Eggshells in Garden/What about Tums for Blossom End Rot?
 

We are having a lot of trouble with Blossom End Rot on our Peppers this
year, probably all 10-12 plants have it. No good peppers yet and they were
planted in the bring albeit we got a late start.
Tomatoes not having it this year. I only saw one tomato from the last
harvest that had it on there.
? That seems strange. I used the same fertilizers on both, I even put some
Jobes Tomato Spikes in both the Tomatos and Peppers.
Rain has been nonexistent until the last few weeks and now we are getting
some pretty good rains. 2 1/2 in. this week near Gilmer. Blossom end rot
is suppose to show up after a lot of rain, but it seems like the Peppers
have been like this all along. I wonder if this is something that happens
pretty quick, say within one day of the rain? Anyway...

If you are going to crunch up eggshells and throw them down at the base of
the plant, is there any harm in NOT rinsing them first? My Dad leaves some
of the goop in them when he saves them for me. He maintains the garden for
us since he is retired. What about Tums? My Dad had the idea to throw them
down near the base of each plant last year and we did not seem to have as
much trouble. Can Tomatos and Peppers absorb the Calcium in Tums?
We have 1500+ sq. ft garden in E.Texas
Zone 7a or 8b

Thanks,
Rita

GarlandGrower wrote:

..........................
.................................
If you are going to crunch up eggshells and throw them down at the base of
the plant, is there any harm in NOT rinsing them first? My Dad leaves some
of the goop in them when he saves them for me. He maintains the garden for
us since he is retired. What about Tums? My Dad had the idea to throw them
down near the base of each plant last year and we did not seem to have as
much trouble. Can Tomatos and Peppers absorb the Calcium in Tums?.........


I bet they can. Do you own a blender? I think I would put a small hand
full of Tums in the blender with water. Then pour the result around the
base of only 2 or 3 plants so see what happens.
If you treat all the pepper plants and the problem goes away, you will
have no way to know if the Tums worked or if weather conditions improved
the situation.
Oh, I wouldn't worry about the egg shells. I would think the remaining
goop would decompose quickly.

Steve in the Adirondacks

In article ,
"GarlandGrower" wrote:

We are having a lot of trouble with Blossom End Rot on our Peppers this
year, probably all 10-12 plants have it. No good peppers yet and they were
planted in the bring albeit we got a late start.
Tomatoes not having it this year. I only saw one tomato from the last
harvest that had it on there.
? That seems strange. I used the same fertilizers on both, I even put some
Jobes Tomato Spikes in both the Tomatos and Peppers.
Rain has been nonexistent until the last few weeks and now we are getting
some pretty good rains. 2 1/2 in. this week near Gilmer. Blossom end rot
is suppose to show up after a lot of rain, but it seems like the Peppers
have been like this all along. I wonder if this is something that happens
pretty quick, say within one day of the rain? Anyway...

If you are going to crunch up eggshells and throw them down at the base of
the plant, is there any harm in NOT rinsing them first? My Dad leaves some
of the goop in them when he saves them for me. He maintains the garden for
us since he is retired. What about Tums? My Dad had the idea to throw them
down near the base of each plant last year and we did not seem to have as
much trouble. Can Tomatos and Peppers absorb the Calcium in Tums?
We have 1500+ sq. ft garden in E.Texas
Zone 7a or 8b

Thanks,
Rita



I'd just go get some bone meal......
It's not expensive, and it sure seems to help my blooms! :-)
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." -Jack Nicholson

It would be quicker and cheaper to get a bag of powdered lime from your
CO-OP and put it down. That is what I did in Arkansas for my watermelons.

Leave the goop on the egg shells. It draws little bugs to them that enjoy
eating the eggs of the bad nematodes in your garden. I read that in a
tomato growing book.

Dwayne

"GarlandGrower" wrote in message
...
We are having a lot of trouble with Blossom End Rot on our Peppers this
year, probably all 10-12 plants have it. No good peppers yet and they
were planted in the bring albeit we got a late start.
Tomatoes not having it this year. I only saw one tomato from the last
harvest that had it on there.
? That seems strange. I used the same fertilizers on both, I even put
some Jobes Tomato Spikes in both the Tomatos and Peppers.
Rain has been nonexistent until the last few weeks and now we are getting
some pretty good rains. 2 1/2 in. this week near Gilmer. Blossom end rot
is suppose to show up after a lot of rain, but it seems like the Peppers
have been like this all along. I wonder if this is something that happens
pretty quick, say within one day of the rain? Anyway...

If you are going to crunch up eggshells and throw them down at the base of
the plant, is there any harm in NOT rinsing them first? My Dad leaves
some of the goop in them when he saves them for me. He maintains the
garden for us since he is retired. What about Tums? My Dad had the idea
to throw them down near the base of each plant last year and we did not
seem to have as much trouble. Can Tomatos and Peppers absorb the Calcium
in Tums?
We have 1500+ sq. ft garden in E.Texas
Zone 7a or 8b

Thanks,
Rita

"GarlandGrower" wrote:

We are having a lot of trouble with Blossom End Rot on our Peppers this
year, probably all 10-12 plants have it. No good peppers yet and they were
planted in the bring albeit we got a late start.
Tomatoes not having it this year. I only saw one tomato from the last
harvest that had it on there.
? That seems strange. I used the same fertilizers on both, I even put some
Jobes Tomato Spikes in both the Tomatos and Peppers.
Rain has been nonexistent until the last few weeks and now we are getting
some pretty good rains. 2 1/2 in. this week near Gilmer. Blossom end rot
is suppose to show up after a lot of rain, but it seems like the Peppers
have been like this all along. I wonder if this is something that happens
pretty quick, say within one day of the rain? Anyway...

