Not much going on in these hot days of August in the flower garden. On the other hand, this is the worst year we have had in the vegetable garden. Usually we are overflowing with tomatoes! Last year we gave away to people we didn’t even know, we had so many. So far this year, NOTHING!
We checked the other day and found black holes at the base of the tomatoes which looked like this:
I went on the Virginia Cooperative Extension site, https://ext.vt.edu/ and found out that the tomatoes had Blossom End Rot. This is not a disease but a nutrient deficiency, a low pH, lack of Calcium. This can be caused by irregular irrigation, or long dry spells. Tomatoes need 1″ of rain a week, (just like lawns). This explains how we got this. Earlier this month, after a long dry spell, we had over 6″ of rain.
The tomatoes are safe to eat, you can cut around the black. What is a better option is that when you first see the black, spray with a calcium solution, (Tomato Saver, Stop Rot, Blossom End Rot Preventer). This will help reduce the blossom end rot and prevent later tomatoes to get it.
There is a similar problem with tomatoes that has black holes on the top of the tomato where it connects to the stem. These are caused by tomato fruit worms. Totally different problem. Look to your extension website on how to deal with these.
One of my favorite tomatoes, which I plant every year, is Supersweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes. It produces mass amounts of delicious cherry tomatoes. This year, we haven’t gotten any. I see some clumps of green ones that will hopefully change and there are still a lot of buds. I’m hoping for the best. I had to actually buy tomatoes this year!
By the way we also planted some bell peppers and they are producing consistently. That is my vegetable gardening update for now.
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