BER - now what?

[tam91]

At what point in time is it determined that BER will occur on a tomato? Right when you see it, or is it "brewing" earlier?

For example, we're having this awful heat wave. So if, for example, the heat wave was the cause of the stress on the plant, once the heat wave broke would more tomatoes get BER? i.e. are greenies on the vine during the stress period going to get BER, even if the stress is removed?

[Keger]

Depending on how many plants you have, you might want to hit them with some end rot spray, it does help. One thing we use down here where ber is common is a product called Texas Tomato Food. You can get it on line and it basically stops the rot, it has a good amount of calcium in it. The rot will slow down over time, but it has been so wet here I still have it on more tomatoes than I like.

[tam91]

Pretty much everything on this forum says that the issue is not available calcium, so sprays do not work. I am a little confused as to how this spray would help?

[hoffman900]

I feed my plants calcium nitrate and epsom salts every other week. I've had zero issues with BER on some large plants with very heavy yields.

[tam91]

I've done none that, and had no BER in many years.

I don't know, I'm just believing what the experts on here have written.

[Sun City Linda]

An expert and market grower on another forum says the plants need a steady supply of water, calcium etc, from the time they begin flowering. He grows in EBs and begins supplementing with weekly Calcium Nitrate at plant out.

[tam91]

I would imagine if you're in an EB, and soil-less, you'd have to provide the calcium, or there wouldn't be any. But people here seem to say that BER is not caused by calcium being unavailable, but rather that due to stress, the plant isn't using calcium correctly (presuming I'm reading that right).

I think Carolyn posted about some actual research, I'll see if I'm right, and if I can find it.

Here's a long post from Carolyn on the subject:

http://www.tomatoville.com/showpost....2&postcount=10

[bower]

I also found half a dozen fruit with BER today. The last four days have been really hot and humid, and could not keep the greenhouse from going over 90 F. I gave the plants extra water.... and presto.

[Tapout]

I found a couple tomatoes with BER in the past few days also. The heat and humidity has gave me PM BER and maybe some other fungus......... Mother Nature hates me. I mean I used calcium in the plants holes then scratched it in the top 3 inches of soil. I watered regularly, pruned, didn't water the foliage just the soil did everything right I think but with this weather doing everything right isn't enough. Today I broke out the whole milk and did a foliar spray trimmed the bad leafs and I am hoping for the best now.

[bower]

Just wondering, since BER is stress related, whether more experienced folks have tried any of the stress treatments, like kelp extracts, ASA/salycilate extracts....?

[carolyn137]

Tam, thanks for the link and here's another one about BER that I wrote more recently and I've psoted in the many BER threads here.

Why some plants and not others? B/c the physiology of nutrient and water uptake and transport within theplants with different varieties is different and it's one of the reasons why paste varieties are so susceptible to BER.

Why doesn't Stop Rot work? Because spraying partially ripe to almost ripe fruits does not allow for the Ca++ to penetrate the fruits. If it did every time it rains or the plants are irrigated, the water molcules would get through and the fruits would burst b'c the fruit epidermis is at it's maximum size and cannot enlarge. It might work if tiny green fruits were sprayed, not much data on that.

Why do some say that Epsom Salts help? ES is magnesium sulphate and there are some who say that in the soil Ca++ uptake is related to MG++ content. Not much good data on that either.

Stresses are many, and I know of no way that a person can control too hot, too cold, too dry to wet, but if folks know that using too much fertiizer can cause plants to grow too fast, that's also a major stress as is growing in too rich soil. So those stresses can at least be partially controlled by the grower.

What so often happens is that folks use this or that to help prevent BER but never use CONTROLS, with out the substances being used for comparison sake, which then invalidates and conclusions.

So here's my latest bit about BER.

******

With BER there is NO problem with absorption of Ca++ though the roots. The problem is maldistribution within the plant that can be induced by a number of stresses which include uneven delivery of water, too much N, growing in too rich soil, too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry you name it.


As the plants mature they can better handle the stresses that can induce BER so usually it goes away.

The two exceptions are first, if the soil has NO Ca++ as confirmed with a soil test, and that's a rare condition, and second, if the soil is too acidic in which Case Ca++ is bound in the soil.

Again, adding lime, egg shells and on and on can not and will not prevent BER b'c absorption of Ca++ thru the roots is OK.

Paste tomatoes are especially susceptible to BER and I think someone in a post above mentioned that.

The old information about BER being caused solely by lack of soil Ca++ has been shown to be wrong with research that's been done in the last 20 years or so, but it's going to take another generation before the real story gets into books, websites, magazines, etc. Most of the better websites already have the correct information.

BER affects not only tomatoes, but peppers, squash, cabbage, cauliflower, etc., and it's a huge multimillion dollar problem for the industry, which is WHY all that research was done. For instance, when tissues were taken from a plant that has BER fruits and was assayed for Ca++, the normal level of Ca++ was found, it just wasn't getting to the blossom end of fruits. And there's also a condition called internal BER where the fruits look fine, no evidence of BER externally, but when you cut open the fruit the inside is black
Hope that helps


This was a comment made by Betsy at another message site where there was yet another BER thread and she was commenting here on my post.

*****
So, what it comes down too is: Tums do not work, nor do egg shells, milk, and other "home remedy" treatments. Foliar spray only works in some cases. Time and good management practices work best.

[bower]

Reading up on the research, BER calcium issues are related to the activity of the enzyme pectin methylesterase (PME), which binds calcium in cell walls. They tested this by silencing the PME gene in a transgenic tomato.

There's also some interesting research on the natural inhibitors of PME. There are protein PME inhibitors (PMEI) that occur naturally in plants which play a role in stress response and have antifungal effects, for example in peppers. These natural inhibitors of PME can be suppressed by viruses. Another study amplified PMEI production by genetic modification in Arabidopsis and found the plants to be resistant to Botrytis.
Studies on temperature and pressure effects report that the complexes of PME and its inhibitor dissociated at high temps and pressure - which suggests high temp/humidity could cause BER even if there's lots of PMEI present, unfortunately....

Still it is possible that a plant-derived PMEI could be used to develop a treatment for BER for cases where it is not actively caused by the hot/humid condition.
The PMEI isolated from ripe kiwi fruit also inhibited PME in tomatoes and other fruit.

Another group identified epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) in green tea extract as a potent PME inhibitor - tomato PME was positively inhibited by this as well.
Lewis: "We have found that green tea catechin extract (called Polyphenon 60, or PP60) inhibits citrus and tomato PME activity in vitro,....In addition, we found that epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and gallocatechin gallate (GCG), the catechins containing active gallate esters, were the most active in PME inhibition."
EGCG is quite heat stable, unlike the plant protein PMEI's, so it might be able to inhibit PME even in the hot conditions that often cause BER.

The optimal extraction method to get maximum EGCG from green tea has also been reported: 35% ethanol, 90C, 60 minutes. Although I'm sure it could be extracted in a little vodka overnight at room temperature as well. There are pure EGCG extracts available on the market as health supplements, which could be used to make experimental BER treatments. My search did not turn up any published research using kiwi PMEI or EGCG products against BER - hasn't been done yet. You're on your own, teabag!