Do I have a problem with my tomatoes?

[ellensgarden]

Hello,
My tomatoes are just now beginning to ripen and I noticed to first two look wonderful, beautifully red and firm, but when I turn them over and look at the bottom of them there is a large black spot, that goes very deep into the fruit. It is happening in both my raised beds and containers. Do I have a problem or just a little bad luck? I don't know if it matters but these are heirlooms. Thanks in advance,

Walt

[MoniDew]

It sounds like blossom end rot, which means that it's being watered from above, water running down, making that little drip right at the tip, keeping that fragile blossom end too wet....might try watering from below, or an anti-fungal, which is really unnecessary unless the "water from above" is rain - which you cannot control. Try an all-natural anti-fungal, in that case.

[shebear]

Blossom end rot is a calcium issue. It could be because you don't have enough calcium in the soil or because the plant can't take up enough water with calcium. I had no problem with mine until it got hot. All the tomatoes that set during the warmer weather had BER. The rest were fine. In some parts of the country gypsum is suggested to help the problem.

Water uptake is a tightrope. If you water too much, you drown the plant and the plant shuts down water movement because the roots rot. Too little and there isn't anything to move. Then there is pH. Nutrients like calcium and magnesium are made unavailable by certain pHs. Read the following link to try to understand the "why".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_pH

Now some of the more modern soil scientists are getting away from worrying about the pH of soils. They advocate building soil biomass and letting the microorganisms take care of providing food for the plants, hence the new push for compost and no till.

[ellensgarden]

Thanks for your help, This is the first year for my raised beds and the plants are thriving, so far this is the only problem I have had. I have checked many of the green tomatoes on the vine and see no trouble with them so maybe it is nothing to worry about. I water at the base of the plants with water from bucket that are allowed to warm in the sun, but we have had a few days that brought a lot of rain, maybe that was the problem. I also think that testing the PH is a good idea. Many thats folks.
Walt

[Cynthia]

next year, put about 1 cup of epsom salts in each tomato bed - I have 5 x 12 food beds and I probably do 2 cups for the entire area. That will help a great deal.