Sure. Only while you're collecting all that, put it in layers in a pile. Problem is you risk losing some nitrogen with all that high-N material together. If you don't have leaves yet, try to find some low-N material - straw, shredded paper or cardboard, wood chips or shavings, and mix that in. Whenever you're ready to do your soil thing, your compost pile will be well on its way to compost.

Without a soil test it's hard to recommend anything else beyond organic matter. I wouldn't put lime or a whole LOT of eggshells without knowing 1)the pH and 2) Ca to Mg ratio. Mainly, compost will rarely hurt anything so your plan is probably not risky.

Did you get blossom end rot all summer or just on the early tomatoes?

I got it more towards the middle and its continuing now.

I don't have any real Brown material now. I have newspapers but they aren't shredded. I can put them in a pile or an old garbage can with holes drilled on the sides.

What do you think is a whole lot of eggshells? Is a blender full of them too much?

The main problem with blossom end rot is erratic water supply to the plant.

Depending upon where you live, you may have adequate calcium in your soil.

The egg shells will be available to plants a number of years from now.

As a side note... If you are in an old city area... Lead can be an issue I would think to take into consideration. I know nothing on the specifics.... But something to look up for your area.

We both live in big cities. Because of that consider eliminating the kitchen scraps, unless you feel the local rat population is looking underfed. You may be just fine mixing the coffee grounds, grass clippings and shredded leaves. As a matter of fact, use that mixture as your mulch year round. You will be composting, mulching, and gardening all at the same time with no extra work!

Also, while collecting your own coffee waste is fine, you can score a years worth of coffee grounds in a single trip to Starbucks.

Following up on what Toxcrusadr said, you want to be careful with lime. Do you have a lot of tight clay in your soil? If so, dolomite lime will make it worse. For clay soil, use gypsum instead. (You get the calcium without the magnesium.)

Blossom End Rot is the result of a Calcium deficiency at fruit set. That might be caused by a problem with water supply to the plant, or it might be a problem with too little or too much Magnesium (plants need Magnesium to utilize Calcium and vice versa), or it may be the plants grew too fast and could not move the Ca up quick enough, or it might be something else. The only way to know what the level of Ca and Mg and any other nutrient in the soil is would be with a soil test.

Perhaps this article from the National Gardening Association may be of some help.

http://garden.org/learn/articles/view/93/

Add organic material to the soil so you have about 6 to 8 percent organic matter in that soil. All of what you list will help, but have a good reliable soil test done.

Gypsum will do little to help clay soils in New York and whether to use Calcitic or Dolomitic lime depends on whether the soil is balanced with Calcium and Magnesium and again the only way to know that is with a good reliable soil test.

kimmq is kimmsr

"some of my tomatoes and butternut squash developed blossom end rot."

Erratic watering is also a cause of BER. Mulch to keep the soil moisture in, and make sure to not over and underwater.

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I would plant a cover crop and compost all of your kitchen scraps and leaves to put on your garden next year.

Sorry for taking a while to respond back. I probably have a slight calcium deficiency but the main issue is watering. My tomatoes had cracking near the stem, which I read is due to watering issues.

My question now is what is the best way to give my soil a general boost for the next year?

I don't have a composter. I have garbage cans that i try to compost in but it doesn't work so well. Its very slow. I don't have cover for it. Plus the winter just freezes it all. My assumption is being in the soil would make it compost faster even during the winter.

I have already dug and buried some food scraps. Nothing has happened to those areas. They are untouched and have either weeds growing their or i planted basil over it.

Without a soil test it is hard to give any advice. Just continuing to add compost year after year can cause problems with elements building up that plants can not us as quickly as others. You know your plants are having problems so I would suggest a soil test first. Instead of blindly throwing stuff at the problem a soil test will let you focus on what problems you actually have.

Cracking of tomatoes happens when there is a sudden influx of a lot of water and the fruit tries to grow and the skin won't, so it cracks. Plants need Magnesium to properly utilize Calcium and they need Calcium to properly use Magnesium, so those need to be in balance in the soil. A very simple explanation of why Blossom End Rot occurs is erratic watering but the reasons are much more complicated than that.

The only way to know what the ratio of Ca to Mg in soil is with a good reliable soil test and While Cornell's $50.00 per sample charge for a basic soil test may seem high it is a good investment, if one wants to grow good healthy plants.

As the others have said, have a soil test done.

kimmq is kimmsr