Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi there,

Several of my tomatoes appear to be rotting (i think).

They areno bigger than a couple of inches at th moment - but some of them have a brown soft underside.

Please help! (new gardener).

thanks,
Nel

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Bike Vietnam Challenge for Cerebral Palsy
16th - 27th October 2008
www.neilbikevietnam.com

google - blossom end rot, and see if that is the problem.

or try this link Blossom-end rot - disease of tomato, pepper, and eggplant

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Kernow rag nevra http://www.cornishnotenglish.com/

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits
Albert Einstein

Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water and when your'e tired go and lie down. The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand
Bruce Lee

hmm, thanks for that - not sure if its over watering or wrong fertilizer :S

Should i remove the rotted fruit?

thans,
Neil

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Bike Vietnam Challenge for Cerebral Palsy
16th - 27th October 2008
www.neilbikevietnam.com

i would definately get rid of the rotten ones, keep a close eye on the rest and if they start to show just get rid as quick as poss, you still may get some decent toms off the plant

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Kernow rag nevra http://www.cornishnotenglish.com/

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits
Albert Einstein

Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water and when your'e tired go and lie down. The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand
Bruce Lee

Here's a few things that may be the cause - what do you think? (im completely new to this):

- I introduced some old bottles in between my 3 plants - so that the water was etting to the bottom of the bag
- The plant that has rot, was a new plant that was put in to replace a plant i had killed - could this have been a problem?
- I've been irrgular with my watering of late, as i thougt i was doing it wrong. e.g. i dont water when the top of the soil looks dry - i feel into the ba to see if it's dry - should be more reglar - e.g. full can every other day?

thanks again,
Neil

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Bike Vietnam Challenge for Cerebral Palsy
16th - 27th October 2008
www.neilbikevietnam.com

Hi Maillme, If you are not growing your toms in the ground then it's better to grow them in deep pots so you can increase the rootball. I know a lot of people plant straight into growbags but I've found them notoriously difficult to get the watering right and this is a main cause of bottom end rot and splitting fruit. If you can arrange to sit the pot on a water reservoir (deep tray or bucket with the water level just slightly above the bottom of the pot the plant roots will grow through the bottom of the pot to take the water and it is a lot easier to control watering that way. Another way a lot of people use is to plunge the pots a few inches into growbags and use the growbag as a water/feed reservoir. Once your plants start to grow fruits they will take up a LOT of water.

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Why keep a dog when you can bark yourself !

Hi terrier,
I have my pots sunk into the grow bag -the pots are dry - but the grow bags still have moisture - im just not used to knowing how much / when to water them

thanks
Neil

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_________________________________________
Bike Vietnam Challenge for Cerebral Palsy
16th - 27th October 2008
www.neilbikevietnam.com

As long as the pots arn't waterlogged, then I don't think you can overwater. The problem is irregular water supply. If the plants are starved of water and them get a plentiful supply, that's when the problems arise. That's why I use the water reservoir method, you can actually see the water level and at this time of year the plants are taking up water very quickly in a hot greenhouse.

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http://www.weltaf.co.uk/
Why keep a dog when you can bark yourself !

Hello Mailme, if it is Blossom end rot (BER) it is not a disease but a calcium deficiency made worse by irregular watering. It will not spread from one plant to another.
The bigger tomatoes are more susceptible - Marmande and the like. I got a nil crop from them and don't grow them anymore.
The smaller tomato varieties don't suffer from it - so I stick to them.
If you get rid of the wasted fruits the ones to come may be fine. Good luck.

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From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

"full can every other day"

Little and often would be better.

I water my Toms 3 times a day on a hot day, twice (and less water at each occasion) on a cool / overcast day.

My 10L watering can does about 10 plants at a "main watering", and probably 15 plants at an "overcast" watering. So on a sunny day that would be 3L / plant / day. My Toms are in 11" pots.

Mind you, you can't just "measure" the water out, you need to gauge based on experience, but hopefully it will give you a bit of a benchmark