[vron]

Hi every one.

We have noticed that some of our tomatoes grown in large pots at home have developed blossom end rot.

They are heavy in fruit, watered daily, fed every other day with wilkos own concentrated tomato feed.

I'm assuming they are not taking up enough calcium, so any ideas how to combat this please.
Many thanks for any advice you can give.

[Annen]

I'm told it is caused by irregular watering (or irregular weather leading to irregular take-up of water) but some varieties seem to be more prone to it than others.  The two fandangos and marmande (large toms) both suffered, but none of the cherry tomatoes (sungold and gardeners delight).

[mumofstig]

A thread from July discussed this
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=115713.msg1335700#msg1335700

[Goosegirl]

Before I looked at the thread, I vaguely remember something about over-feeding, so feeding every other day is most likely the cause IMHO as once a week should be sufficient.

[vron]

Thankyou for you replies, sorry but the feeding is mon,wed and fridays at a reduced strength.
I read an article by Bob Flowerday saying its better to give a weak feed every day than a strong feed once a week.
So we thought we would give it a try, but on 3 days only.

[Eightball]

Blossom end rot is caused by a lack of calcium. Either by irregular watering (thus damaging the plants capability to uptake calcium) or purely because there is not enough calcium in the soil.

From the sounds of it you have a pretty good watering regime so I would be inclined to think the latter.

Seeing as they are in pots maybe there isn't enough calcium in the compost? It's a bit late now but next year you could try adding crushed up egg shells, dolomite lime or calcified seaweed to the compost mix when you plant them in their final pot.

Another option which I have used before is to add dolomite lime to the watering can once a week. 2tbsp of dolomite lime mixed up with 2litres of water. Then a small glug of this mixed into my watering can once a week.

[luke34]

I grow my tomatoes in 30 liter pots. and always  put a hand full of dolomite lime  in. and then put 1tbsp in the
  watering can once a week  when Fruit set .

[Snoop]

If you can get some wood ash, sprinkle a little on the surface (tablespoon or so) and water it in. I'd probably do it again in a couple of weeks as a just in case measure. For the toms showing signs of BER already, it's too late and probably too late for lots of the others, but you might be able to rescue the situation for later toms.

Whenever I've had BER (not for a couple of years now since I started adding wood ash to the soil), I've just cut the bad bit off and eaten the rest. Love home-grown toms too much to let even the slightest edible bit go to waste.

[vron]

Thank you for your replys and advice.