Some of my young tomatoes are turning black on the bottom . I have them growning in five gallon buckets . I am watering every other day with about two qourts of water in each bucket .
Thanks ,
Tommy
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Budlite1944
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rainbowgardener
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Posting pictures would help. Offhand without seeing it, it sounds like it could be blossom end rot. See https://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3117.html for information and pictures of what that would look like, in a severe case. Blossom end rot is caused by calcium deficiency in stressed tomatoes. The stress can be caused by fluctuations in soil moisture, going from dry to very wet, from over fertilization, or soil that's too acid. It's not a disease and if the conditions are corrected, the plant and future tomatoes will be fine, but the ones already affected are a loss.
Suggestions: Maintain a uniform supply of soil moisture by watering plants during drought and mulching to retain soil moisture. Tomatoes want to stay pretty steadily moist, not go through fluctuations. Avoid using excessive amounts of ammonia forms of nitrogen, which reduce calcium uptake. Avoid overfertilization during early fruiting. Maintain neutral soil pH. Liming helps supply calcium, if soil is acid. Do not subject plants to sudden and severe hardening off before transplanting. Avoid setting plants in the field too early when the soil is still too cold for rapid growth.
Let us know if this looks like what your tomatoes have. If not, post pictures...
Suggestions: Maintain a uniform supply of soil moisture by watering plants during drought and mulching to retain soil moisture. Tomatoes want to stay pretty steadily moist, not go through fluctuations. Avoid using excessive amounts of ammonia forms of nitrogen, which reduce calcium uptake. Avoid overfertilization during early fruiting. Maintain neutral soil pH. Liming helps supply calcium, if soil is acid. Do not subject plants to sudden and severe hardening off before transplanting. Avoid setting plants in the field too early when the soil is still too cold for rapid growth.
Let us know if this looks like what your tomatoes have. If not, post pictures...
In addition, plants usually outgrow it. When young they are stressed by fast vegetative growth rates, often accompanied by low temperatures (no matter how much calcium is in the soil if the roots are cold and the growing plant demands alot of calcium, the fruits can be affected. BER is also more prevalent in paste-type tomatoes (Romas etc) and determinant varieties.
There is a calcium spray that you can use, which is somewhat effective (~20% reduction in BER) when sprayed on very small immature tomatoes, but usually, by the time you see the problem it is already late enough in the season that any subsequent fruits will not be affected as much. But if you know that you have a problem year after year you can spray those first fruits early on.
There is a calcium spray that you can use, which is somewhat effective (~20% reduction in BER) when sprayed on very small immature tomatoes, but usually, by the time you see the problem it is already late enough in the season that any subsequent fruits will not be affected as much. But if you know that you have a problem year after year you can spray those first fruits early on.