BER tomato fruit...pick or leave?

[SOB]

I've always had a problem with BER on my Romas. I'm working each year on fixing it and it's getting better and better each year. I have always picked the bad fruit as soon as I notice the damage thinking that the energy would now go towards growing/ripening new fruit instead of ripening/growing the bad fruit.

I know the BER cause is highly debatable but I have been noticing on my plants it's because my lack of watering at dry times. My recent thought though is this...lets say the BER has damaged a number of fruit that developed at a bad time (drought?) and that the plant is "correcting" itself (I.e. getting water and fixing the BER problem). If I pick the already damaged fruit then the energy could go into developing new fruit BEFORE the plant has fully "corrected" itself. If I let the bad fruit go the plant could correct itself and I only have the original bad fruit, not the original bad fruit (which has been picked and tossed) plus the next fruit to set.

Does this make ANY sense to anyone?! I am most likely misunderstanding how a plant works (still learning) so please set me straight!

Thanks!

[rainbowgardener]

Well Roma tomatoes are known to be more prone to BER. People that have trouble with BER are advised to avoid Romas and plant other varieties.

And you are right that it is caused by the inconsistent watering and allowing the plant to dry out. If you correct that, it should take care of the problem.

I didn't follow all of the rest of it:

"If I let the bad fruit go the plant could correct itself and I only have the original bad fruit, not the original bad fruit (which has been picked and tossed) plus the next fruit to set. "

if I only have the original bad fruit not the original bad fruit?


I'm not with you.

But I would think you would want to pick the BER fruits and let the plant start over when conditions are right. The BER is determined very early in the life of that fruit, within a couple weeks of when the fruit is set.

[SOB]

Sorry, I can see how that sentence could be confusing.

Each time I try to type out another explanation I just shake my head and delete it. I think I'm letting the engineer in me take over too much of my gardening mind

Let's forget I said anything...

[Father's Daughter]

I think what your asking is if you leave the bad fruit on the vine, will it somehow prevent future fruit on that plant from developing BER. If that's what you meant, I have no idea idea what the answer is, but maybe someone else does. If that's not what you were asking, then sorry to butt in!

[SOB]

FD, yes, what you are saying is correct. It basically comes down to the number of fruit that develop BER and how to minimize that. Do you keep the BER fruit on the vine or do you pick the BER fruit as soon as possible and how does this affect the rest of the fruit (existing and future)?

[TZ -OH6]

Having affected fruit on the plant shouldn't affect incidence of BER on new fruit. I also don't think that removing the fruit will get you any more new flowers than keeping them on. Ihe plant is putting energy into fruit you may not want to eat so the size of the good tomatoes could be affected.