Slater_mator
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Help! My early girl tomatoes are broken!

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The first batch of ripening tomatoes are almost all ending up with yellow shoulders and black spots/depressions and some are even blistering. Any ideas on the cause of this?? Can the plants be saved? Are the few tomatoes that look normal still ok to eat? These are right next to my sweet 100s and planted in the same size pots and soil. The 100s are perfect and producing great..

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applestar
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Are there any lesions (Black/Brown splotches) on the stem? If so, then it could be the dreaded late blight.

If not, and the only defect is showing on the fruits, then it might be anthracnose ...a fungal disease. Has it been hot and humid? Rain? How are you watering them in the pots. Are the pots big enough? Cherry tomatoes are more forgiving and weather tolerant. Stressed plant will be susceptible to all kinds of fungal diseases.

You could try harvesting the larger fruits when still pink and not soft when held. Wash with baking soda solution, dry well and keep in well ventilated condition — I put mine on paper towel-cushioned cookie cooling racks. Tomatoes ripen like this and taste fine since once they are blushed and nearly but not quite full ripe, they basically only get water from the plant. It will take 2-3 days.

...The yellow shoulders could mean they are getting too much sun.

Slater_mator
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Thanks for your response! The stems all look fine. It has been an unusually wet summer here in central NH.. All of my plants(early girls, sweet 100s, jalapenos and bell peppers) are in patio picker self watering containers where you fill a bottom resivior and all are doing great except the early girls.

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Gary350
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How much sun are your plants getting? Minimum 5 hours of early morning full sun the coolest part of the day is best. Tomatoes do not like hot afternoon sun. Hot sun can sun burn your tomatoes and make bad places.

Could be a calcium & potassium shortage. It never hurts to give plants calcium & potassium it makes better, stronger, healthier, fruit and it is not easy to over dose your plants. If this is the problem it should give you good tomatoes in about 3 days.

Pictures look good, big strong healthy looking plants.

Pellet lime is cheap calcium about $10 for 30 lb bag at farmer supply stores.

You can buy Muriate of potash $15 per bag.

Don't give tomato plants much nitrogen or you get big plants & not many tomatoes. Plants do need a little N most soil has some nitrogen.

If you have wood to burn you can make your own tomato fertilizer that contains calcium & potash. Wood ash is perfect fertilizer for tomatoes 0-4-10 & calcium & other minerals.
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applestar
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Gary350 makes a good point that once they are fruiting, tomatoes need additional fertilizer that is higher in the 2nd two numbers. As well micronutrients and minerals. I use organic fertilizers so I never see numbers that high as the muriate of potash, but I guess principle is the same... though I would be cautious of highly concentrated fertilizers when using in containers, since it is a closed system and does not have way to dilute or buffer.

Another little thing which may or may not be related — looking at your photo, the container on the left is presumably the Early Girl’s, and it looks a little bit sloped downward to the left compared to the others. If it is not Level, you may have soggy/anaerobic soil on the lower side or the mix may be drying out on the upper side, depending on where the drainage holes are. You could probably just push wooden shims or even sticks to support/raise one side until the container is Level.

imafan26
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It looks like anthracnose. The sip may be the source since the soil is always wet and can breed the spores.

https://blogs.cornell.edu/livegpath/gall ... -tomatoes/



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