Blossom End Rot Common on Tomatoes Now

The blossom end of the tomatoes or pepper fruit,
not the stem end, has a black spot on it

Blossom end rot of tomato and pepper are common problems found on developing fruit in the spring of the year. It can happen any time but it is common now. Cut the black part out and you can still enjoy the fruit but it is ugly to look at.

Blossom end rot is classified as a disease but it is not cause by a disease organism like the blights are. Instead, it is a physiological disorder that is not totally understood but thought to involve the nutrition of the plant and how it is irrigated.

The most common recommendation is to water more consistently; the plant going through periodic dry and wet soil cycles is thought to create this disorder. Applying fertilizers doesn't seem to help.

Irrigating correctly may be true but it is frustrating to have this on your tomato or pepper fruit when you believe you have done everything right.

Here are some other thoughts about this problem and what you can do about it.

Horse bedding like this is $5 for 3  cubic feet
 and goes a long way as a surface mulch
for your vegetables.

Apply a surface mulch around your vegetables. If the problem is your regular watering or the soil fluctuating from dry to wet back and forth, surface mulches help keep the soil from drying out between irrigations thus reducing the fluctuation from dry and wet, back and forth.

One of the best products we have used on our test gardens and raised beds is animal bedding. We have tried using straw in the past but it can be dirty, carry a lot of weed seeds and it really does not decompose very well when it is turned under. We have wood mulch of all types and it is great for landscape and fruit trees but not meant for vegetable gardens unless you want to remove it at the end of the growing season and put it back after you replant.

Apply a wetting agent to the soil. Soils that contain a lot of compost can become hydrophobic or, in other words, they can repel water. If you are watering raised beds by hand and flooding the soil each time you water, the dry soil down a few inches can push the surface water to the edges of the raised bed.

Wetting agent made from cold-pressed
agave extracts called saponins. It retails for $17
for one quart of the concentrate. Use 1 oz in
5 gallons of water.

Surface water will easily flow down the crack between the edge of the raised bed and the soil thus draining the bed without allowing the water to go all the way through the soil.

EZ Wet is a natural plant product derived from agave that is a wetting agent and helps soils that are hydrophobic to rehydrate and accept the water. It has other uses as well and helps foliar applied fertilizers fertilizers to get inside the leaves and work more efficiently. This product is far superior to using liquid dish detergents that contain personal care products such as hand lotions and are scented.

Viragrow Delivers!