Tomato Blossom End Rot Disease Guide

Growing tomatoes is rewarding both financially and emotionally. You get to save money by growing your own produce and you might as well admit it. Watching your tomatoes sprout up to thriving plants full of red tomatoes is very gratifying.

That's why it can be downright disturbing when your tomato plants start to look diseased. You don't want all your hard work planting and tending to be wasted. One of the tomato diseases that your tomatoes can get is Blossom End Rot. If your tomatoes look like they are rooting at the top (where they first blossom) then you've probably got the diseases.

This article will give you some detail on what Blossom End Rot is in depth, what causes it and how you can treat it.

What Blossom End Rot Is:

Blossom End Rot is a disease that can affect tomatoes but also eggplant, watermelon and pepper. It affects the blossom end & leaves the produce in question looking rotted and/or sunken in. Blossom End Rot first starts as looking like a small water soaked area on either the red or green tomato. From there it becomes bigger, looks sunken in and turns black in color. It will look leathery. It certainly looks unappetizing and can cause horror when you realize that tomatoes aren't supposed to look like that.

If you have a really bad case of Blossom End Rot, it will cover the entire tomato and destroy it.

Causes of Blossom End Rot:

Blossom End Rot is caused by a physiologic disorder. In normal folk's term, it basically means that it is related to low concentration of calcium (which can happen from the soil not having enough calcium in it). Tomatoes need a normal amount of calcium for normal cell growth. Too much calcium can also hurt your tomatoes. Fact Sheet Extension says that "high amounts of competitive captions in the soil, drought stress, or excessive soil moisture fluctuations which reduce uptake and movement of calcium into the plant, or rapid, vegetative growth due to excessive nitrogen fertilization."

Treatment for Blossom End Rot:

The biggest way that you can help prevent it is to prep your soil BEFORE you plant. If you know your soil isn't up to par, mix some aids in to help it be suitable for a garden. You can start by making sure that your soil is suitably drained before adding other soils, fertilizer, etc. Garden Web recommends maintaining your soil pH at around 6.5.

Lime, bone meal or bagged manure will help add calcium but it does take time to come into effect so that's why you'd need to use it before planting your garden. If your soil is alkaline, you will not want to use lime.

Extra types of ammonal nitrogen in your soil can also help cut down on excess calcium. You can also reduce calcium by using a reduced amount of phosphorus (chemical element that has the symbol P and atomic number 15).

When you've planted your tomatoes, be sure to avoid deep cultivation because that can be very harmful to your plant roots. Instead use mulch that will help keep your soil moisture levels steady. It will also help you to avoid drought stress and over watering.

If you already have Blossom End Root, it can be hard to fix. Garden Web says that you can "stabilize the moisture level" and feed your plants manure or a compost mix that is made out of tea. You can also make compost mixes made out of powered milk, crushed egg shells and tea, bone meal tea and even Tums tablets (a remedy that you may already have in your medicine cabinet!).

There is also a spray called "Rot Stop" that is supposed to help stop Blossom End Rot by correcting calcium defensives. You spray it on your growing tomatoes in the morning or evenings. You can buy it online here for $9.08.

You should also remove tomatoes that are infected. It can't spread just by touch but it will help take the strain off of the diseased plant. Luckily Blossom End Root can just be temporary and won't necessary destroy future tomatoes that grow from your plant. With doing the steps above you can be on your way to a healthy garden once again.

Sources:

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3117.html

http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/tomato/2000082444023571.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphorus

http://www.veggiegardeningtips.com/tomato-blossom-end-rot/