Tomato Blight ?

[spudhauler]

Anyone have the problem where the bottom of the tomatoes turn brown? I have been told it is tomato blight. Is there something to spray on them? I have a very nice crop coming this year but I have noticed a few small brown spots already starting to develop on the bottom part on some of the green tomatoes. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[harvey lee]

With tomato blight the leaves of a plant will begin to get brownish black spots and soon cover the leaf causing it to fall.The same spots will then cover the tomato and will make the tomato rot.

From what I have heard is that spraying will only help if it is done before you have the blight.There may be something out there to help stop it but that I have not heard.

This fall do not compost the vines and roots of the plants affected by the blight.Bag the plants and dispose them and this will help for the following year.The cold of winter will not kill the spores.They can live in the plant left in the ground so get rid of them.

Other things you can do to help prevent this from happening again next year is to spray the plant,keep your vines off the ground with cages or tomato trellis.Good air circulation is good to keep the leaves dry.Also space your plants at least 3 ft apart.

Never work around your tomato plants when they are wet as you will spread the pores.Never water at night.

Also dont plant peppers,eggplant or potatoes around the tomatoes as they will also get the fungus.If you dont have the blight to bad then you could trim off the affected vines and maybe slow it down.

You could also go to your garden store and see what chemical they have to spray it now and maybe you will get lucky depending on how bad your plants ahve it.

Maybe next year it would not hurt to move your garden to a different location in the yard to get away from that spot which could still be bad next spring.

The other thing it could be is that the tomatoes are touching the ground and the bottoms are rotting.Are the spots on the leaves and falling with the spots?Its hard to say without seeing the plant.I have had some tomatoes where the vines are so heavy and loaded with tomatoes that the ones touching the ground or mulch on the ground will rot.

[spudhauler]

harvey lee,

Thanks for the reply, perhaps I should have been a bit more specific. I am quite familiar with late blight and early blight that affect potatoes. The disease I am dealing with now does not seem to affect the leaves or plant matter in anyway except for the the actual tomato fruit itself. And then the problem is only on the bottom half or extreme bottom of the fruit. Perhaps it is not a blight at all or rather a different type of disease? Anyway thanks again for the ideas.

spudhauler

[Jim Uran]

Hey I was having the same problem so I did a little research and found out it has something to do with the lack of calcium in the soil or the plants inability to utilize the calcium due to inconsistant watering. It's called Blossom End Rot. It does not spread to the other fruits and it usually corrects itself as other fruits begin to develope. Hope this helps.

[spudhauler]

leechbait,

Thanks that is exactly what I have. I searched tomato blossum end rot on the web, and bingo that is what I have. I'm sure the high PH soils that I have attribute to my problem. I will have to be more consistent with my watering. Thanks again.

[draled]

I also have it. Last year was bad, this year I watered a lot more and it seams to help. I only had it on my romas. This year the problem I have been haveing is thes huge tomato cadapillers, they are 1/2" by 6" they distroyed three plants in one day. I sprayed seven on and it wiped them out.

[jltimm]

You can start collecting them Tomatoe catapillars and use them like fear factor does. Get some friends together and start the competition!

[draled]

my two year old was haveing a b-day party while I was picking them off. I put them, about 20, in to a pie tin and scared all the little kids telling them that instead of cake we were having caddie-pie.

[Moose]

Those things are scarry!!!! I had to use the BBQ tongs and gloves to get them off my tomatoes a couple years ago. They thouhgt they were pythons. They would stick their heads up and hiss at me as I picked them off and watched them die in a covered mason jar

[Steve Foss]

Crushing eggshells and putting them in the bottom of the holes when you put in the tomato plants will curb blossom end rot, too. Lots of calcium in eggshells. Blossom end rot happens not from a lack of watering, but from heavy watering after a prolonged dry period. One way to make things more consistently moist is to mulch. This keeps the moisture in the soil longer, and lessens the dry-wet-dry-wet cycle that leads to BER.

[Dotch]

Would caution people who have high pH soils (> 7.5) to be a little careful with the eggshells. Why? Especially on soils as we go west in MN, the parent material tends to be low in phosphorus and high in free calcium carbonate and magnesium. While addition of eggshells may help with blossom end rot on lighter textured soils (sandier), under high pH soils, heavier textured soils (higher clay content), overapplication of calcium carbonate may trigger other deficiencies such as iron or phosphorus, particularly where these nutrients are known to be low to begin with. We see it in soybeans as iron deficiency chlorosis in these soils and there is an as yet not totally understood reason for this. Some of it has to do with nitrate-nitrogen accumulation and some is as appeared this spring, due to release of carbon dioxide from degradation of calcium carbonate into the pore spaces of field capacity, sealed over soils. Bottom line: Soil test first to know where you're at.

As Steve points out, the lack of consistent watering is the biggest culprit, particularly in soils where there is adequate to abundant calcium. This can easily happen naturally in the southern part of the state where we have overabundant moisture then Mother Nature turns the spigot off soon after the flowers are developing on the tomatoes. Happened last year here as I never watered the plants early on & didn't need to; it was already too wet. Master Gardener Hank Wessels, who writes a column in the Land Magazine included a question on blossom end rot and also mentions that cutting off the affected portion of the fruit leaves you with the remainder that's perfectly good to eat.

With the hot weather, many of our tomatoes here set the fruit they could, aborted flowers then shut down until weather conditions improved. We have nice tomatoes at our place in SC MN but they're not as numerous as one would've hoped given the soil fertility (old cattle lot) and number of plants we have. With cooler weather and more rainfall, we should see more fruit set for those September tomatoes.