Tomato Growing Problems? Listen To This [Podcast]

halcyondaze (61)in #dsound • 6 years ago (edited)

Today we're talking about tomato problems. I think you'll really enjoy it if you've ever struggled growing tomatoes in the past.

This is such a can of worms. We could spend hours just on this topic alone, but it's a fantastic question.

I think the first thing is start slow. It's to look at the space that you have and look at the hours of sun. Pick varieties that are going to have the best chance of doing well.

Almost everybody growing tomatoes everywhere, if they've got heat and humidity, will notice within a month or so, they're lower foliage, starts looking spotted. Could be brown spots, could be brown spots with yellow patches. There are two very common fungi that float about early blight, also known as alternaria leaf spot, and in the late spring and early summer maybe you've got to get it under control. The foliage is wet. Maybe it's dew in the morning.

If you see that lower foliage getting some spots on it, just snip it off. The plant will be growing taller. That foliage will be replaced above it, but if you leave that fully on, it helps that disease spread upwards, so that's, that's a biggie.

The second one that really bothers people is when your tomatoes are forming and they've got little brown or black spots on the very bottom and it starts out small and it gets bigger and bigger. It's the dreaded blossom end rot.

It's a physiological issue, meaning it is brought on by conditions. So there's a lot of literature and it is correct that there is a calcium issue that's going on, but the vast majority of soils have plenty of calcium. What's happening is that the tomato plant is experiencing stress and more often than not, the plant is being allowed to visibly wilt. On the hot days of early summer when you've got the little green fruit on the plant, so that causes the calcium to actually in calcium is very, very important for proper fruit development, but when that plant's start stressing out, the calcium starts migrating out of the fruit. The deficit occurs to form that little brown spot which just gets bigger over time. So drip irrigation, soaker hose, regular watering, doing whatever you can do to keep that plant happy, looking even at the hottest part of the days, you will almost entirely eliminate blossom end rot.

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