What is BER?

Blossom End Rot.

Candie, I must admit that I've never had good luck growing paste type tomatoes in containers; they always got BER.

However, when growing in containers, bone meal is not enough. First, it breaks down very, very slowly. Too slowly. For growing in containers, you really have to use an all-purpose fertilizer that's readily available to the plant and you have to use it about every 7 to 10 days.

Also, bone meal does not contain all the nutrients that plants need. Unfortunately, potting soil doesn't contain those nutrients either -- even the potting soil that contains a bit of fertilizer. It's just not enough. Potting soil does not "hold" nutrients very well anyway, so you really have to replenish those nutrients on a regular basis.

I know it's discouraging, but it seems that most of the paste tomatoes are more prone to BER and they just don't do all that well in containers. Otoh, other types of tomatoes have done just fine in containers.

The Bonide products likely won't help with BER, so don't feel too cheated.

It may not be a complete loss. Pick up one of those water-soluble fertilizers, such as MG or Peters or Schultz's, mix according to label directions, and pour it into the containers every week or so.

Also, don't water until the potting mix gets dry. Stick a finger into the container several inches down. If it's dry, water. If not, check again later or the next day.

You really put in a lot of effort and a lot of thought. I hope you will be able to get some usable tomatoes.

One more thought -- for container growing use potting mix, not soil. Unlike potting mix, "real" soil compacts and makes it difficult for the roots to grow and take up nutrients.

As an aside, you might want to think about working that clay soil (which can be great for plants if properly prepared) for next year. Especially for those Romas. It's far less disappointing to grow Romas in the ground than it is growing them in containers.

Most clay soils contain all (or most) of the nutrients plants need. You just need to loosen up the soil, maybe add a bit of good compost, and you should be able to grow just about anything.

All the best.

candie, get some Calcium Nitrate and put 1 Tbls per gallon of water and use to water your plants. Calcium nitrate can be purchased at Hydroponics stores, Amazon.com or Ebay. After you apply it to your plants do a follow up application in a week. Ami

candie

It's the variety tomato you're growing, a paste, besides growing them in containers. If any tomato is going to get BER, it will be a paste grown in a container! Not all container-grown tomatoes get it, just varieties that are genetically prone to it. Most first time tomato growers probably aren't aware of this quirk, so count it a lesson learned.

You can do as Ami suggests to see if that will help, but BER is not just a shortage of calcium but is a whole constellation of environmental conditions, as well as some tomatoes just being prone to it.

Next year plant your tomatoes in your clay soil -- it's almost always rich in nutrients but just needs loosening with organic matter. And choose non-paste tomatoes. You won't be as disappointed, though you may get some BER at the beginning of the season as most of us do, no matter what tomato you grow.

candie... i think you are watering too much. its not natural for it to rain every single day, so you shouldnt water tomatoes every single day. my italian farmer neighbor waters his tomatoes maybe twice all season, and they thrive, and he gets no BER. me on the other hand, have maybe 10% have BER, and i think its because i succumbed to watering them.

granted, youre using containers so u gotta water more than in ground, but i think youre overdoing the water.

Candie:

I grew in earthtainers this year and had about 6 plants left over that I threw in pots. Interestly, BER didn't significantly affect the ones in pots, but I was having a terrible time with BER in the tainers. I changed two things that virtually eliminated the problem, which might help you. One, I got the tainers off the ground on 2x4s and set bamboo shades in front of them to keep direct sun off of the tainers. (I had no choice but to be on concrete and in Texas this year it got hot early and stayed that way.) I believe they were heating up way too much (hot to the touch in the afternoon sun) and this was causing a stress and likely inhibiting calcium uptake, which I understand to be a principle cause of BER. Two, I started my water refills (which I also used on the pots) with a liquid calcium feed at about the same rate as the product Ami recommended. I also obtained this product at a hydroponics store, where they had multiple calcium products, including organic ones. It worked for me.

