Gardening questions - problems we are having -

CottageLife · #1 07/31/12, 07:25 AM

So DH and I have been trying the past few years to learn how to grow some different veggies and a few fruits. Here are my questions (I'm in the NE)

-my tomatoes have all rotted out at the bottoms in a very near perfect circle? Both my roma's and my larger ones (forgot the type) that are in different raised beds. What would cause this? It's been very dry here, but it has happened on some before they are even ripe and others when they are ripe and then a few are fine.

-my broccoli never even got a decent head on it - went right to flowering right away. Is that due to the heat/dry weather, or is our raised bed too rich or something?

I have a million other questions but any thoughts on those 2 would be great. Thank you!

oneokie · #2 07/31/12, 07:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CottageLife

So DH and I have been trying the past few years to learn how to grow some different veggies and a few fruits. Here are my questions (I'm in the NE)

-my tomatoes have all rotted out at the bottoms in a very near perfect circle?

went right to flowering right away. Is that due to the heat/dry weather Thank you!

Blossom end rot. Due to insufficient calcium levels in the soil or irregular soil moisture levels.

Bolting. Due to heat, dry weather.

geo in mi · #3 07/31/12, 07:44 AM

The spots on your tomatos is called blossom end rot. BER is something that just happens to certain varieties of tomtoes more than other varieties. It is caused when the plant stops taking up calcium to the fruit, as if the "pipeline" has a gap in the flow. Sometimes can be prevented by regular watering, as periods of dryness inside the plant will contribute to this condition. It is NOT a disease, and later tomato fruits will usually turn out okay..... Home remedies--adding egg shells, spraying leaves with milk, saying incantations in the moonlight, and many others--will make the owner feel good, but not the tomatoes.....Here is a really good reference to BER. If you lose it , you can find it again in Post #23 in the "Fireside" sticky above, for later reference. http://ucanr.org/sites/placernevadas...iles/86509.pdf

Broccoli will bolt in hot weather. That's what yours did, as did mine. I had to buy plants from a nursery this Spring,. They were pretty leggy to start with, and sure enough, they went straight for the sky...... I am reseeding now in hopes for a Fall crop.

Hope this will help you.

geo

Txsteader · #4 07/31/12, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geo in mi

The spots on your tomatos is called blossom end rot. BER is something that just happens to certain varieties of tomtoes more than other varieties.

Yes, one being Early Girl. Of all the varieties I've grown, she is the worst.

Paquebot · #5 07/31/12, 11:21 AM

Early tomato varieties are affected the worse with BER since they begin producing fruit before their root systems are developed enough to process the available calcium. That's one reason why it goes away as the plant matures.

Martin

praieri winds · #6 07/31/12, 04:22 PM

you need to work some epsom salts in the ground around the plant then water in really well this will help control the BER epsom salts is not a salt at all but magnesium sulfate which is a mineral needed by tomatoes

CottageLife · #7 07/31/12, 04:53 PM

Thank you for all the information and the link! I'll have to look at the soil mix my DH put into these raised gardens to see how much calcium is in them, but inconsistent watering in high heat for our area was probably the big cause. I had no idea what any of this was so thank you!

Ok I figured the bolting was due to the heat on the broccoli. I need to learn to save seeds and replant. I tossed the plants - bad me!

Paquebot · #8 07/31/12, 04:53 PM

If you're going to use a sulfate, use calcium sulfate. Presence or non-presence of magnesium has little or nothing to do with BER. However, application of either now will have the same identical effects on any affected plants.

Martin

Txsteader · #9 07/31/12, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paquebot

Early tomato varieties are affected the worse with BER since they begin producing fruit before their root systems are developed enough to process the available calcium. That's one reason why it goes away as the plant matures.

Martin

That makes sense and is useful information. Problem is, I don't have the patience to wait for them to mature

. They were 4' tall, loaded w/ fruit & I yanked them all out in frustration, as every one had BER. Second year in a row I've had failure w/ EG.

Fortunately I had some nice cherry toms ripening at the same time...ended up with bowlfuls.

rockhound · #10 08/01/12, 05:38 AM

Work on being a little more patient.

You will need it to be a happy gardener. Good luck with whatever you decide to plant for the fall. I like kale myself. It grows here thru most of the winter as does cilantro and parsley. (TN zone 7)

CottageLife · #11 08/01/12, 09:15 AM

Thanks rockhound - patience for gardening is something I haven't acquired yet. lol! I've never planted anything later for fall. Awful right? I'd love to grow onions and garlic but they scare me because someone along the years planted some type of mint and scallion type of thing and they grow WILD all through our yard. Due to that I've been scared to grow my own herbs, onions and garlic.

ketthes · #12 08/01/12, 09:28 AM

Mint is notorious for taking over. You can put a bucket in the ground with the bottom cut out and plant it inside that to control the spread. Other herbs might or might not depending on where you live; I don't have problems with any up here in zone 4 because they mostly grow as annuals in this climate. Chives and mint are the only two things I can keep coming back. I'd love it if I could grow rosemary and lavender as perennials!

