The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: Sudanpan on July 16, 2014, 09:02:57 pm
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Our tomatoes are ripening nicely in the polytunnel BUT some of the fruits are doing something distinctly strange. Sorry no photo so I will try and explain.
The top tow thirds of the tom are ripening nicely and turning red, but then there is a distinct line and below this line the tom is staying green and also seems to not be plumping up.
Any clues? I'll try and take some photos and post them
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It sounds like the opposite of greenback - but in greenback the tomato is green at the top and ripe at the base.
Could it be blossom end rot?
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It does sound like blossom end rot, although I think it goes black rather than staying green at the bottom. I think we had it once but it was so long ago I remember nothing about it except the fruit was inedible. I can't remember what causes it or what to do about it. Sorry not much help :tomato: :tomato: :tomato:
Or it might be something completely different ;D
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Our tomatoes are ripening nicely in the polytunnel BUT some of the fruits are doing something distinctly strange. Sorry no photo so I will try and explain.
The top tow thirds of the tom are ripening nicely and turning red, but then there is a distinct line and below this line the tom is staying green and also seems to not be plumping up.
Any clues? I'll try and take some photos and post them
It sounds like there is not enough light getting to the lower tomatoes .
Once the fruit cluster has formed to a marble size carefully snip off all those lower leaves below the fruits and also start using a "Tomatorite " type liquid feed on a daily basis as per the instructions on the container.
To stop spreading disease when you cut the lower leaves off & move from one plant to another rinse the scissors in a weak bleach solution and dry the scissors off before moving on to the next plant .
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Many thanks for the replies and suggestions :thumbsup:
I think it looks like Blossom End Rot - looked up some images on Google when Fleecewife suggested it as a possible cause and it looks spot on.
The internet blurb says it can be caused by calcium deficiency - the leaves essentially taking the calcium preferentially from the fruits so we are going to remove some of the leaves from the plants to see if that makes a difference.
This is the first year we are using an automatic weepy pipe watering system - 2 lots of 10mins every 24 hours so the watering is consistent and certainly everything seems to be thriving :excited: