BER isn't caused by fungus so fungicides have no role in BER control. Fungicides are used to prevent Early Blight and the other fungal diseases. If Early or Late Blight is your problem rather than BER then Serenade is one of the products available. But the most effective one and the most recommended is Daconil.

As to the watering wand, I just happened to be looking at them at Walmart today. They offer several good models of various lengths for reasonable prices. I don't see why anything especially expensive would be needed.

Are your plants in the ground or in containers? Have you considered soaker hose or a drip irrigation set-up. Both are much easier to use and can be relatively inexpensive. Plus they save on water.

Dave

They are in raised beds. Only issues I had were the black spots and/or BER on the tomatoes and some peppers.

Dave, (digdirt) is the best contributor to this forum on the Gardenweb.
I copy/paste his responses often. If you think there is a calcium deficiency in
your raised bed soil, then limestone granules could be a great addition.
The only other advice I can offer is variety. Seems to make a difference for me.
Roma, & bush anything, like Bush Big Boy, Bush Early Girl,
Bush Champion etc. always gets BER for me.
So what I do is counter w/San Marzano; for an early Glacier,
and then plants like Adventure, Big Boy, etc.
I�ve also seen where hybrids can make a difference.
The most popular tomato plants like Big Beef and Celebrity don�t experience
BER ever. (for me)

I have only experienced BER with ROMA and San Mazano, mostly. So I think it is a problem with those tomatoes genetics than soil deficiency. Also, as I recal, it happened after some prolonged rain and wet weather. Some people have mentioned in the past disolving calcium tablets and feeding plants. hahaha(plant food supplement).
I would rather avoid those BER proned types than trying to find a cure for it. But, I will have a few Roma and SanMarzano, anyway.

Hello diclemeg,

Our favorite tomato expert Carolyn137 wrote an excellent response to a question about Blossom End Rot (BER) and I am quoting it here:

With BER there is NO problem with absorption of Ca++ though the roots. The problem is maldistribution within the plant that can be induced by a number of stresses which include uneven delivery of water, too much N, growing in too rich soil, too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry you name it.

As the plants mature they can better handle the streses that can induce BER so usually it goes away.

The two exceptions are first, if the soil has NO Ca++ as confirmed with a soil test, and that's a rare condition, and second, if the soil is too acidic in which Case Ca++ is bound in the soil.

Again, adding lime, egg shells and on and on can not and will not prevent BER b'c absorption of Ca++ thru the roots is OK.

Paste tomatoes are especially susceptible to BER and I think someone in a post above mentioned that.

If you go to the top of this first page and click on the FAQ link and scroll down you'll also find an article about BER in case some of you have never looked at the FAQ's And there's some darn good articles there as well, but I wouldn't pay any attention to the variety list b'c it's way out of date.

The old information about BER being caused solely by lack of soil Ca++ has been shown to be wrong with research that's been done in the last 20 years or so, but it's going to take another generation before the real story gets into books, websites, magazines, etc. Most of the better websites already have the correct information.

BER affects not only tomatoes, but peppers, squash, cabbage, cauliflower, etc., and it's a huge multimillion dollar problem for the industry, which is WHY all that reasearch was done. For instance, when tissues were taken from a plant that has BER fruits and was assayed for Ca++, the normal level of Ca++ was found, it just wasn't getting to the blossom end of fruits. And there's also a condition called internal BER where the fruits look fine, no evidence of BER externally, but when you cut open the fruit the inside is black

Hope that helps

So you see, adding calcium amendments will not prevent BER unless your soil is calcium dificient, and the only to know that for sure is to have a soil test. It is more likely to be a PH problem than a calcium deficiency. Even if you live in an area that is known to be calcium deficient it's a good idea to get a soil test because then you will know how much it is deficient and what else may need to be corrected.

Good luck!

Betsy

Here is a link that might be useful: FAQ page on Blossom End Rot