BER, Understanding the Cause

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

All I can say is that in all the several decades that I've been growing hearts,hundreds of them (I made a list a few years ago),inground,no supplemental Ca++,I have NEVER seen BER on even one heart fruit,ever.

Carolyn

I was astonished, too. And if one was going to misbehave, I wouldn't have expected it to be Anna Maria. As usual, they were beautiful perfectly shaped hearts. Has to be those milk-deprived brownies.

They're not quite so milk deprived now -- since early August when I began spraying the zucchini with 10% milk solution to deal with the powdery milkdew I've been pouring the little bits of leftover solution on Anna Maria. If she manages to produce a few unBER'd end of season fruit, I'll be sure about the brownie effect.

Originally Posted by Ricky Shaw

My first and only heart was this year, Orange Russian #117, and I had a dozen toms with BER. I thought is was just a propensity as a result of the odd fruit shape. Shows the danger of drawing conclusions from a small sampling. Good thing I stay tuned in, I would have carried that misconception.

Orange Russian #117 did fine, here -- no sign of BER (like most of the garden). I was pleased that it managed to make fruit in our short season. Of course it can't produce as it would in a climate more suited to it's long season preference -- but it has several nice hearty fruit on it that will -- I hope -- survive long enough to be harvested -- some are pretty close.