BER, overwatering or underwatering?

shellba · July 8, 2010

Hello everyone. I am hoping someone can help me here. I have BER on some of my Maters (Bulls heart, Arkansas Traveler, and Italian Long Sauce.) A couple with it on my speckled Siberian also. Here's my dilemma. We have had a horrible hot humid heat wave here in the western part of PA. ( about a week of temps ranging in the 90's) I have been faithful about watering my in-ground Maters every other AM. I ALWAYS check the soil before watering. Finger test about 3-4 inches in and the soil is usually dry the whole way down, but a tad cool on the tip of my finger. This is when I water. Now, I have noticed that some of my plants have BER. A lot of them had set some big beautiful fruit, but the ones further up the plant that were just coming on before this heat wave seem to be developing BER. I tested my pH, and it is neutral at 7.0. My question is am I watering too much or too little? I'm not quite sure which way to go. I have read what I could find on here, and I think I am going to hop on down to the nursery or tractor supply to try to find a calcium supplement to use as a soil drench. I thought maybe I would need to fertilize (only fertilized once this year, but have been spraying with spray-n-grow--no added fertilizer in it) When I planted I put 1 aspirin tablet, 2 handfuls of bonemeal, a handful of espoma bio-tone with mychorrizal, a handful of garden tone, some crushed eggshells, and some shrimp shells down deeper in the hole. I fertilized about 3 weeks ago with miracle grow for tomatos, not relaizing that it had ammoniacal nitrogen in it. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Shelly

July 8, 2010	#1
shellba Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Derry, PA Posts: 11	BER, overwatering or underwatering? Hello everyone. I am hoping someone can help me here. I have BER on some of my Maters (Bulls heart, Arkansas Traveler, and Italian Long Sauce.) A couple with it on my speckled Siberian also. Here's my dilemma. We have had a horrible hot humid heat wave here in the western part of PA. ( about a week of temps ranging in the 90's) I have been faithful about watering my in-ground Maters every other AM. I ALWAYS check the soil before watering. Finger test about 3-4 inches in and the soil is usually dry the whole way down, but a tad cool on the tip of my finger. This is when I water. Now, I have noticed that some of my plants have BER. A lot of them had set some big beautiful fruit, but the ones further up the plant that were just coming on before this heat wave seem to be developing BER. I tested my pH, and it is neutral at 7.0. My question is am I watering too much or too little? I'm not quite sure which way to go. I have read what I could find on here, and I think I am going to hop on down to the nursery or tractor supply to try to find a calcium supplement to use as a soil drench. I thought maybe I would need to fertilize (only fertilized once this year, but have been spraying with spray-n-grow--no added fertilizer in it) When I planted I put 1 aspirin tablet, 2 handfuls of bonemeal, a handful of espoma bio-tone with mychorrizal, a handful of garden tone, some crushed eggshells, and some shrimp shells down deeper in the hole. I fertilized about 3 weeks ago with miracle grow for tomatos, not relaizing that it had ammoniacal nitrogen in it. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Shelly