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My tomato plants came from a really good Amish nursery that I have been doing business with for years. Since we do not do a lot of canning or preserving in our old age, I do not start a lot of seed in our green house which this year has become a glorified storage shed. I bought 4 nice “Big Bertha” tomato plants and 4 good Roma tomato plants and I planted them in my waist high planters that Carl built for me about 3 seasons ago.
The plants all “perked” along smashingly and at one point they all looked so grand and healthy that I had to get out my bamboo stakes and stake them up.
When the heat started and the drought came I religiously watered them and stood back and watched them get their lovely blossoms.
At the same time I also planted 6 nice healthy pepper plants and treated them equally as the tomato plants.
The pepper plants progressed quicker than the tomato plants and I got some good yield. By the time the tomato plants were starting show good sign of both types of tomatoes I started to notice some tomato blossom end rot especially on my Roma tomatoes.
I had a hard time figuring out the soil moisture with our zone 6 climate changing due to global warming or whatever we either had excessively dry soil or wet soil. I never can figure out the ph of the soil, but I am told that excessive nitrogen fertilizer could cause blossom end rot on both tomatoes and peppers. However, I had not applied any excessive nitrogen fertilizer or any nitrogen at all. Had I figured out how to use my soil tester kit that I have had for nine years in it’s original packaging I could have determined whether I had low or high pH or if my soil was high in salts which can prevent the roots of my pepper and tomato plants from taking up the required amount of calcium to help these plant’s rapid cell growth.
Apparently when the plants grow rapidly in the beginning of the season, which mine did, blossom end rot can commonly set in and as the fruit sets during the excessive dry weather or apparently any dry weather then the water deficiency, for as little as 30 minutes, can cause blossom end rot which is exactly what happened to over 50% of my Roma tomato yield and on both types of tomatoes it cause all of them to have the toughest skins I have ever had. I still had good flavor and size.
I have since learned that I need to mulch these tomatoes in these large waist high containers or I guess any containers and when I water them I need to water uniformly during my growing season and water the soil deeply letting the water seep down at least 6 inches and I need to keep the soil pH at about 65. Also I have since learned that plum or Roma tomatoes are more susceptible to blossom end rot than other tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and melons.
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Author Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/
To see Arlene’s Gardens and to read her gardening diaries and to take a walk through her pictorial garden or click on Arlene’s Books where you can download or buy her gardening & cook books, including her new book, “The ABC’s of Wine and Beer Making”. Many of her articles written for Greenthumbarticles have paintings she has created of the subject and they can be seen at her “How to Do It” site. Remember to check out her artwork, especially of her fruits and vegetables. Many of her paintings are sold internationally and many of her works of art have been reproduced on note cards, post cards and other functional items. Arlene says, “All my royalties from the sale of my books go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and I thank you for visiting my site.”
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