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| Taking Care of Blossom End Rot | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 13 2018, 07:47 AM (85 Views) | |
| SJC Museum | Jan 13 2018, 07:47 AM Post #1 |
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Taking Care of Blossom End Rot![]() Blossom end rot occurs because the soil in your home vegetable garden is deficient in calcium. It also occurs when the weather in your area has been considerably wet followed by an immediate dry period. Blossom end rot most notably affects peppers, squash, tomatoes and watermelon. As you can see in the picture, it looks like a dark circle and spreads to the end fruit as the vegetable will then look like it is rotting. If not taken care of it could spread to the remaining of the unaffected portion of your garden and also lead to additional or secondary rotting. Here are steps you can take to control blossom end rot in your home vegetable garden. Prior to planting any vegetables, always obtain a pH level reading on your soil conditions. You can obtain good testing kits at your local garden center that will give you the amount of calcium you have in your soil. The test kit you purchased in step one should also give you the pH reading. If the pH reading is not highly acidic then add a little gypsum to bring the pH level to a more stable reading. Finally, make sure you add some mulch over top over your topsoil so that the ground maintains an even moisture level and avoid excessive fertilizing so you do not throw out of balance all of the work you did in the previous steps. Just continue to monitor your soil conditions throughout the growing season and make adjustments as necessary. Blossom end rot can do a lot of damage in your garden, but if you take the proper steps to avoid the condition, you can save yourself a lot of unnecessary headaches. Home vegetable gardening is meant to be enjoyable. Don't let blossom end rot ruin your day or growing season. ![]() You are exactly right about balance of nutrients being a problem. Too much potassium and magnesium and possibly ammonium nitrogen in relation to calcium can cause it too. I use a one-time solution of milk, powdered egg shells, and water once they have their second set of leaves. This is a cure that dates back to the late 1800's. I put the eggshells in a blender and turn them to dust. I add a cup of water to the powdered eggshells to make a liquid, then add milk. I pour this liquid around the roots of the tomato plants to treat a case of blossom end rot. I mix at 12 eggshells per quart of milk. Calcium (Ca): Calcium regulates how the plant absorb nutrients. It is essential for cell wall structure, & strength in the plant. Contributes most to thick stems & beefy structure. Calcium deficiency results in stunting and symptoms include distorted or hook shaped new leaves and leaf tips dying and purplish brown tint. Calcium deficiency contributes to blossom end rot in tomatoes, tip burn of cabbage, and brown hearts in celery. I have heard of people crushing clam and oyster shells for calcium. Be a little cautious of Oyster Shells. Oyster shell is a form of calcium carbonate and contains small amounts of lead, a toxin, as well as heavy metals such as Mercury which can leach into your plants, and eventually fruit. The lead content is small, however it still concerns me. ![]() A couple points not noted: Blossom end rot is common in tomatoes; with squash and some other veggies, it is not. A very common problem in squash is the failure to deliver enough pollen grains to the stigma, resulting in many of the incipient seeds not being fertilized. The fruit then aborts, but in doing so, often rots on the blossom end. The fungus is opportunistic, and cannot be treated by any other means than by increasing the number of pollen grains delivered, either by higher bee populations of hand pollination. Secondly, with tomatoes BER is quite variable among the different varieties. Some are highly prone to it, while others rarely show it. Last summer we had Abe Lincoln, Super Sioux and Rio Grande in the same soil (pH about 7, so there was plenty of calcium), and the Super Sioux was rampant with BER, while Rio Grande only showed it in the first tomatoes to ripen, and Abe Lincoln never shoed any BER at all. If your pH is between 6.5 and 7, and you still have rampant BER, try other varieties next season. Edited by SJC Museum, Jan 13 2018, 07:50 AM.
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9:19 AM Jul 11