As for watering, if you are in 5 gallon containers getting more than 8 hours a sun a day, I'm sure you'll have to water daily as the plants and evaporation will dry those out completely very quickly. Good luck!

I also think you should try growing the tomatoes in the ground.

There's nothing wrong with clay soil; with some compost, it will grow excellent plants.

Candie - I've had good luck using Tomato Tone (available at many garden stores and at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Espoma-TO4-Tomato-Tone/dp/B0011UEKKE).

Mix in about 1/2 cup into a 5 gallon container of potting soil. I then water every other day (not EVERY day).

Finally, about every 10 days or so, I mix some hydrated lime (http://www.amazon.com/Bonide-HYDRATED-LIME-10/dp/B000BWY53A), along with some epsom salts (available at grocery stores), to get the calcium and magnesium that container toms and peppers need.

Hope this helps. --Russ

Tomatoes of any kind are much more susceptible to getting BER if grown in containers, those grown straight in the ground very rarely get it-unless you have very bad ground.

The biggest problem with all container grown tomatoes, especially the elongated type of tomato forms, is that the owners very rarely put anything in the compost mix to combat this problem -before planting,which almost eliminates the problem during the growth season,

The majority of people suffering from the BER problem usually only add the Calcium Nitrate or whatever form of calcium they use after the Ber has got the first two trussed of forming tomatoes, and wont take effect until the third truss is forming, so in effect one almost always loses the first two trusses to the BER problem.

If in future one tended to incorporate calcium-calcium nitrate etc, into the container compost from the start before planting in them, the problem would be almost eliminated-if not totally.

Watering- the best way to water in containers, is to let the compost (almost) dry out, on the surface of the compost before watering again, roots will also forage better in semi-dry compost and form a large root ball.

I've used MG potting soil and perlite or sphagnum peat and perlite in containers and haven't had a problem with BER. I think it is mostly the type of tomato and/or the watering schedule because I haven't tried paste tomatoes in containers yet and water at least every other day. I used no kind of calcium supplement in the soils. I do use a general purpose fertilizer in the soil every 4-6 weeks and foliar spray with a 1/4 strength solution of that fertilizer and fish emulsion weekly. The fertilizer does not list calcium.

I would tend to keep off any form of lime if I were you-especially when dealing with tomatoes, as Lime tends to alter the PH of the compost too much and upsets the natural balance-especially in any form of containers.and should only be used if the compost is very acid like pure peat or ground up bracken ferns-but then most people would not use this on tomatoes anyway, especially in containers.

On the other hand at the fear of sounding contradictory -if you are using a balanced container mix straight out of the bag of compost, I don't suppose that adding a little amount of pure Dolomite lime to the mix at the time it is used to fill the containers , would hurt- and perhaps benefit the tomatoes as they grow with no BER manifesting itself later-but on elongated tomato varieties -you will always be taking a chance, in trying to grow them in containers.

The only and best form of lime to use -if you can get it -is Dolomite lime but not all garden centers and supplies keep it, they usually only stock the more common form of lime in bags,Dolomite lime contains just the right amounts of Magnesium and other elements to make the conditions in your soil just right, in clay type soil another important element to add is Gypsum which makes a whole lot of difference to clay soils and makes it more friable and manageable.

With container mixes if you add a small quantity of Calcium Nitrate to the container mix before using it in the containers it will mostly eliminate the problem from starting in the first place, but if you forgot until BER showed on the first truss-you can add it by watering it in from then on in weekly doses and it will stop it in it's tracks by the time the second and third truss has formed, despite what some sceptics are saying.

It is always much harder to stop BER in any type of elongated tomato as they seem to be a BER magnet for the complaint, so this type of tomato must be treated early in order to deal with it.

Round tomatoes and Beefsteak tomatoes will also get it too, but are much more easily treated and stopped than the elongated type, cherry tomatoes on the other hand never seem to get it at all- I have yet to see any cherry toms with any form of BER whatsoever.