Tuesday, July 14, 2009

blossom end rot on tomatoes and zucchini

All of the tomatoes except the cherries seem to be struggling with this product of calcium deficiency. I fertilized the tomatoes with a Whitney Gardens organic product, as well as the peppers. I may add some lime as well. Here are a few references:
The deficiency can be due to inadequate calcium in the soil, insufficient water, excessive vegetative growth, competitive cations in the soil, or moisture fluctuations. I don't think it's a watering problem, but I haven't actually tested the soil. I'm not seeing inordinate foliar growth so I doubt it's a nitrogen imbalance. They are growing in the shallow square foot beds, though, so perhaps they are experiencing too much moisture variability even though I usually water every couple of days. I need to get an automatic irrigation system set up in there.

A few zucchini have shown the problem as well. I'll fertilize those. Should hit the eggplants, too.

I don't yet have any sense of what the latency is with respect to calcium availability and uptake.

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