[CH] Roma tomato rot question
Byron (byronbromley@tellink.net)
Thu, 17 Jul 2003 21:07:50 -0400
Goerge,
Be aware the Romas are the most sensitive to BER of all the paste tomatoes.
There are other reasons for BER.
Excessive nitrogen
Excessive Phosphour
Excessive Magnesium
wind transpireation
Plus cold soil affects the mobility of calcium in the soil.
Plus the other reasons that the others gave.
Since you dumped a load of pine needles this would make the soil too acidic.
If you soil is normally acidic or worse alkaline I would hesitate to add
lime. One application is good for 3 or 4 years. My guess is that the
effects of pine needles will go away before then.
I would invest in a $10 pH meter first (better a $100 Kelway).
You might have faster acting calcium by adding a couple tums with calcium
to each plant. Eggshells, Lobster shells and clam shells finely pulverized
would also work. (clam shells place in a bag, run over the bag several times
with your SUV) For Mary Anne, 1 lobster shell per plant~ Lets see 100
tomatoes + 60 chiles, should keep you eating well :-))
Oh yes from a long forgotten member, If you add lime, remember that the
instructions on the bag are for LBS/Acre
Not lbs/sq ft
L.B.
Adjacent to my jalapenos, I have a problem!
I've got a few roma tomato plants that look happy enough, and have
prodigious amounts of 'maters on them... the problem is that the bottom
fifths of some of the tomatoes have shriveled so that they are brown,
some are moldy on the brown parts, and flat. It looks like they've been
stored on a shelf too long. They are for the most part still green.