Mr Torchey Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 I don't overwater though. I water every 2-3 days. What else could it be? From june 28th through july 7th we had less than a tenth of rain, I watered the tomatoes once. They like it hot and sunny with well drained soil, are you sure your soil is well drained? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalWx Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 From june 28th through july 7th we had less than a tenth of rain, I watered the tomatoes once. They like it hot and sunny with well drained soil, are you sure your soil is well drained? I have plants in buckets, which have holes in the bottom. I do notice that water does seep from the bottom of them, so I think it's draining pretty well. My plants start to wilt pretty badly after 3 days of no water. Maybe it's a PH thing, but what is it? Too alkaline? I had this happen with a pepper plant a couple of years ago, so I'm trying to think of the common denominator here. I guess pots is one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Torchey Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 I have plants in buckets, which have holes in the bottom. I do notice that water does seep from the bottom of them, so I think it's draining pretty well. My plants start to wilt pretty badly after 3 days of no water. Maybe it's a PH thing, but what is it? Too alkaline? I had this happen with a pepper plant a couple of years ago, so I'm trying to think of the common denominator here. I guess pots is one of them. Thats strange that the plant is wilting after 3 days, hmmmm. I guess it drains so well that the soil is left with no moisture, I would certainly put them in the ground next year. Tomato is a fickle fruit, who knows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowNH Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 I have plants in buckets, which have holes in the bottom. I do notice that water does seep from the bottom of them, so I think it's draining pretty well. My plants start to wilt pretty badly after 3 days of no water. Maybe it's a PH thing, but what is it? Too alkaline? I had this happen with a pepper plant a couple of years ago, so I'm trying to think of the common denominator here. I guess pots is one of them. I have 2 tomato plants and you can tell the plant with the bottom end rot compared to the other one.. the leaves wilted ad turned yellow towards the bottom and now all leaves are a light green instead of that dark green that tomatoes look like.. I have since done a lot of pruning of suckers, yellow leaves and making sure the soil is clear But your symptoms are exactly like mine and I don't water them everyday either.. I water my zukes and cukes alot just cause its a lot of stuff in such a small garden box Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skierinvermont Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 How big is the pot? If it's root bound that could be it. Tomatoes have big roots. I've never done them in pots but I'd guess you need at least 5 gallons for one plant. The blossom end rot is a calcium deficiency which could be caused by overwatering, underwatering, pH or a lack of calcium in the soil. The transition from overwatering to underwatering is paricularly tough on the plants, especially if they are just developing fruit, because overwatering retards root development and then when you underwater the plant has a small shallow root system so the shock of underwatering is severe. My plants are in the ground and I like to push them to the brink of wilting and then water deeply. I'd say if it's 80-85 with no rain I would water every 5 days. If it's pushing 90+ I might have to settle for every 3 or 4 days because that kind of heat they need more water or they'll wilt. If it's just regular late blight (which damages leaves and sometimes fruit) there's not much you can do about it. The wet spring early summer probably caused it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
free_man Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Cool and wet? Its been >80 an humid for two weeks now with rain only a day a week.. maybe in the spring its was cool and wet, but the past month has not Been.. MHT had probably had one good bout of rain the past month.. June 21-22 that's about it You don't want to water very much unless in a drought. Check the moisture well below the surface ( at least a few inches). That is where you need to be looking to gauge whether or not your plants need watering. Tomatos can sustain in dry conditions but not overwatering. Dry/wet/dry/wet is also bad for tomatos , you want consistent soil moisture and also NEED to lock that moisture in. mulch can help with this, keep a continous moist subsurface and root system. Always water with a trickle (garden house, punctured gallon water jug) instead of dousing. PH is important too. 6.5 +/- is recommended so the plants root system can take can take calcium up to the fruits. Rot can happen when your soil PH is not well balanced. Most of what I'm writing is explained very well online, you can do a search and find all of this info. And yes, like SkiVT said, tomatoes need plenty of room for a root system. If you're using smaller pots or pots you think are "marginal" in size, they're likely too small. They'll rot from the bottom up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Our pea plants are producing well. First time we have grown them. Zucchini is coming along well. Tomatoes are mixed... Pumpkins are going crazy. Broccoli is the real winner with us though. First time we have tried them and they are so huge. Almost ready to pick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowNH Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Thanks for the advice guys ... maybe ill just water every 3 days instead of every other day.. Anybody know where to get calcium spray.. I looked at home depot and they had none My watermelon and cantaloupe plants are really growing good now though.. anyone have experience with them? I'm waiting for my watermelon to flower.. it's gotten to the point where its spread out on the lawn right now lol.. I have All males on my cantaloupes, just waiting for the first female to bloom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Torchey Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Boo~Yah I have grown them longer but never this wide, das weenie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowNH Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Bottom End Rot on my tomatoes... I just pull them right off so the plant will generate more flowers and focus on the tomatoes that are actually growing good... Hopefully this doesn't happen all season. I read online its more prone to happen during the first fruiting on tomatoes. We'll see. Other than that, I have like 7 more zukes growing now, which is awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalWx Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Yeah two of mine have that rot. I just pulled them off. Other than that, everything is doing well. My tomatoes seemed to have slowed down for some reason after going balls to the wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowNH Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Yeah two of mine have that rot. I just pulled them off. Other than that, everything is doing well. My tomatoes seemed to have slowed down for some reason after going balls to the wall. Yeah same here. With your pots, do you have something to catch the water on the bottom or just the holes on the ground? