My tomatoes are coming on fine.. Except that the base/bottom of them are
black.

What kind of infestation is that? What has caused it?

Ed

Ed ex@directory wrote:
My tomatoes are coming on fine.. Except that the base/bottom of them are
black.

What kind of infestation is that? What has caused it?

Bloosom end rot. Caused by inconsistant watering.

You could try cutting the black out, but I've always found it goes right to
the centre so the whole fruit is ruined, and end up throwing them.

If you start watering regularly you may find any new fruit survive.

"Ed" ex@directory wrote in message
...
My tomatoes are coming on fine.. Except that the base/bottom of them are
black.

What kind of infestation is that? What has caused it?

Ed

Blossom end rot - we often have this problem with the first tomatoes -
particularly this year when it was so hot and difficult to keep the growbags
moist. If you water regularly you should find that later tomatoes are OK.
We don't find it going through the whole tomato so you can cut off the bad
bit. May not be suitable for eating but fine for soup.

Jeanne

"Ed" wrote
My tomatoes are coming on fine.. Except that the base/bottom of them are
black.

What kind of infestation is that? What has caused it?

Agree with everyone else, and as they say, inconsistent water supply is said
to be the cause however a few of our first ones out on the allotment are
also showing it and that cannot be inconsistent watering.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

Bob Hobden wrote:
What kind of infestation is that? What has caused it?
Agree with everyone else, and as they say, inconsistent water supply is said
to be the cause however a few of our first ones out on the allotment are
also showing it and that cannot be inconsistent watering.

Your allotment didn't dry out at all during the really hot spell earlier
this year?

I've found certain varieties are a lot more prone to it than others. Cherry
tomatoes never* get it. Yellow ones don't seem to, either. But every time
I get a nice 'new' variety and I only have a handful of seeds and half of
them die and I only end up with one strong plant - /they/ get it! :-(

(so far this year, the 'noire' tomato has lost all but 1 fruit, and the 1
that didn't have it went rotten before it was eaten! - and the beefsteak-
like tomato, which I wasn't even aware I was growing, and I really ought to
find my list of what everthing is, that has had it, too)

wrote ..
Bob Hobden wrote:
What kind of infestation is that? What has caused it?
Agree with everyone else, and as they say, inconsistent water supply is
said
to be the cause however a few of our first ones out on the allotment are
also showing it and that cannot be inconsistent watering.

Your allotment didn't dry out at all during the really hot spell earlier
this year?

I've found certain varieties are a lot more prone to it than others.
Cherry
tomatoes never* get it. Yellow ones don't seem to, either. But every
time
I get a nice 'new' variety and I only have a handful of seeds and half of
them die and I only end up with one strong plant - /they/ get it! :-(

(so far this year, the 'noire' tomato has lost all but 1 fruit, and the 1
that didn't have it went rotten before it was eaten! - and the beefsteak-
like tomato, which I wasn't even aware I was growing, and I really ought
to
find my list of what everthing is, that has had it, too)

Our Toms didn't dry out, they are in a clay/silt soil (moisture retentive)
and were watered daily, and not long after they came into bloom/fruit it
started raining.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

Bob Hobden wrote:
Our Toms didn't dry out, they are in a clay/silt soil (moisture retentive)
and were watered daily, and not long after they came into bloom/fruit it
started raining.

How odd, I wonder what caused it, then.
What variety are they? (And are they your 'normal' variety, or do you chop
and change each year?)
Sorry, I know you weren't the original poster, but I'm interested now. :-)

wrote ...
Bob Hobden wrote:
Our Toms didn't dry out, they are in a clay/silt soil (moisture
retentive)
and were watered daily, and not long after they came into bloom/fruit it
started raining.

How odd, I wonder what caused it, then.
What variety are they? (And are they your 'normal' variety, or do you
chop
and change each year?)
Sorry, I know you weren't the original poster, but I'm interested now.
:-)

Because we grow them outside on the plot we use blight resistant varieties
Ferline and Fantasio every year to ensure we do get a crop. On top of that
we also plant at least one other variety just to see what it does and this
year it's Harbinger ('cause we got the seeds free!). I do spray with
Bordeaux Mixture from about the 3rd week of July as a double precaution
against blight. Too many years we didn't get one tomato after months of
cultivation.
I think if blight was not a problem then we would still be growing Roma
Improved (and certainly Brigade* if we could get the seeds) as we tend to
use more Toms for cooking than eating raw.

* Brigade is a fantastic Tom for sauces etc, much darker red flesh than
skin, not over wet, and tasty. Also grew well out on the plot. Unfortunately
T & M only sell it in the US now and refused to sell it to me when I asked.
--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

It's in fact caused by a calcium deficiency, This may result from low calcium levels or high amounts of competitive cations in the soil, excessive soil moisture fluctuations which reduce uptake and movement of calcium into the plant, or rapid, vegetative growth due to excessive nitrogen fertilization.

Bob Hobden wrote:
Because we grow them outside on the plot we use blight resistant varieties
Ferline and Fantasio every year to ensure we do get a crop. On top of that
we also plant at least one other variety just to see what it does and this
year it's Harbinger ('cause we got the seeds free!). I do spray with
Bordeaux Mixture from about the 3rd week of July as a double precaution
against blight. Too many years we didn't get one tomato after months of
cultivation.

That's interesting. At least one of mine is Harbinger, but I'm not sure
which one it is now. I wonder if they are the ones in the baskets that were
my first to crop (outdoors)? If so, they are huge cherry or very small
normal tomato size! Google seems to think they are not tumblers, though.

I think if blight was not a problem then we would still be growing Roma
Improved (and certainly Brigade* if we could get the seeds) as we tend to
use more Toms for cooking than eating raw.

I rarely cook home grown tomatoes, it seems wasteful, somehow. We have GD
and some large ones on the front of the allotment, as it didn't seem blight
weather at the time (huh!), and they were just going to die due to not being
potted up if I left them in the greenhouse. SO far they seem unblighted.
(touch wood!)

* Brigade is a fantastic Tom for sauces etc, much darker red flesh than
skin, not over wet, and tasty. Also grew well out on the plot. Unfortunately
T & M only sell it in the US now and refused to sell it to me when I asked.

Try registering on folia website, they have a lot of US users who are very
kind about sending over seeds, etc.

On 26/08/10 15:06, Granity wrote:
Ed;898421 Wrote:
My tomatoes are coming on fine.. Except that the base/bottom of them are

black.

What kind of infestation is that? What has caused it?

Ed

It's in fact caused by a calcium deficiency, This may result from low
calcium levels or high amounts of competitive cations in the soil,
excessive soil moisture fluctuations which reduce uptake and movement of
calcium into the plant, or rapid, vegetative growth due to excessive
nitrogen fertilization.




I feed them with Tomorite.. wouldn't that help?