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
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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.
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.
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