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalWx Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Yeah same here. With your pots, do you have something to catch the water on the bottom or just the holes on the ground? I put some holes in the bottom of them. It might almost drain too well, but I keep en eye on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowNH Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 I put some holes in the bottom of them. It might almost drain too well, but I keep en eye on them. Well what I was saying was you have the original pot with the holes in it, but do you have something to catch the water that drains through the holes? like a plate or something? I might try that cause when I come home from work my soil has been bone dry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalWx Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Well what I was saying was you have the original pot with the holes in it, but do you have something to catch the water that drains through the holes? like a plate or something? I might try that cause when I come home from work my soil has been bone dry My pots are actually on asphalt behind my condo, where I park. That's where they get the best sun. Basically, the water just drains onto the pavement. I think they retain water ok, but if they were in the ground...I'd probably only have to water 50% of what I do now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skierinvermont Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Hey snowNH... I just went back and checked out your pics of your tomato plants and it looks like they are in 2 gallon pots? Maybe it is bigger but in pic it looks like 2. That's definitely the problem. I've never grown tomatoes in pots but I've grown them for a long time and I would say 5 gallons is minimum for tomatoes. And even that would be best for only cherry tomatoes. Their growing requirements just are not suited for small pots. Preferably 10+ for bigger tomatoes. The small pots is why you have to water so often to prevent it from going bone dry, and it's why you've got the blossom end rot. It's probably possible to do them in smaller pots but you will get inconsistent results at best. Hopefully that's the problem and it's possible to fix it, your tomatoes looked nice and big besides the rot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzucker Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Hey snowNH... I just went back and checked out your pics of your tomato plants and it looks like they are in 2 gallon pots? Maybe it is bigger but in pic it looks like 2. That's definitely the problem. I've never grown tomatoes in pots but I've grown them for a long time and I would say 5 gallons is minimum for tomatoes. And even that would be best for only cherry tomatoes. Their growing requirements just are not suited for small pots. Preferably 10+ for bigger tomatoes. The small pots is why you have to water so often to prevent it from going bone dry, and it's why you've got the blossom end rot. It's probably possible to do them in smaller pots but you will get inconsistent results at best. I use 10-gallon pots for all regular tomato plants (about 5 bucks each at Home Depot for the ugly plastic variety), and 12-gallon pots for my beefsteaks. I grow them in the ground as well, but my limited suburban property doesn't allow me to do as many tomatoes as I want in the main garden, so I resort to containers. This year, I have 2 Lemon Boy tomatoes in the main garden (ground), and each has 15-20 fruits, I'd estimate; they are clearly bigger at around 5-5.5 feet tall for virtue of having unlimited soil depth. I have a couple smaller tomato plants growing next to my corn, but the rest are in containers...there are two Rutgers heirlooms growing side-by-side in a window box, two beefsteak tomatoes (Better Boy) in 12-gallon round pots, and then a couple Early Girls and a few heirlooms like Cherokee Purple in standard 10-gallon pots. I am also using the upside down Topsy Turvy planter for a Mr. Stripey heirloom...that seems to be working well although the plant has somehow curled its stems to grow effectively right-side-up towards the sun, intelligent. Just hope it can support the tomatoes when they grow large and heavy. I think you are using excessively small pots, I'd recommend transplanting. Tomatoes are usually quite comfortable with transplanting; it may be a bit late in the season for the ideal move, but you can still do it without too much concern. I think a 10-12 gallon pot will reduce your problems with blossom rot; as others have said, tomatoes have big roots. I already noticed decreased yield using a 10-gallon pot, so I can't imagine how much more serious the problem could get in your case. BTW, my tallest corn plant has hit 7ft. I will post pictures soon. They are just massive now, look to be pollinating and such. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowNH Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Thanks guys.. they're 5 gallon pots.. what's interesting is I pulled those tomatoes off last night and the plant already looks better this morning.. the leaves just look healthier.. I have another tomato plant in a same size pot just starting to fruit.. we'll see what that does and if it's the same thing then its def cause the pots are too small At this point, I've done enough transplanting that I'm too lazy to do this one too lol.. maybe if that other one fails too ill consider it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skierinvermont Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Thanks guys.. they're 5 gallon pots.. what's interesting is I pulled those tomatoes off last night and the plant already looks better this morning.. the leaves just look healthier.. I have another tomato plant in a same size pot just starting to fruit.. we'll see what that does and if it's the same thing then its def cause the pots are too small At this point, I've done enough transplanting that I'm too lazy to do this one too lol.. maybe if that other one fails too ill consider it Oh ok it was hard to tell from the pic. 5 gallons you should be ok if you keep them consistently moist (not wet) and maybe give them some organic fertilizer that contains calcium. 