Why are the bottoms of my garden tomatoes turning brown??

Question

My golden jubilee and some of my big boy tomatoes have rotton bottoms...just as they are ripening! Is this a disease?

Answer 1

If they're not rotting from touching the ground, then it's "Blossom-End Rot" a calcium deficiency due to soil moisture problems that prevent calcium from making its way to the fruits. It can occur even when there is abundant calcium in the soil. Poor drainage, root damage and soil pH that is too high or too far below the optimum 6.5 , or too much nitrogen, magnesium, potassium, sodium, ammonium salts, or a deficiency of soluble calcium salts, cause a decrease in calcium & can be contributing factors.

Inconsistent watering is the most common cause of the inability of the plant to delivery calcium to the developing tomato.

Does this describe your tomatoes? "The first visible symptoms of the disorder is a small darkened or water-soaked area around the blossom end of the fruit, appearing about time the fruit begins to ripen. The spot darkens, enlarges, and becomes sunken as the fruits mature. Large lesions may show concentric rings. The affected tissue is leathery and firm unless invaded by secondary decay organisms." *

Remove affected fruits to improve the development of other healthy fruit on the plant. You can correct the problem by improving drainage, watering plants consistently as needed, & mulching plants to conserve moisture & to provide a more uniform water supply. To provide calcium, eggshells can be crushed and added to the soil. Foliar sprays of calcium won't correct blossom-end rot once it has occurred on the fruit, but it can help prevent the condition from occurring on developing fruit. Soil-applied treatments and prevention by cultural practices are generally preferred over sprays. Chelated calcium solutions also provide an excellent source of calcium.

Gypsum & compost improves drainage. Water early in the day, & give plants room so they don't stay wet. Fluctuations in soil moisture during periods of rapid plant growth create moisture stress and limits calcium distribution to the fruit. Make sure the plants are getting at least and inch of water per week. If fertilizer is needed, reduce nitrogen levels by using 5-10-10 fertilizer in place of 10-10-10. Windy conditions in the spring coupled with low relative humidity can cause high transpiration rates that can induce blossom-end rot, as does planting too early while the soil is still cold or undergoing severe hardening off.

Fortunately, by the time a second set of fruit begins developing, your plants will have expanded and developed a root system capable of gathering and delivering calcium to the tomatoes.
Good luck! Hope this helps.

Answer 2

I'm afraid so.....It's the weather. Those of us growing tomatoes on our allotments have either had blight (leaf and stems growing brown...no hope but pull them up and put in council green waste) or blossom end rot.
The latter is what you have described.
Blossom-end rot is caused by either a lack of calcium in the soil or the plant's inability to draw calcium from the soil due to stress. It can also be caused by inconsistent watering, which is very common when growing in containers. The tomatoes are still edible as long as the BER did not spread above the top half of the tomatoes.

During drier conditions, the plants have a more difficult time absorbing nutrients. Since calcium is normally low in content in most home gardens, the first few tomatoes will experience this problem. The good news is that it does not spread to other tomatoes and will normally correct itself
after a few weeks. Even better news is that you can prevent the problem by using corrective measures in early spring.

You can read more about it in
http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/;_ylt=AhDlF51wCzw_3QPdkQ7EbwSJPRV.?link=answer&.crumb=S.6t1F6hsxT&qid=20070808060428AA6jGuK&.done=http%253A%252F%252Fca.answers.yahoo.com%252Fquestion%252Findex%253Fqid%253D20070808060428AA6jGuK

Answer 3

Same thing happended to our first tomatoes that came on the vine. My husband bought a product at Lowes that was for "blossom end rot" used it, and the next tomatoes that ripened were fine.

Answer 4

blossom end rot