What makes your tomatos turn black?
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Whenever calcium is depleted from the soil, Blossom-End Rot (BER) develops in tomatoes...which is what you're experiencing. Unless your plants have been subjected to irregular waterings or you've been applying too much nitrogen (with fertilizers from Urea or Ammoniacal forms of nitrogen) which causes too much vegetative growth and may exhaust the calcium in your plant. If this is the case, provide your tomatoes with regular watering (1 inch of water per week), mulch around the plants to prevent drying between irrigations and cut back with high-nitrogen fertilizers (use a 5-10-10 fertilizer once a month instead).
"Snoogums" is correct by saying that the addition of Gypsum will help prevent BER but it will only work prior to planting your tomatoes. Calcium is most readily taken into the plant by the roots when the pH of your soil is around 6.5.
Calcium is not very mobile in plants and when you have a defficiency, it's probably easiest to correct with a foliar appication. The easiest is spray your plants with foliar calcium or calcium chloride. I've seen this being sold at local hardware/garden supply stores.
OR you can try mixing up your own by spraying a mixture of one of the following with water with and spraying it on your tomatoes;
1) Powdered milk
2) Bonemeal tea
3) Crushed egg shell tea
4) Dissolving some Tums (antacid tablets)
Hope this information helps solve your BER problem. GOOD LUCK!
-Certified Professional Crop Consultant with over 30 years of experience and a Degree in Plant Science
bugs or insecticides
Sounds like blossom end rot or blackheart - check out this website for all the details! Good Luck!
http://www.gardenandhearth.com/gardencoo...
If it starts from the bottom , it's called 'blossom end rot'. It's caused by a lack of calcium. A little garden gypsum scratched into the soil around the plant then watered in should help.
blight
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