Provide sufficient nutrients to help your plants produce healthy tomatoes.
If the bottom parts of your tomato fruits rot, you have a problem with a disorder known as blossom-end rot. The rot can affect any part of the fruit, but it usually occurs on the blossom end or the bottom. The rotted area appears brown and feels tough and leathery. This usually occurs because the soil pH is too low, the weather is dry and the plant doesn't get enough calcium. You can cure blossom-end rot using several methods.
Instructions
1. Remove the fruits affected by blossom-end rot to allow the plant to allocate its resources to developing new, healthy fruits instead of channeling the resources to the rotted fruits.
2. Spray your tomato plants with a calcium chloride solution, which is available at garden centers. Spray the plants when the first green tomatoes are about as big as a silver dollar and repeat the treatment every week for three to four weeks.
3. Water tomato plants at a rate of 1 inch of water per week. This provides enough water to help the plants ward off blossom-end rot.
4. Get a local laboratory to test your soil pH. You can get laboratory recommendations from your local extension office. The laboratory will recommend that you apply a certain amount of lime to increase your soil pH to the appropriate level for tomatoes, if necessary. Follow their instructions closely.
5. Apply calcium sulfate or gypsum every year at initial planting at a rate of 3 to 4 lbs. per 100 square feet of tomato plants. You can obtain this product from garden centers. Follow the product label instructions closely. This provides the calcium that tomato plants need to develop healthy fruits.
6. Cover the soil where the tomato plants grow with 2 to 3 inches of mulch to retain moisture. Use pine straw, compost, shredded newspaper or wheat straw as mulch.
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