5 gallons is probably trickier to take care of than 10 but is doable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowNH Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Oh ok it was hard to tell from the pic. 5 gallons you should be ok if you keep them consistently moist (not wet) and maybe give them some organic fertilizer that contains calcium. 5 gallons is probably trickier to take care of than 10 but is doable. I use dehydrated cow manure from home depot.. I could not find calcium Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eekuasepinniW Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Thanks guys.. they're 5 gallon pots.. what's interesting is I pulled those tomatoes off last night and the plant already looks better this morning.. the leaves just look healthier.. I have another tomato plant in a same size pot just starting to fruit.. we'll see what that does and if it's the same thing then its def cause the pots are too small At this point, I've done enough transplanting that I'm too lazy to do this one too lol.. maybe if that other one fails too ill consider it Had you spent the $50 on a drip watering kit, you probably wouldn't have this issue given inconsistent soil moisture is a primary cause of blossom end rot. You said your plants have been wilting by the time you get back from work and you just can't let that happen. Wilting is not some harmless state of being... it's a plant that has exhausted all other survival options and is on its death bed. You can only bring them back from that state so many times before it suffers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowNH Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Had you spent the $50 on a drip watering kit, you probably wouldn't have this issue given inconsistent soil moisture is a primary cause of blossom end rot. You said your plants have been wilting by the time you get back from work and you just can't let that happen. Wilting is not some harmless state of being... it's a plant that has exhausted all other survival options and is on its death bed. You can only bring them back from that state so many times before it suffers. I thought some people said overwatering is bad? I'm confused now.. Yeah maybe next year.. it also doesn't help we have received no rain in the past month Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eekuasepinniW Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 I thought some people said overwatering is bad? I'm confused now.. Yeah maybe next year.. it also doesn't help we have received no rain in the past month It is bad if you're watering every day early in the season when the plants are small and have small water requirements needs. You now have giant plants in the confines of containers so your watering needs are tremendously higher. A nice automated drip system makes life a whole lot easier... couldn't imagine life without mine. My whiskey barrels currently get 8 minutes or roughly 1.5 gallons of water at 10:30am and 8pm and that seems to keep the soil sufficiently moist. If you do eventually get a watering timer... avoid anything made by Orbit. I've gone through 3 of them and they all got water inside the motor and failed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 I thought some people said overwatering is bad? I'm confused now.. Yeah maybe next year.. it also doesn't help we have received no rain in the past month We have run into that problem (wilting/perking up after watering) in the past in tomato plants in hanging baskets and pots. I guess one problem is the pots get warm and dry out very quickly. The ones in the ground have less of that problem. Overwatering is bad, but so is wet/dry/wet/dry... that also leads to bottom rot Pray you don't get tomato hornworms... we had a few of those destroy 10 large, healthy fully fruited plants in 1 night a few years ago. Their schitz are huge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eekuasepinniW Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Their schitz are huge Those things freak me out. They also kind of intrigue me. I saw one crawling across the lawn in a straight line towards the tomato plants several years ago. How do they know that they're there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Those things freak me out. They also kind of intrigue me. I saw one crawling across the lawn in a straight line towards the tomato plants several years ago. How do they know that they're there? I'm guessing smell... tomato plants have a very distinct smell that I love...not sure why. But you can smell them from a decent distance. I want to know what they eat when not eating tomato plants? Small children? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skierinvermont Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 I thought some people said overwatering is bad? I'm confused now.. Yeah maybe next year.. it also doesn't help we have received no rain in the past month Well what I always say is keep the soil moist, but not wet, and only you can be the judge of that. It sounds like maybe? you had overwatering issues initially when the plants were small and it wasn't as hot and dry. Now the plants are big and it is hot and dry so they need more. I think some people also didn't realize the pot size was only 5 gal when 10 gal would be better. 5 gal obviously dries out much much faster. Wilting is always very bad.. you never want wilting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skierinvermont Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Pray you don't get tomato hornworms... we had a few of those destroy 10 large, healthy fully fruited plants in 1 night a few years ago. Their schitz are huge OMG I hate those things.. later in the summer I try to check my plants everyday to make sure I don't have them. I've had the same thing before.. they eat all your plants in 1 day. They scare the crap out of me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moneypitmike Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Have the uneviable task of trying to grow grass in July. Aside from having to water it myself instead of "April showers", I really don't think it should have too much problem. Got 20 cy of loam/compost and some Scotts grass seed. Water in the morning, noon (that's when the shade takes over) and the evening. I don't htink this summer's heat is any match for this seed to do just fine. 81.6/68 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowNH Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 I have my first female watermelon flower!!! And some males to go with it! The plant is just spreading in the lawn right now since there is no where else to put it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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