Most summers we hear the newscasters telling us
that we are in the midst of a drought.
No so this year!

This picture shows a common scene
from my window this summer.
And it doesn't really capture the ferocity
of the storms.
Driving winds, pounding... drenching rain.
It all adds up to my poor garden
taking a beating!

This is my corn field. Notice the stalks...
How they are not standing up straight?
That's what happened at the end of July.
Our first storm... what must have been
a tropical storm... came through with a vengeance!
The wind blew over our corn stalks and tomato cages.Fortunately, the stalks did not break.
But the ground was soft due to all the rain
so it was an easy feat to blow the stalks over
because the roots just lifted out of the soft ground.
This is my neighbor's corn field right behind their shed.For some reason their corn field fared worse than mine.
All of their stalks were blown over almost to the ground!

But as the days went by with no rain
and the sun dried out he soil...
these corn stalks stood back up
and continued to grow nice and tall.
My neighbor's corn is standing tall again too.
I guess corn stalks are pretty resilient.
Now I have ears growing on the stalks!Look at that beautiful silk growing!
This mess is my potato field.The pounding rain must have made the tall
stems too heavy so they fell over.
Unlike the corn stalks, these stems stayed
laying on the ground.
Despite the fact that my tomato plantshave blown over due to the winds...
I do have plenty of fruit on each plant.But all this rain is ruining my crop!
Blossom End Rot is running rampant
through my tomatoes!
Blossom End Rot is caused by not enough calcium
reaching the fruit, which is essential for the fruit to mature.
Whether there is not enough calcium in the soil,
or the plant is just unable
to bring the calcium up through the stems
enough for it to reach the fruit, the end result
is that you get brown, leathery spots on the bottom
of your tomatoes

Brown spots begin to appear on the blossom end
of the fruit (opposite from the stem).
The brown spot grows until it can literally
take over the bottom half of the fruit!

From above it looks like the fruit is growing fine
but turn it over and your fruit is rotting away!
It's very heartbreaking to see the fruits
of your labor being destroyed like this.
Frustrating too!

But what I don't understand is why it's
only affecting my tomato plants and
not my zucchini. Blossom End Rot affects
all types of squash, peppers and watermelon too,
but it hasn't affected any of my squash... so far.
Above is a baby pumpkin! Isn't he cute?Pumpkins are a type of squash, just like zucchini is.
Neither my zucchini or my pumpkins have
been affected by Blossom End Rot.
This is a larger pumpkin growing in my gardenthe yellow area is the blossom end.
But that's not rotten, it's just not getting sunlight
because of all the grass and weeds around it.
The fruit (the pumpkin) looks beautiful and is
growing rapidly and turning colors just like
it is suppose to.
So does this mean that I do not have
a calcium deficiency in my soil?
That maybe the tomato plants
just aren't strong enough to carry
the calcium up the stems through
to the fruiting tomatoes?
There are a few things on the market to help
stop Blossom End Rot, or at least help stop it
from infecting the rest of the fruit on your plant.
But most of the websites and people
I have talked to about this say that you
should water your plants uniformly!
This is very important for tomatoes.
Don't let the soil dry out before you water again.
Keep an even moisture level in your soil.
Don't fertilize your plants too early either,
like we did. This causes the plant
to grow too quickly and it doesn't
have a chance to develop a good root system.
Thereby not being able to pull the calcium
in your soil up to the fruit.
So most likely it isn't that I have a calcium
deficiency in my soil...
It's that we used Miracle Grow too soon
on the tomato plants, which made them
grow too rapidly, and now the roots
are not deep or developed enough
to pull the calcium up to the fruit.
Along with that, we haven't been
watering regularly.
We've thought that with all this rain
we've been getting two or three times
a week, that it was enough.
But in between those rain storms
it's been hot and sunny.
The soil has dried out (remember how my corn
stalks began to stand back up) which while
being good for my leaning corn stalks, it wasn't
so good for my tomatoes.
Good luck with your garden
And please....
Wish me good luck with mine!
Thanks,
TRW


































