BER

[TightenUp]

my kelloggs breakfast plant is suffering from BER. the plant is pretty healthy and surrounded by 3 healthy plants. every tomato that forms eventually suffers from BER. i've prob lost about 20 tomatoes so far. no other plant in this raised bed has had a single tomato with BER.

a few days ago i added a weak solution of cal-mag ( http://www.botanicare.com/Cal-Mag-2-0-0-P48.aspx ) hoping this would halt the BER but this morning i noticed it starting on a few of the tiny tomatoes.

not sure where to go from here? another application of cal-mag? i don't want to do anything drastic as the other 13 plants in the bed are healthy and producing without BER

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by TightenUp

my kelloggs breakfast plant is suffering from BER. the plant is pretty healthy and surrounded by 3 healthy plants. every tomato that forms eventually suffers from BER. i've prob lost about 20 tomatoes so far. no other plant in this raised bed has had a single tomato with BER.

a few days ago i added a weak solution of cal-mag ( http://www.botanicare.com/Cal-Mag-2-0-0-P48.aspx ) hoping this would halt the BER but this morning i noticed it starting on a few of the tiny tomatoes.

not sure where to go from here? another application of cal-mag? i don't want to do anything drastic as the other 13 plants in the bed are healthy and producing without BER

If BER was due only to lack of Ca++ that would be one thing, but it's not,


Here's a post I did several years ago that I think might help:

&&&&&&

Blossom End Rot (BER) is one of the most common tomato problems seen in the early part of the season. It is a physiological condition, not a disease caused by a fungus or a bacterium or a virus. Therefore it cannot be treated.

And as I'll explain below, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to
prevent. BER has nothing to do with the blossoms, it refers to the fact that at the end of the tomato opposite the place where the tomato is attached to the stem, called the stem end, is the bottom of the tomato, which is called the blossom end. You often can see remnants of the blossom attached to that end as the tomato forms. At the blossom end one sees a flattened area that looks
leathery and initially brown and then black, as the fruit rots.

BER is said to occur when there is uneven watering, drought, heavy rainfall, excessive nitrogen fertilization, rapid plant growth or root pruning during cultivation, high winds and rapid temperature changes. So lots of conditions have been associated with BER. But the rapid plant growth and nitrogen fertilization are both common to conditions seen early in the season, and indeed, that is when most BER occurs. Then it usually just goes away.

BER occurs because under the conditions just stated, Ca++ moves from the fruit into the vasculature (stems) of the plant. Or, some feel that Ca++ never reaches the fruits becasue under stress demand for Ca++ exceeds supply.This lowered amount of Ca++ is what causes BER. Excessive rates of transpiration (kind of like sweating in humans) also is involved in Ca++ displacement. Thus, the plant as a whole is NOT Ca++ deficient, the Ca++ has just been displaced.

Many books and magazine articles tell you that by adding Ca++ in the form of lime or eggshells, for instance, that you can prevent BER. That does NOT appear to be true. It was several years ago that I found out that University field trial experiments have so far failed to show that BER can be prevented by addition
of Ca++. I recently e-mailed my friend at Cornell who told me all this two years ago, to again confirm that it was still true, and will update you, if necessary. Peppers and many cole crops are also susceptible to BER and there's quite a bit of literature on BER and Ca++ for those crops also. The results are the same; addition of Ca++ does not prevent BER.


Some data strongly suggests that foliar spraying with Ca++ is of no use because not enough gets to the fruits to do any good. And it's known that the sprays for fruits that are sold are usless. No molecules can get across the fruit epidermis. If they did, just what do you think would happen to the fruits when it rained.LOL

Not all varieties of tomatoes get BER. Some never do, others are horrible. That's not surprising since certainly there are slight physiological differences between varieties. After all, almost all garden tomatoes, with the exception of the currant tomatoes are in the same genus and species, Lycopersicon lycopersicum. And we humans are all in the same species, Homo sapiens, var. sapiens...and look how different some of our physiologies are.
Whoa!

So, BER is a physiological condition, cannot be cured, and current
literature data suggests it cannot be prevented. It occurs on some, but not all varieties of tomatoes, is usually seen early in the season and then stops, for most folks. It would be nice to say that you could even out your watering, prevent droughts and heavy rainfalls, ensure even and not rapid growth of plants and not disturb the roots by shallow cultivating. But on a practical basis, I think we all know that's almost impossible. So, BER has never bothered me, I just ignore it, and it goes away with time.

Adding Ca++ to soils that are Ca++ deficient makes sense, but few soils are. And if soils are acidic, Ca++ is not taken up well but addition of Epsom Salts to the soil can aid in Ca++ uptake in such acidic soils.

Many folks add Ca++ and then see that BER disappears. What they fail to realize is that BER is going to go away anyway, as the season progresses. And that's becasue as the plants get larger they are better able to handle the many stresses that can induce it. So one cannot correlate addition of Ca++ to disappearance of BER. Universities have done so many stidies on this already
becasue BER is a billion dollar problem in the commercial veggie industry.

Of all the stresses that can induce BER thetwo that are most under control of the home gardener are fertilization and water delivery.

That is, too much fertilizer causes plants to grow too rapidly and is perhaps one of the major causes of BER developing. Too rich soils do the same thing. Plant growth simply outstrips the ability of Ca++ to get to the fruits.

Mulching to help ensure even delivery of water also can be done and is also one of the two major causes, IMHO, of BER.

BER appears usually on half ripe fruits but also can appear on grass green ones.Lack of Ca++ only occurs at the blossom end of the fruit and it causes tissue destruction which leads to that papery greyish/blackish lesion appearing.Now sometimes that lesion opens up and fungi and bacteria enter and that causes the rotting and also the appearance of fungal growth on and in the lesion.

Just pick off any BER fruits that appear and soon the next fruits to ripen will BERless.

Many books, magazine articles and websites still say to add Ca++ as lime, eggshells, etc, and seem not to be aware of all the research that has been done in the last 20 years. But many books, magazine articles, are now sharing this newer information about addition of Ca++ not being able to either prevent or cure BER except in rare situations of low Ca++ soils or acidic soils.

I suppose it will take another generation for the right information to be present everywhere. And from my own experience i can tell you that there will be folks who will get madder than can be when they read this kind of info becasue they simply believe otherwise. So be it. LOL Addition of modest amounts of Ca++ aren' t harmful, but I feel strongly that folks should know what's going on with past and current rsearch re BER and Ca++.

Hope the above helps.

######

And you have had lots of rain and temp swings in NJ, as in many stresses.And some varieties are more prone to BER than others since not all move nutrients and water in theplant in the same way and notall trsnpire the same wayh either.

Carolyn

[KarenO]

wow. great information! I am lucky to not have issue with BER as yet but if I get asked, I have good information to refer to
thanks
KO

[ubergoober]

Thanks Carolyn. I don't know how many people I have referred to your prior comments regarding BER. They vehemently believed it was just a calcium deficiency.

[lakelady]

This year I have only had 1 tomato with BER out of all the plants I am growing, and it was Flamme.

I highly suspect it is because I've been neglecting the gardens and working a lot so they don't really get watered much at all lol. Can't have uneven watering when you don't water. They actually are not doing bad at all considering. Last year I babied all the plants and I think the results are pretty similar, but with more BER last year on some varieties I did not grow this year. I even have several pastes growing and not 1 case of BER anywhere , which surprised me.

[novel grower]

Hmmm wish I had seen this just a little sooner because my cherokee purples have most of the fruits showing this BER I could have pulled them off earlier but I will get rid of them now :-(