Wednesday, 08 July 2009
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Can anyone help me with my tomato problem??
As you all know we planted our first garden this year, and I have put up pics of what a good yield we have been getting. I have freezer full of yellow squash, zuchinni, bell and ancho peppers, jalapeno peppers....and we have mint and basil like crazy, even the cantaloupes and watermelons are showing some promise.
The tomatoes however are a different story! I have grown tomatoes in pots before and have been pretty successful, and you may know that tomatoes in my opinion are the absolute perfect food and I love them!! So we planted about thirty tomato plants, of different varieties and were so excited as the grew tall and strong and started to get loaded up with hard green tomatoes.
Problem is, once they start to go from green to yellow to orange, and sometimes before, they get black on the bottom and rot before they turn red. We have yet to be able to eat even one and I am sooo dissapointed. I feel like we are doing everything right, we did do a lot of research and have had lots of help from my Pawpaw who plants a successful garden every year.....and yet they just wont cooperate.
They are in direct sun, we water about every other day unless it rains, in the evening after the sun goes down. We fertilized with horse manure and we staked them up so that the fruit wont be on the ground.....and yet they look terrible once they start to change.
Someone suggested coffee grounds and someone suggested epsom salt, to be sprinkled around the bottom of each plant....which by the way look amazing, it is the actual tomotoes that look awful. We have not tried the epsom salt, cuz I was wary of that....but I did dump some coffee grounds on one of the plants to see how it will do. At this point we dont have anything to lose, but if anyone out there has any suggestions PLEASE let me know. I should have taken a pic of the tomato itself but I was sooo pissed off that I ripped it off the vine and chucked it over the fence. Mr. Ed just looked at me like I was nuts, but he ate the tomato just the same.
Please help, and if u cant then rec this so that someone else can!!!Until next time, M
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Comments (6)
Blossom rot is what it sounds like , they need calcium. If they are determinate it might be to late though if they are indeterminate you can prob go ahead a try. Next year add a pinch clay you buy from the feed store in the holes b4 you plant.
@Made2sing4Jesus - In my internet search I determined that it was exactly that, and that yes they did need calcium. What does determinate mean?.....the website that I was on said to remove all affected fruits, make sure the plants were getting at least one ince of water per week and in direct sun.....which they are, but I could be over watering (however the rest of the veggies are doing great!) and to mulch around them....and I am not sure what that means either? .....Thanks in advance for your help! Later, M
when you bought the plant or seed it should have said which they were. Determinate means they bloom & make fruit pretty much in one burst;they are not as tall. Indeterminate will keep growing like a heavy vine with now suckers & it will produce flowers & fruit until frost or death.
Mulching is done in several ways straw & the red garden mulch you can buy are my favs. It keeps the roots moist but not drowned. You put the straw /mulch around the plant bottom area. Here is another place to buy it from & a picture but try your WalMart first- (HERE)
@Made2sing4Jesus - I am thinking, since I cant remember what most of the plants said when I bought them ( a lot of them came from a fundraiser for our local 4-H, the plants that the 4-h ers started from seeds and were in little styro cups and cost a dollar, LOL) from your description that they are indeterminate. The stalks or vines are big and thick like trees and they seem to have flowers for a while before they have fruit, then the green fruit is on the vine it seems forever. I will try the hay, we have plenty of coastal bermuda that we feed the horses and I read about the red mulch. Thanks for the info, I will pass it along to my husband to.
I'm glad you got some answers cuz I had nothing to give you. Hope it helps. I've got a bunch of little green grape tomatoes but not enough to write home about. LOL. Then again, I've only got one grape plant and one upside down one.
@jans_corner - Well if they are getting ripe and u can eat 'em u are doing better than me, Mom says to just pick the hard green ones and batter and fry 'em! How is that for redneck, or is that soul food?