"I & H" wrote in message
ink.net...
| I have loads of beautiful green plum tomatoes just waiting to become
sauce.
| The first two were reddening up so I picked them yesterday, from low on
the
| plant, and the bottoms were completely rotted out. The same thing happened
| to most of my big boys last year. As soon as they start to ripen and pink
| up, they develop a area of rot/mold at the bottom. The longer I waited to
| pick, the more they dissolved so that they were just half-tomatoes,
| beautiful, red, half rotten tomatoes...darn. The plants are pretty crowded
| in my garden, they grew full and wide rather than tall (I haven't
| planted plum tomatoes before), but the plants and green tomatoes seem
| healthy until they start to pink up. Is it a water problem? We've had a
cool
| wet season here in New England.
| Please help me save my sauce.....
|
|
|
|

Sounds like blossom end rot, which will usually go away on its own after
affecting the first few tomatoes. By and large, its a self-correcting
condition and it/s a common occurrence in many gardens.

Not much you can do about this year -- in spite of all suggestions to the
contrary, such as adding lime, eggs shells or epsom salts, etc -- it other
than to amend your soil with compost/organic matter, correct its pH, and try
to maintain even soil moisture.
--
TQ