Is it bad to reply to your own post?? lol

I know BER is caused mainly by a calcium deficiency that can be cause by several things - poor soil, too much water, etc.

I've read that spraying plants with an epsom salt solution helps because the magnesium helps with calcium absportion... any thoughts?

As far as I am concerned, one BER case is not a cause for alarm. Not every single tomato rot is due to calcium deficiency.
Calcium thing is a rather complex soil chemistry issue. So far as I know there is a NO KNOWN method to deal with it other than maintaining a constant/consistant soil moisture. It may sound simple in theory but not so simple in practice.

Thanks seysonn for the reassurance I'm not able to lose my entire crop! :)

I agree about the calcium thing being too complex, when it comes to analyzing soil and trying to get it prefect a person could go crazy.... which is why I try to stick to a less is more approach. That being said BER still scares me... lol

And I also agree that maintaining a constant/consistent soil moisture is difficult. In fact, when and how much to water is usually an on going disagreement between myself and my husband. He thinks the BER was from over watering... so I've held back ... a bit... but I'm not about to let things dry out in between watering like he suggests.

We'll just keep our fingers crossed and try to keep a consistent moisture level and hope for the best. :)

Link below is from a search here where there are close to 200 threads about BER.

It's not really just about soil chemistry since environmental factors play a huge role.But without typing more I'll just let anyone interested read some of those threads tha tindicate what it is all about, and lack of Ca++ in the soil is waydown the list of causes.

Hope that helps,

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: BER

Maybe your calcium is locked up in your soil or has leached away. A foliar feeding of chelated calcium I am sure would help you BER problems.

Tim

Tim, Ca++ is locked up in the soil only if the soil is too acdic in which case soil tests should be done for next year to confirm that and then Epsom Salts or similar used to get the ph up.

And if you do a net search search I think you'll see that there's much controversy about using Ca++ on the foliage to help prevent BER.

Carolyn, who has put up with BER fir MANY decades and finds that variety A can have BER one year and the same A no BER the next year. With results like that it's hard to do anything since of the many variables associarted with BER, some of which can be controlled, there's no way to control the weather. Sigh.

...and then Epsom Salts or similar used to get the ph up.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Epsom Salt (Magnesium Sulfate) is actually an acidifier and therefore, if anything, in large quantities it will lower pH.
That is why they add sulfure (in some compound form) to reduce pH.

You are so right seysonn in that Epsom Salts can be acidic. That's what I get for typing fast and not consulting with my brain first. LOL

My initial comment about acidic soils and Ca++ is correct, but my followup comment was not.

When I'm perfect I'll do a thread here to announce that and let everyone know about it. LOL

Carolyn, who also notes that Brandywine IS a specific well known individual variety, she Is correct about that, and is aware that she didn't come back and discuss that with you and probably won't do that.

Thirsty dirt

I agree with the fact that a foliar spray of epsom salts can and will help with the absorption of Calcium. Will a foliar spray of epsom salts lower your PH not likely. You would have to apply pounds of epsom salts to the soil to get enough sulfur to lower the PH. So if you mix 1 tablespoon of epsom salts with a gallon of water and spray this on your plant how is this going to lower your PH. Remember when you foliar spray a plant you mist it on the tops and bottoms of the leaves to the point of drip. I think a product that contains both a chelated calcium and chelated magnesium would be a better choice than epsom salts.
Tim

It seems that whether its a calcium or potassium deficiency, it always seems to be made worse by inconsistent water and temperatures...

Since this first tomato with BER I've been very careful of my watering practices and have only found 2 more with BER - and ironically it was after we were gone for two days and the plants weren't watered.

After returning the a regular watering schedule we haven't seem any more with BER.... and they are all starting to ripen nicely. :)

When the season is done I'll have to test the soil and see if its low, or high, in anything.

Thanks for the help.