I'm trying to save my plum tomatoes which I think are indeed suffering from
blossom end rot. Can I pick them green and plump, but before the rot is
evident, and ripen them in brown paper bags or on my windowsill? Will the
rot still come out?
Or, shall I let them ripen on the vine and then cut off the bottoms and use
them anyways for cooking. I'm hoping to salvage a massive batch of sauce I
have planned. There is a lot of advice about preventing the rot for future
years, but I still don't know if the crop is completely lost or if I will be
able to use the fruit.
Thanks for iding the problem!
-Holly

Cant tell you about BER on tomatoes, but on watermelons, I just cut the end
off and the rest was delicious.

If you let them ripen maybe you could use them in canned sauce or salsa.
You are lucky. You can grow tomatoes, I got 24 from 24 plants last year.

Dwayne

"I & H" wrote in message
link.net...
I'm trying to save my plum tomatoes which I think are indeed suffering
from
blossom end rot. Can I pick them green and plump, but before the rot is
evident, and ripen them in brown paper bags or on my windowsill? Will the
rot still come out?
Or, shall I let them ripen on the vine and then cut off the bottoms and
use
them anyways for cooking. I'm hoping to salvage a massive batch of sauce I
have planned. There is a lot of advice about preventing the rot for future
years, but I still don't know if the crop is completely lost or if I will
be
able to use the fruit.
Thanks for iding the problem!
-Holly

I & H wrote:

I'm trying to save my plum tomatoes which I think are indeed suffering from
blossom end rot. Can I pick them green and plump, but before the rot is
evident, and ripen them in brown paper bags or on my windowsill? Will the
rot still come out?
Or, shall I let them ripen on the vine and then cut off the bottoms and use
them anyways for cooking. I'm hoping to salvage a massive batch of sauce I
have planned. There is a lot of advice about preventing the rot for future
years, but I still don't know if the crop is completely lost or if I will be
able to use the fruit.
Thanks for iding the problem!
-Holly



In our experience its kind of a hard one to call as not all of the fruit
will suffer from the rot. You may be picking many that will ripen just
fine. Also, it seems the rot causes the fruit to prematurely ripen so if
you pick them before the rot is apparent you may be picking fruit that
are so premature they will never ripen.

Depending on where you are and how much season you have left I would
suggest picking up a foliar spray for the BER and or putting some
dolamitic lime around the base of the plants. Many times the BER is
caused by weather/water but often times it can be due to calcium
deficiency. Fine ground dolamitic lime can be taken up by the plants in
2 weeks and from what I hear the foliar spray can be even faster. We had
pretty serious BER on our italian paste's and I hit them with the lime a
couple weeks ago and the yield is up markedly already.

Just my .02,
Mark

"Mark & Shauna" wrote in message
k.net...
| I & H wrote:
|
| I'm trying to save my plum tomatoes which I think are indeed suffering
from
| blossom end rot. Can I pick them green and plump, but before the rot is
| evident, and ripen them in brown paper bags or on my windowsill? Will
the
| rot still come out?
| Or, shall I let them ripen on the vine and then cut off the bottoms and
use
| them anyways for cooking. I'm hoping to salvage a massive batch of sauce
I
| have planned. There is a lot of advice about preventing the rot for
future
| years, but I still don't know if the crop is completely lost or if I
will be
| able to use the fruit.
| Thanks for iding the problem!
| -Holly
|
|
|
| In our experience its kind of a hard one to call as not all of the fruit
| will suffer from the rot. You may be picking many that will ripen just
| fine. Also, it seems the rot causes the fruit to prematurely ripen so if
| you pick them before the rot is apparent you may be picking fruit that
| are so premature they will never ripen.
|
| Depending on where you are and how much season you have left I would
| suggest picking up a foliar spray for the BER and or putting some
| dolamitic lime around the base of the plants. Many times the BER is
| caused by weather/water but often times it can be due to calcium
| deficiency. Fine ground dolamitic lime can be taken up by the plants in
| 2 weeks and from what I hear the foliar spray can be even faster. We had
| pretty serious BER on our italian paste's and I hit them with the lime a
| couple weeks ago and the yield is up markedly already.
|

Unless you maintained a few control plants that received no treatment, you
have no way of knowing whether the lime cured the problem or whether the
problem went away on its own.