Onions & garlic shouldn't be a problem. But if in doubt, growing in raised beds would be a good option. Also, if a plant has a square stem, it's a member of the mint family, and could potentially be aggressive so you'll know to keep an eye on it.

cathryn · #13 08/01/12, 09:01 PM

My broccoli bolted right away also. What I did was cut the main flowering stem and left the plants in the garden (lazy...). They were well watered due to what they were around. They started to sprout right away. So, throughout the summer I have been getting great side shoots from all of the plants. Complete accident that I found out, but it was awsome.

It is worth keeping the plant to get side shoots if you can spare the space. It wasn't a ton of produce, but plenty to suppliment our salads, etc. It was also one of the few things that the critters didn't eat.

Peace-Cathryn

Paquebot · #14 08/02/12, 01:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CottageLife

-my broccoli never even got a decent head on it - went right to flowering right away. Is that due to the heat/dry weather, or is our raised bed too rich or something?

Your broccoli probably had about a 3-day window when it was at or near the peak and then quickly bolted. It will do that regardless of the weather. If you were expecting something like you might find in a grocery store, that's rather hard to duplicate in a home garden. You also have to plant the proper variety as some are more noted for making florets than big heads rather than one and done of some commercial types.

You should now have enough experience to know when that first head is ready regardless of size. You want to pick it just as it begins to loosen up. You should never see a blossom. If it suddenly shoots up, cut it off about 2 or 3 leaves down and it will send up florets all around. Some of those may be almost as big as the original head. And when you realize the potential harvest of just a few plants, you'll find that planting less and harvesting more often is more productive than planting twice as many plants and scrapping half.

Martin

fffarmergirl · #15 08/02/12, 07:02 AM

Gardening will definitely teach you patience if you keep it up! It's the world's best therapy, I swear.

blooba · #16 08/02/12, 07:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Txsteader

That makes sense and is useful information. Problem is, I don't have the patience to wait for them to mature

. They were 4' tall, loaded w/ fruit & I yanked them all out in frustration, as every one had BER. Second year in a row I've had failure w/ EG.

Fortunately I had some nice cherry toms ripening at the same time...ended up with bowlfuls.

Yep, I'm bad with regular watering so I almost always get BER to start but it always gets better for me as the season progresses, or I see the beautiful fruit going to waste so I get better with the watering...lol either way I always get a bountiful harvest, although this year they are late maturing, although i swore we were gonna get one more cold snap (which we never did) and was late planting them

possom · #17 08/02/12, 07:19 AM

What I do for blossom end rot, and it has worked really well for me so far. When I am planting tomatoes in the garden I dig the hole for them, put in about a 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of powdered milk put the plant on top of it and cover the rest of the root system with dirt. This has always worked really well to cut out blossom end rot in young plants when they first bare fruit.

MDKatie · #18 08/02/12, 07:53 AM

BER is always solved (for me at least) by watering more. I've tried putting calcium in the hole before planting, and it always happens anwyays. I'm almost positive that most of the remedies people use only work because they're watering them in!

Just keep watering, toss the bad fruit, and it'll grow out of it.

CottageLife · #19 08/02/12, 08:53 AM

Thanks so much for all of the help! Our brocolli is florets, but it barely had one teeny one on it then flowered, a couple of the others we'd cut the first florets off and then it flowered before more came out.

I know we didn't water enough this year and I can't recall the last time we had this many hot days. It was a good learning experience and I'm glad I don't have to feed our family on the garden alone while I'm learning

CottageLife · #20 08/02/12, 08:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paquebot

Your broccoli probably had about a 3-day window when it was at or near the peak and then quickly bolted. It will do that regardless of the weather. If you were expecting something like you might find in a grocery store, that's rather hard to duplicate in a home garden. You also have to plant the proper variety as some are more noted for making florets than big heads rather than one and done of some commercial types.

You should now have enough experience to know when that first head is ready regardless of size. You want to pick it just as it begins to loosen up. You should never see a blossom. If it suddenly shoots up, cut it off about 2 or 3 leaves down and it will send up florets all around. Some of those may be almost as big as the original head. And when you realize the potential harvest of just a few plants, you'll find that planting less and harvesting more often is more productive than planting twice as many plants and scrapping half.

Martin

Thanks Martin - great post for a beginner like me!

How Do I · #21 08/04/12, 06:33 AM

I can always count on pitching the first few tomatoes of the year into the compost. Happens worst here with romas.