Not sure if this should go under diseases or containers...

[dice]

I suppose there is not a quick lime fix?

Nutri-Cal maybe:
http://www.nutri-cal.com/qa.htm

It is calcium in an organic compound that is alleged (by
the manufacturer) to make it easy to take up and use
by the plant, and it should have no effect on pH, not
bother drip injection, hydroponic, or spray equipment,
etc.

I haven't tried it.

I have treated plants showing some BER with Super Sweet
(6 week breakdown, similar to finely ground dolomite lime),
comfrey leaf tea, and wood ash before. They didn't get BER
after that. The wood ash breaks down fast, but it radically
raises pH fast, too, so handle with care. The only problem
with comfrey leaf tea is that it is difficult to have any idea
how much calcium you are adding. It is high in calcium for
a commonly available plant, so it may be better for a calcium
deficiency than many other kinds of leaf tea, but that doesn't
mean that it has enough to prevent BER necessarily (depends
on how deficient the soil actually is for the needs of a particular
crop). I use it because it can't hurt in this context, it is organic,
it supplies a range of nutrients in small doses, and because I
keep it around to use as part of a low-impact, general purpose
plant tonic anyway.

[karpes]

Those pictures were taken a couple of days ago. Here are pictures from the beginning,taken 4/17/08. This is my first year using the tomato clip/string method and to me it is much easier than cages and you get ripe fruit much quicker. I prune,fertilize and tie once a week.
Karpes

[karpes]

Ok, one final picture taken today of how I normally grow tomatoes in CRW cages. These tomatoes were planted two weeks before the others. To me this is a gosh awful mess and there are lots of tomatoes in there if I can find them. There are 7 plants 2-better boy, 2 big beef. 1-beef steak, 1-Cherry 100 and 1-brandywine. Squash and zucchini are planted between the tomatoes. Just my little opinion but I will only plant determinate tomatoes in cages and switch completely to a single stem tie,string and clip tomatoes in the future.
Karpes

[amideutch]

Karpes, The plants in the CRW cages. Is that a raised bed you are growing them in and what growing regimen are you using to grow them, ferts, aggregate? Those are some healthy looking plants.
That nutri-cal looks like the ticket for container growers especially the EB and ET type growers. Ami

[karpes]

Those are growing in a raised bed with a mixture of horse stall bedding, peat ,dolomite lime, micro nutrients and soil. They have received very little fertilizer. I will be looking for some nutri-cal for the grow bags tomorrow. To all, thanks for the advice. karpes

[feralcatfriend]

Karpes,

Where do you buy the tomato clips? Is there anything special about the string?

Also, it looks like you have a black pipe with water lines with spikes that go into the surface of the soil in the containers--but there's also a white (PVC?) pipe attached at the bottom. What's the white pipe for?

I look forward to your answers.

Cynthia

[karpes]

Cynthia I purchase the plant clips from Hydro gardens (http://www.hydro-gardens.com/growsup1.htm#plantclips ) and the string is bailing twine. You can use other types of string but stay away from monofilament or small diameter string that could cut into the tomato. I think the white pipe you refer to is simply the two PVC caps that I use to drain and winterize the system. Other than that I used PVC to connect the sprinkler valve and also as the return lines for the hydroponic system karpes