"Mark & Shauna" wrote in message
k.net...
| I & H wrote:
|
| I'm trying to save my plum tomatoes which I think are indeed suffering
from
| blossom end rot. Can I pick them green and plump, but before the rot is
| evident, and ripen them in brown paper bags or on my windowsill? Will
the
| rot still come out?
| Or, shall I let them ripen on the vine and then cut off the bottoms and
use
| them anyways for cooking. I'm hoping to salvage a massive batch of sauce
I
| have planned. There is a lot of advice about preventing the rot for
future
| years, but I still don't know if the crop is completely lost or if I
will be
| able to use the fruit.
| Thanks for iding the problem!
| -Holly
|
|
|
| In our experience its kind of a hard one to call as not all of the fruit
| will suffer from the rot. You may be picking many that will ripen just
| fine. Also, it seems the rot causes the fruit to prematurely ripen so if
| you pick them before the rot is apparent you may be picking fruit that
| are so premature they will never ripen.
|
| Depending on where you are and how much season you have left I would
| suggest picking up a foliar spray for the BER and or putting some
| dolamitic lime around the base of the plants. Many times the BER is
| caused by weather/water but often times it can be due to calcium
| deficiency. Fine ground dolamitic lime can be taken up by the plants in
| 2 weeks and from what I hear the foliar spray can be even faster. We had
| pretty serious BER on our italian paste's and I hit them with the lime a
| couple weeks ago and the yield is up markedly already.
|

Unless you maintained a few control plants that received no treatment, you
have no way of knowing whether the lime cured the problem or whether the
problem went away on its own.

True that I didnt hold out two pastes which I didnt lime but there are
plants in the same bed, on either side of the pastes which I didnt lime
(they arent pastes). They had some BER as well but to a far lesser
extent. They still have BER at approximately the same rate while the
pastes are showing little to none at this point. Of course rain/weather
change regularly so they surely could have played a part. The only real
changes seem to be the lime and perhaps rains have been slightly more
even though still erratic. Temps have been all over the place.

Mark


TQ wrote:
"Mark & Shauna" wrote in message
k.net...
| I & H wrote:
|
| I'm trying to save my plum tomatoes which I think are indeed suffering
from
| blossom end rot. Can I pick them green and plump, but before the rot is
| evident, and ripen them in brown paper bags or on my windowsill? Will
the
| rot still come out?
| Or, shall I let them ripen on the vine and then cut off the bottoms and
use
| them anyways for cooking. I'm hoping to salvage a massive batch of sauce
I
| have planned. There is a lot of advice about preventing the rot for
future
| years, but I still don't know if the crop is completely lost or if I
will be
| able to use the fruit.
| Thanks for iding the problem!
| -Holly
|
|
|
| In our experience its kind of a hard one to call as not all of the fruit
| will suffer from the rot. You may be picking many that will ripen just
| fine. Also, it seems the rot causes the fruit to prematurely ripen so if
| you pick them before the rot is apparent you may be picking fruit that
| are so premature they will never ripen.
|
| Depending on where you are and how much season you have left I would
| suggest picking up a foliar spray for the BER and or putting some
| dolamitic lime around the base of the plants. Many times the BER is
| caused by weather/water but often times it can be due to calcium
| deficiency. Fine ground dolamitic lime can be taken up by the plants in
| 2 weeks and from what I hear the foliar spray can be even faster. We had
| pretty serious BER on our italian paste's and I hit them with the lime a
| couple weeks ago and the yield is up markedly already.
|

Unless you maintained a few control plants that received no treatment, you
have no way of knowing whether the lime cured the problem or whether the
problem went away on its own.