bottom rot in tomatoes.

[Reinbeau]

One of the reasons to mulch is to retain moisture. You want to mulch after a good rain.

I bought my red mulch at Wymans in Hanson, I would imagine other good garden centers have it, also. The cheapest I found it online or in a catalog was at Burpee, the 4' by 30' strips were the easiest to work with for me. I didn't order any this season, so I paid for the 3' by 3' sheets, those were ok, I slit them to the center and put it around the plants, then put the supports in place. Doesn't matter what for you use, it does seem to cut down on disease and promote a good fruit set and ripening. But that's just an unscientific testimonial from a two year user. :rose

 

[simple life]

Its worth a try. Its quite the thunder storm here right now. We had one last night as well. Looks like the new rain barrels will be full though. I can't believe how quickly they fill up. It rained for an hour the other day, it was a hard rain and the barrels filled half way.
Ann, are you getting these storms down your way?
I hope it lets up for driving though, I am going to that meeting in Hanson for the bee keeping.
I hope to meet you there.

 

[Reinbeau]

Oh, good, Natalie, we'll be a bit later, before 7:30, see you there!

 

[Tutter]

I've never been convinced that the calcium hypothesis applies to every situation and my gut tells me that blossom end rot is a more systemic problem with many origins. How could egg shells possible help a plant that is fully mature? The egg shells won't break down for weeks, and my tomatoes are already setting fruit.

I thought this might help, as it explains it a bit.

Blossom End Rot

And I might be able to answer your eggshell question. While the bodies of the eggshells do take some time to break physically down, they leach calcium at a rate higher than it visibly seems.

Oakland, if I recall correctly, has apparently done soil testing before adding eggshells, and then a week later, and there was already an increase in calcium in the soil.

However, if it seems like it would take too long, or you find the shells unsightly, then you could make a tea from the shells, and water with the water. Either passively, or by cooking on the stove.

I hope this helps!

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

I've never been convinced that the calcium hypothesis applies to every situation and my gut tells me that blossom end rot is a more systemic problem with many origins. How could egg shells possible help a plant that is fully mature? The egg shells won't break down for weeks, and my tomatoes are already setting fruit.

I thought this might help, as it explains it a bit.

Blossom End Rot

And I might be able to answer your eggshell question. While the bodies of the eggshells do take some time to break physically down, they leach calcium at a rate higher than it visibly seems.

Oakland, if I recall correctly, has apparently done soil testing before adding eggshells, and then a week later, and there was already an increase in calcium in the soil.

However, if it seems like it would take too long, or you find the shells unsightly, then you could make a tea from the shells, and water with the water. Either passively, or by cooking on the stove.

I hope this helps!

I would imagine that a eggshell tea would speed up the induction of calcium into the plants but as Tutter said we have had results (from more than one occasion) where an increase in calcium did occur in as little as 1 week. In all reality a couple of weeks at most is the amount of time you'd wait for any real solution (even lime).

Crushing (or pulverizing) the eggshells will also increase their effectiveness.

Pelletized lime (as with most lime products) I would not recommend since this can adversely affect your soil's pH levels. This shouldn't be done with out specific testing at least.

Usually blossom end rot will occur in early set tomatoes any way if they were planted earlier in the season before consistent warm temps. The blossom end rot will eventually subside. Another reason for blossom end rot can be too much nitrogen. I know, everyone says tomatoes require heavy amounts of nitrogen and this is true for most of the growing season. Later when fruits start to set a lower nitrogen fertilizer should be used if any. Typically this isn't the problem but if you fed heavily with a nitrogen rich fertilizer this may be the problem.