JasonSanford
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Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2009 6:34 pm
Location: Indian Trail, NC

Black Bottoms

This is my second year trying tomatoes in buckets and so far so good...I think. I went to take a look today and almost all of the fruit on one plant had black bottoms. See picture:

[url]https://jasonsanford.googlepages.com/tomato.jpg[/url]

What do you think?

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hendi_alex
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Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 7:58 am
Location: Central Sand Hills South Carolina

It is much more difficult to give a tomato plant a steady supply of moisture when it is container grown. One of the signs of water stress often shows a blossom end rot. Blossom end rot results from poor calcium availabiltiy or from poor calcium absorption. Pull all of the bad tomatoes. Then get some calcium into the plant either by foliar spray or mixed in with the soil. Make sure the plants are not constantly swinging between wet and dry, perhaps rig a very slow but continuous drip, or a drip that cycles on and off several times per day. Don't waterlog the plant, but do give it a constant supply of moisture. I always add a good handfull of peletized lime to my container tomatoes, just to give them an extra dose of calcium.

JasonSanford
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Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2009 6:34 pm
Location: Indian Trail, NC

Great. Thanks for the info. I'll take those recommendations into consideration!

How are the South Carolina tomatoes? It looks as though they have started making their way up Hwy 601 toward my neck of the woods into the farmer's markets.

Thanks again.

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hendi_alex
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Location: Central Sand Hills South Carolina

Not sure about the commercial stuff as I only eat my home grown tomatoes starting in April. A couple of weeks ago I was at the Pee Dee Farmer's market and all they had were those cardboard tasting tomatoes that are picked green and forced to ripen.

My daughter lives in Greensboro and we make several trips per summer to their nice farmers market. Last year vendors carried lots of heirloom tomatoes, and generally very fresh looking, tasty fruits and vegetables.

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Gary350
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Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

That is blossom end rot. Your plants need lime. Mix lime with water then water the plants. Next year mix lime, bone meal, lime stone, etc in the soil before you plant.

A very fast way to solve blossom end rot is buy a 1 gallon container of sheet rock mud at Home Depot or Lowe's. Scoop out a hand full of sheet rock mud and mix it into 5 gallons of water. Water your plants with it.



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