[A Reyt Tayty]

It seems to be on some of my toms. This year, I've taken particular care with the watering, but it's still happening. I read all about calcium uptake, so this year I've been saving eggshells, grinding them up, and adding them to the final potting mix. Still copping for some BER though. Any solutions/ideas?

[New shoot]

How are you growing your toms Tayty?  Growbags are notorious for being difficult to get enough water into, whereas deeper pots really do seem to help with this 

[sunshineband]

I know that in plants where the roots are not sufficiently strong to transport calcium up the plant, this can be a problem

This can be due to

- cold, wet soil  

- too many other salts in the soil to allow the roots to function ie too much tomato food too often

- irregular watering

I think generally there is sufficient calcium in the soil, it is a case of ensuring it gets where it is needed when it is needed through healthy roots

I don't know if this helps, or it is just telling you what you know already. I seem to manage to avoid it somehow, so I thought I would pass on what I do know. The plants at home are in growbag style planters with about 6ins of compost; those at the plot are planted directly in the ground, with a light dressing of BFB before planting. I only feed once every ten days.

[A Reyt Tayty]

Toms in big pots, bedded onto growbags. Watering toms from the top, and also growbags through small plant pots bedded in between the bigger tom pots. Watering is regular. Feed is via those tomorite slow release balls.

[sunshineband]

Never used slow release stuff for tomatoes (didn't know they made it)

As they have plenty of soil, maybe they need a little less frequent watering than usual due to the lack of sun -- I am guessing now.

[New shoot]

I'm not familiar with Tomorite slow release either.  

If there is plenty of soil and the watering is OK, which it seems like there is from what you have said, the other cause of blossom end rot can be uptake of other nutrients blocking calcium uptake, as Sunny said earlier.  The calcium is usually there in the compost but the roots are taking up other stuff - ammonium salts, which are the nitrogen component of many fertilisers are usually cited as the culprit.

If your slow release is a top dressing it may be worth removing some and see if this helps  

[A Reyt Tayty]

The slow release comes in a pack of 30 "blocks" of smaller balls. You put 3 blocks to a pot, then just water as normal. The toms seem to quite like them. In fact, I'm getting really big trusses on some of them with very few blind toms. Saves a lot of time as opposed to liquid feed.

[Bernard]

A small point which has recently occurred to me-
if you have snails, you must have calcium otherwise they would not be able to grow their shells.