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Old 08-01-11, 05:09 PM   #1
RobertSmalls
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Default Tomato disease?

My tomato plants look very healthy this year, with lots of leaves, strong stems, plenty of flowers... but a percentage of the fruit that's coming in appears diseased. Something like a quarter of the fruit on the vine has a brown patch at the bottom of the tomato.


It's brown, with a few light brown, bubbly looking spots on it.

Here's a section view, about 3mm up from the bottom.


What is it, and what should I do?

Btw, the plants are Roma. Last year I planted Roma and Beefsteak in the same location, with no issues. The year before, it was lawn.

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Old 08-01-11, 05:30 PM   #2
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I just found this on Yahoo, here is the link:

Brown circular rotting spots developing on bottom of almost all my tomatoes !! Help !!? - Yahoo! Answers
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Old 08-01-11, 06:52 PM   #3
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Planting tomatoes in the same location tends to be an all around bad idea because their diseases tend to stay in the soil for a few years, so any rotten fruit, leaves or dead plants should be removed and composted in a good healthy (hot) compost pile, plants should be mulched with grass clippings, news paper or even dry wall (calcium) to prevent dirt from splashing up on to the leaves and fruit of the plants.
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Old 08-01-11, 07:48 PM   #4
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Calcium deficiency (plant disorder) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yep, that's pretty much what it looks like. Glad to know it's not contagious. It says calcium deficiency can be caused by overapplication of nitrogen and potassium fertilizers. I did apply it liberally, but there aren't any clear instructions on how much is too much.

It's also brought on by drought. Yep! It went a few (hot, hot, hot) weeks without significant rain, and lots of folks' plants are suffering. I irrigated, but not consistently.

Corrective action: apply lime, irrigate consistently, apply less fertilizer next year. I should be able to save most of my crop this year, but not all of it. I think I'll amputate all the affected tomatoes now. I don't want gangrenous spots to attract bacterial, fungal, and animal parasites.

Oh, and awesome: I get to go buy saltpeter now. Hopefully all the oxidizers in my garage won't raise too many eyebrows.

Last edited by RobertSmalls; 08-01-11 at 07:55 PM..
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Old 08-02-11, 09:36 AM   #5
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I had the same thing happen to my tomatoes too Robert...except it's in the self watering tomato planters that I have. And I just removed all the dirt from last year and put in new dirt. I think there may have been a few days where I didn't have it topped up with water, but not many. But it has been super hot here too. I have some Lime so I may just apply some to the soil. And I did apply some fertilizer...but I didn't think it was that much.
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Old 08-05-11, 03:02 AM   #6
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I'm not growing the red softies this year but my buddy who does has his first few doing the same thing, each successive tomato that riped had less of it until it stopped producing the spots. He ate them anyway just cutting away the black stuff. Seems this year is a worse year than most for the black spots. ...not sure if the heat is causing issues or what would be different as this didn't seem to be occuring that much last year.
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Old 08-05-11, 01:33 PM   #7
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I've not had much trouble with BER. None at all this year. When I did, it was only the Romas that did. Your picture also looks like a Roma.
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Old 09-26-11, 05:59 AM   #8
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I'm not sure there's a whole lot a person can do. One thing is not to grow your tomato plants in the same spot every year, to avoid soil borne diseases. Not everyone ascribes to that practice, although I do.
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Old 09-27-11, 07:45 PM   #9
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The BER killed the growth bud on the affected tomatoes, and they really didn't get big enough to be worth harvesting. I threw the affected tomatoes into the compost pile. I'll be sure not to use my compost where I plant tomatoes next year.

I still got a great crop of tomatoes this year: about 10kg so far, and the season isn't quite over yet.
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Old 09-28-11, 08:38 AM   #10
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We had a blight on our tomatoes this year too. It was very disappointing because we had some great looking plants.

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