Thursday 15 December 2011

BLOSSOMING TOMATOES

Growing tomatoes for the first time,i didnt know a lot of things about tomatoes! All i knew is i was so happy & all excited seeing them growing, flowering and now producing some tomatoes until last night i noticed something that i was trying very hard to avoid from happening to my tomatoes...I saw 2 tomatoes with slightly damp & dark bottom.....from what i've read about tomatoes,i knew straight away that my tomatoes are facing the blossom end rot problem...:(

Blossom end rot is a condition where the tomato (or any flowering vegetable/fruit ) begins to get a brown or darkening spot on the blossom, or “bottom” end. The rotten spot will get larger as the tomato grows larger. The best thing to do is to pick off the rotted fruit. That's so hard for me to do especially with my  first tomatoes..sob.. sob.. sob... :'P 

beautiful from this angle..


not a beautiful sight from the bottom..:(

There is nothing more frustrating than looking at what once appears to be nice tomatoes, only to find that the blossom end has started to rot :( & as for the other tomato plant, i saw some powdery white thingy on some of its leaves..& it has not shown any sign that it's gonna bear any flowers yet and the size is smaller compared to the other 4 tomatoes i have...any idea what those are? havent done my research on those powdery thingy yet...Fyi, both problems are happening to my upside down tomatoes....(but i havent check on those that are grown the normal way..hopefully they're ok) Hmm..i'm still learning....I'll do my best to save the rest of the tomatoes...I wont give up! Wish me luck....:)

U can refer to these links for some info on blossom end rot

"There is no gardening without humility.  Nature is constantly sending even its oldest scholars to the bottom of the class for some egregious blunder."  
-Alfred Austin

7 comments:

  1. Blossom end rot is indeed heartbreaking. Sometimes it is only the early fruits that are affected, especially if the weather has been cool, so I'd say keep the bad ones picked off and hope the later ones are better.

    Blossom End Rot Fact Sheet

    "Use of fertilizer low in nitrogen, but high in superphosphate, such as 4-12-4 or 5-20-5, will do much to alleviate the problem of blossom end rot."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the info,Granny....a lot of factors to be considered here...first of all,it goes to the inexperienced amateur gardener (LOL :P), & the weather is not helping either...it's been raining almost everyday lately & many other factors...tq for dropping by..:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. My first big tomato for this summer had blossom end rot. So it was tough decision to cut it out. But luckily the later fruit was not effected. Yours might be cured too after you cut the effected ones!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Maybe lack of micronutrients? I too had planted tomato cherries and some of the tomatoes showed this symptom and my lecturer said that because lack of Mg. You could buy a foliar fertilizer and spray to your plant. I suggest VITA GROW. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Soory my mistake. I just had my class today and my lecturer said that bottom rot in tomato mostly because of lack of Calcium. You can try ROBUST and spray it at your tomato fruit while it still small.

    http://www.alibaba.com/product-free/109555427/Robust.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. We hope you can mail us your mailing address so we can send you some larkspur seeds. Our contact email is written in our latest "IRIS" post. Hope to hear from you soon.

    ReplyDelete
  7. thanks, Wong..i'm monitoring the other tomatoes..so far no signs of bottom rot yet....hopefully tahan sampai masak la buah tu..:)

    Thanks, MK Girl....i've emailed u my contact address...*wink**wink* :)

    ReplyDelete