If you are going to crunch up eggshells and throw them down at the base of
the plant, is there any harm in NOT rinsing them first? My Dad leaves some
of the goop in them when he saves them for me. He maintains the garden for
us since he is retired. What about Tums? My Dad had the idea to throw them
down near the base of each plant last year and we did not seem to have as
much trouble. Can Tomatos and Peppers absorb the Calcium in Tums?
We have 1500+ sq. ft garden in E.Texas
Zone 7a or 8b

Thanks,
Rita

Most BER is supposedly water related, not actual calcium deficiency,
but without good soil testing it is hard to know for sure. The fact
that the peppers are suffering but tomatoes aren't is probably a key
symptom--something is affecting one and not the other. Any differences
in position of the peppers, near a rock/house wall (greater heat),
overhang of house, trees shading tomatoes more? Was the tomato soil
given any more preparation or used in previous years? Three of my
peppers, all in one bed are doing really badly, still only 6-7 inches
tall. The others out back also seem to have another problem-looks like
black spot that I see on roses. Nearby tomatoes are doing great. It
is just a bad, bad year for peppers for me.


No harm leaving the egg goop, except perhaps smell. I collect the
eggshells, especially during winter. I microwave them dry, toss in a
metal can and shake to break em up. I toss them in the holes I dig for
tomatoes and peppers. I should proably do it for eggplants too... same
family, although I've never heard of BER mentioned with eggplants.

I don't know how quickly the shells will break down-they may not
affect this season. My thought is I'm at least replenishing what they
are taking out. Also commercial eggs probably have less calcium than
small farm/organic. My friend in Jersey has chickens and I noticed her
eggs have much thicker shells(and BRIGHT orange yokes) than commercial
ones. You can buy a BER foliar spray, so the nutrients get quickly
absorbed by the leafs.



DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email)
Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound
3rd year gardener
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/royalf...=/2055&.src=ph

as others have said, you have much better choices than Tums or
eggshells. I use wood ash, which is 50% Ca. Lime, manure, bone meal, or
compost tea would also be better.

make sure your watering shedule doesn't vary..... blossom end rot is usually
a watering issue than a calcium uptake.
mulch and water systematically
"GarlandGrower" wrote in message
...
We are having a lot of trouble with Blossom End Rot on our Peppers this
year, probably all 10-12 plants have it. No good peppers yet and they
were planted in the bring albeit we got a late start.
Tomatoes not having it this year. I only saw one tomato from the last
harvest that had it on there.
? That seems strange. I used the same fertilizers on both, I even put
some Jobes Tomato Spikes in both the Tomatos and Peppers.
Rain has been nonexistent until the last few weeks and now we are getting
some pretty good rains. 2 1/2 in. this week near Gilmer. Blossom end rot
is suppose to show up after a lot of rain, but it seems like the Peppers
have been like this all along. I wonder if this is something that happens
pretty quick, say within one day of the rain? Anyway...

If you are going to crunch up eggshells and throw them down at the base of
the plant, is there any harm in NOT rinsing them first? My Dad leaves
some of the goop in them when he saves them for me. He maintains the
garden for us since he is retired. What about Tums? My Dad had the idea
to throw them down near the base of each plant last year and we did not
seem to have as much trouble. Can Tomatos and Peppers absorb the Calcium
in Tums?
We have 1500+ sq. ft garden in E.Texas
Zone 7a or 8b

Thanks,
Rita

Thanks for all the great answers.

"DigitalVinyl" wrote in message
...
"GarlandGrower" wrote:

Most BER is supposedly water related, not actual calcium deficiency,
but without good soil testing it is hard to know for sure. The fact
that the peppers are suffering but tomatoes aren't is probably a key
symptom--something is affecting one and not the other. Any differences
in position of the peppers, near a rock/house wall (greater heat),
overhang of house, trees shading tomatoes more? Was the tomato soil
given any more preparation or used in previous years?

The tomato soil may have had more fertilizer in it, but all planting holes
were prepared the same with manure, Tomato Fertilizer from Gardens alive and
later (Jobes Spikes were pounded in all), Water Crystals, I mean I put
everything but the kitchen sink in there. I prepped all the holes before my
seedlings went in. Soil test the second year indicated P and K were
extremely high, but N was somewhat low. The soil our there is inherently
low in N and high in Iron and minerals. We have NOT sidedressed much this
year. We had the foliar spray, but Dad forgot to use it after the rains.
We used it last weekend, but I've since found out what some of the posts
indicate, the sprays will not help. The problem is with the fluctuation of
water and the rains and even if the calcium is in the soil and/or in the
plant, it does not get to the fruit correctly. The foliar sprays do not
work on the fruit, because the fruit can not absorb the spray like the
leaves can.


No harm leaving the egg goop, except perhaps smell. I collect the
eggshells, especially during winter. I microwave them dry, toss in a
metal can and shake to break em up. I toss them in the holes I dig for
tomatoes and peppers. I should proably do it for eggplants too... same
family, although I've never heard of BER mentioned with eggplants.

I've not seen it on either of my two White Eggplants they are producing
abundantly
We had it on two or three Watermelons, all of the Peppers and a few tomatos.

I don't know how quickly the shells will break down-they may not
affect this season. My thought is I'm at least replenishing what they
are taking out. You can buy a BER foliar spray, so the nutrients get
quickly
absorbed by the leafs.

Yes, the eggshells are a "long term" kind of ammendment.





DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email)
Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound
3rd year gardener
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/royalf...=/2055&.src=ph