View Single Post
  #18   Report Post  
Old 25-07-2004, 03:09 AM
Jim Carlock
 
Posts: n/a
Default How much lime to treat blossom end rot?

I don't know much about much... but I've been reading a lot,
and someone correct me if I'm wrong.

For a long time I've known that certain vitamins are needed
to make other minerals and vitamins work. I'm going off on
a branch into the human body now, but bear with me...

In the human body, there's a B vitamin called PABA, which
is something like para-amino-benzoic-acid (or somesuch),
and it prevents a head of hair from turning gray. One lady I
was doing some work for, indicated that everyone in her
family had gray hair, yet she had very beautiful dark brown
hair that went down to her waste. She indicated that PABA
helps in preventing gray hair, but she said, that PABA alone
won't work, as it must be taken with other B vitamins (B6
and B12 ?). I just did a search on the Internet for these
words:

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22gray+hair%22+PABA

and lo and behold, it's all over the Internet. I was told this by
a lady in or about 1994.

And now back to plants... I've been reading that in order for
Calcium to be absorbed, a plant needs magnesium as well. Epson
salt is a recognized source of magnesium... and I've been messing
with some tomato plants for the last three months but they all
seem to be going wacky on me. They started off great though
using epson salt sprayed on the plant and in the soil and using
calcium tablets. And they've been hit by cabbage worms and
couple other things. I left for a week and when I came back
all their leaves had turned brown. I chopped off the leaves
and some of their stems are turning brown, in fact I chopped
off some stems as well. Now some leaves are growing back
and they are hanging in there.

Some of my problems are that one particular tomato plant is
in full sun (90 degree F temps +) 9 hours (++) each day, so
it needs watering a couple times a day. Even when the plant
is in the shade at later parts of the day, it's getting a lot of sun
because the sun is reflecting off of white stepping stones.

It's been a month since I've given the plant calcium and epson
salt and it's growing very very slowly now.

I don't know if it has blossom end rot or not. The leaves are
coming in very green, but some of the stems are turning brown
around the very ends of the tips.

It did appear that the epson salt and calcium tablets were
working but there's some other things going on and I do plan
on keeping this tomato plant going, but I've reached a point
that has got me stumped.

I'm currently testing out some 1-2-1 fertilizer with trace amounts
of other minerals, and have stopped with the calcium and epson
salt.

--
Jim Carlock
http://www.votetoimpeach.org/
Post replies to the newsgroup.