Reader Question: Why Are the Bottoms of My Tomatoes Rotting?
Reader Why Are the Bottoms of My Tomatoes Rotting? Saturday July 25, 2009 Jocelyn from Indiana emailed me a couple of days ago: “Hi Colleen. I have plenty of green tomatoes on my plants, but I noticed that a few of the tomatoes on one plant look like they’re rotting on the vine. The bottom end of each tomato is dark brown. What’s wrong? Does this mean I won’t get any good tomatoes this year?” Your tomatoes have blossom end rot. Blossom end rot is the result of calcium deficiency. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to add calcium to your soil. Generally, blossom end rot is due to watering practices (your own or Ma Nature’s.) A very typical situation is one in which the soil is allowed to dry out, and then the gardener waters when the plant starts wilting. The plant bounces back (tomatoes are resilient that way!) but some damage has been done. In dry conditions, the plant becomes unable to t
