gallon tomato pots as long as the pots have been watered daily and watered twice a day on hot and windy days. I mulch with white plastic, basically I cut the bag that contains the potting soil and fit it in the pot with the white side up. The plastic mulch cuts down on weeds and helps to keep the soil moist. The pot is large but once in a while I do catch the tomato roots going into the ground. Foliar calcium is +-, the real solution is to keep your tomatoes evenly moist and don't let them wilt. That means maybe watering and misting more often, mulching or if you live somewhere very hot providing some shade. It also helps in a hot climate to choose heat resistant tomatoes. They don't get BER as easily.
I don't like to add calcium to an acid loving plant. My water may contain some calcium and magnesium naturally. 5.93ppm Calcium which isn't very much. The potting soil probably has some lime added to it since most of them do but don't always disclose how much to "balance pH". I just don't add any more to the pot. In fact I added lime to my garden for the first time in years to keep the pH in my home garden from going lower than 6.0. Adding lime or gypsum won't hurt unless your soil is already alkaline, it just might not really help.
https://www.kellysolutions.com/erenewals ... _00_AM.pdf
https://www.mgwater.com/mgrank.shtml

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rainbowgardener
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check the times of posting. Imafan and I were writing our similar responses at the same time! :)

pepperhead212
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Another thing that determines whether or not you (or rather, your tomatoes) get BER is the variety of the tomato. One of my favorite tomatoes of the last few years - Sweet Carneros Pink - would always get BER on the first 8-10 fruits of every plant! Planting in SIPs helped a little, but still the first 3 or 4 were affected. And another variety that I tried many years ago - Salsa - did not get a single good fruit! I finally pulled the plant, after getting dozens of tomatoes with BER. I assume that it has something to do with the growth of the roots, with some taking more time to grow the root system that is able to take in that Ca, even though it is right there, and other varieties have no problems.

And did you ever wonder why cherry tomatoes don't seem to get BER?



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