Tomatoes and Blossom-End Rot: Is Lack of Calcium the Culprit?

 

Photo from:

https://www.canr.msu.edu/resources/blossom_end_rot_tip_sheet#:~:text=Blossom%2Dend%20rot%20is%20caused,the%20tissue%20of%20the%20tomato.&text=Since%20calcium%20is%20only%20moved,affected%20by%20a%20calcium%20deficiency.

I am writing this to correct a mistake I made on this blog years go...and in my garden for decades.  For years, I have read than blossom-end rot on tomatoes is due to a lack of calcium.  You know blossom-end rot (see photo above). The fruit rots from the blossom up and is ruined. Each year, I added crushed eggshells, calcium carbonate, even a calcium-based antacid to my tomato planting holes to prevent it. But, you know what?  Calcium does play a role, but most soils have enough calcium to support tomatoes. It is inconsistent watering that creates problems for the transfer of calcium into the tomato plant.  So all those calcium supplements were useless to stop blossom-end rot, though eggshells certainly don't hurt anything. Make sure your watering is consistent.  And, don't water after a heavy rain. Tomatoes are not good at regulating water flow, and too much water will cause ripening fruit to crack!

I STAND CORRECTED.

Reference:

https://mgnv.org/2018/07/16/garden-myth-busters-eggshells-blossom-end-rot/

SO DARN PROUD OF MYSELF

 

OK, these are not just photos of a spindly tree.  Well, ok, they are, but it is a special, spindly tree!  Maybe 8 years ago, I found a wild pawpaw tree that had good tasting fruit (pawpaw fruit flavor from wild trees can vary quite a bit).  I collected a few fruit, saved the seeds, cold treated them (stratified them), and raised a few trees. Last year was the first year I cross-pollinated with fruit with pollen from an unrelated tree and got a nice crop! And the fruit was just lovely, tasted great!

This year I was more careful about selecting only male flowers shedding pollen to cross pollinate my flowers.  Pawpaw flowers are considered "perfect," with both male and female parts, but also "protogynaus," or 'female first'. That is, the female part of the flower matures first, then is no longer receptive when the male part appears. This is thought to be a strategy to reduce self- pollination and increase genetic diversity, but it is one reason the pawpaw is poor at producing fruit (other reasons: their pollinators, flies and carrion beetles, are inefficient; the trees are more likely to reproduce by underground runners than sexually and: as the colony grows, the trees get shaded and flower less).  I had to make sure I had receptive female flowers, then find trees that had advanced to having male flowers, aka pollen (luckily I had scoped this out last year).

If you look at the photos above, you will see the baby pawpaw fruits circled in red (the largest cluster has 7 fruits!). It is hard to take a photos of these tiny things. I was very successful in cross-pollinating with a paint brush this year, so successful, I may have to remove some fruit as it might weight the branches down too much!

You do not have to do what I did to get  pawpaw trees, you can purchase named varieties, just make sure to get two different cultivars for cross pollination.  I just liked the challenge and adventure of doing this myself!

Repurposing

I am a big fan of the philosophy "Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or Do without" especially the idea inherent in this, repurposing.  I try to follow this in my home and in my garden. I have used silver packaging plastic cut in strips and tied to a pole  to scare birds, plastic lids as plant saucers, that kind of thing. My latest creation is pictured above.  While pruning my figs last winter, I saved some tall and straight branches to use in the garden as stakes.  But the rest requires a back story.

In my 20's, I was a bad abstract artist, and several of my paintings made it through various moves to our current home.  I was doing a big purge just before the pandemic, and saw these terrible paintings. I put then in the shed to break them down and toss them out. I recently stripped off the canvas and pulled out the staples.  "Huh" I thought "What can I do with these old canvas stretchers?" I teamed them up with the fig branch poles, some string I has saved, and some zip ties...and voila!  Pea trellises! And I think they are fun!