BER & saving seed

[matermaniac]

can I save seed from a BER affected mater? It's not ideal, I know. However, a majority of the garden is suffering from BER and caterpillars in a bad way. The two varities I desperatly need to save seed from are green sausage and banani. Both were difficult to grow and neither produced well.

I appreciate any feeback.

[nctomatoman]

Since it is a physiological issue - brought on by conditions (even though some variety types tend to be more prone), the seed will be fine. I've saved seeds from many a BER-afflicted tomato (sometimes it was down to only one ripe fruit and it had BER, in some difficult seasons, for a rare variety!), and the following season, with improved conditions, they do just fine.

[matermaniac]

thanks tomatoman. This BER is really damping my spirits. It's affected my fargo, purple russian, mort lifter, eva purple ball, jersey devil, green sausage, black cherry and banani. I at least had the older jersey devils survive to give me good fruit before the ber set in on the younger fruit.

i'll add the green sausage and banani into the fall line-up and hope to get fruit before frosty comes around.

[nctomatoman]

Be sure to keep the plants evenly watered, and ensure you don't have locally acidic soil. Don't let the plants visibly wilt once the fruit has set.

[Qweniden]

Originally Posted by matermaniac

This BER is really damping my spirits.

Tell me about it. At this point Im thinking that I am only growing cherry and drawfs next year.

I have pulled dozens of BER afflicted tomatoes so far. Looks like I'll get some plum and beefsteak tomatoes but so far it seems like some plants have 5 BER tomatoes to 1 healty one.

Since Ive noticed the problem Ive seen watering very consistently but it is still happeng.

[Timmah!]

Give 'em some Calcium Nitrate & see if it helps.

[matermaniac]

if even watering and no watering are one in the same, I'm set. About every few days when it would be time to water, it would rain. I've been fortunate that the raised mounds I built retain a fair amount of moisture even on the hottest days.

is there anything I should do to prep the beds for a fall planting?

[creister]

Try working in some gypsum into the soil around the base of the plant. I did that when some of my containers had problems with BER. It seem to shut it down.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by creister

Try working in some gypsum into the soil around the base of the plant. I did that when some of my containers had problems with BER. It seem to shut it down.

The problem with BER is NOT uptake through the roots, rather, it's maldistribution inside the plant where Ca++ doesn't get to the blossom end of the fruits.

Theonly two situations where addition of Ca++ to the soil might make sense IMO, are both rare indeed, is first, soil tests show NO Ca++ in the soil and second, the soil is so acidic that Ca++ is bound in the soil but that situation can be reversed by altering the soil pH.

As the plants mature you'll see that BER will disappear and many have been the folks who have claimed that spraying with Stop Rot or adding lime to the soil prevents or cures BER whenit was just that theplants got more mature. And BER disappears as the season progresses b'c more mature plants can better handle the many stresses that bring on BER which are uneven delivery of moisture, too much N, growing in too rich soils, and on and on.