"I & H" wrote:

I have loads of beautiful green plum tomatoes just waiting to become sauce.
The first two were reddening up so I picked them yesterday, from low on the
plant, and the bottoms were completely rotted out. The same thing happened
to most of my big boys last year. As soon as they start to ripen and pink
up, they develop a area of rot/mold at the bottom. The longer I waited to
pick, the more they dissolved so that they were just half-tomatoes,
beautiful, red, half rotten tomatoes...darn. The plants are pretty crowded
in my garden, they grew full and wide rather than tall (I haven't
planted plum tomatoes before), but the plants and green tomatoes seem
healthy until they start to pink up. Is it a water problem? We've had a cool
wet season here in New England.
Please help me save my sauce.....

Also, anyone have a good recipe for pesto? My basil patch took off this year
and I have boatloads of it ready. Looks like everyone will get pesto for
Christmas this year...

-Holly

Sounds like it could be blossom end rot. a nice picture here
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3117.html

A common enough issue for tomatoes. DO a web search you'll find plenty
about it. Lack of calcium in the dirt the trigger for it but I think
there is a water stress (too much/little) component to it as well.

I've not had this problem yet. I save eggs shells (i microwave the
empty shells to avoid really bad smells. I then crush them up (mortar
and pestal). I add some to the dirt at the begining and end of season.

I also use a liquid seaweed fertilizer whenever I have sick plants. It
does contain calcium. It can be used as a foliar(on leaves) or added
to the dirt. I'm not sure what the quickest way to help the plants
would be.

On squash I've gotten young fruit that are rotting from the end when
they are still not full size. They are soft and fragile. Literally I
touched one zucchini and the last two inches collapsed off into a wet
mass on the ground. I was shocked. I just got another one yesterday.
I've assumed it was insufficiently pollinated. I've had two zucchini
and 3-4 yellow squash do that.

DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email)
Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound
2nd year gardener
http://photos.yahoo.com/ph/royalfrazier/

"I & H" wrote in message
ink.net...
| I have loads of beautiful green plum tomatoes just waiting to become
sauce.
| The first two were reddening up so I picked them yesterday, from low on
the
| plant, and the bottoms were completely rotted out. The same thing happened
| to most of my big boys last year. As soon as they start to ripen and pink
| up, they develop a area of rot/mold at the bottom. The longer I waited to
| pick, the more they dissolved so that they were just half-tomatoes,
| beautiful, red, half rotten tomatoes...darn. The plants are pretty crowded
| in my garden, they grew full and wide rather than tall (I haven't
| planted plum tomatoes before), but the plants and green tomatoes seem
| healthy until they start to pink up. Is it a water problem? We've had a
cool
| wet season here in New England.
| Please help me save my sauce.....
|
|
|
|

Sounds like blossom end rot, which will usually go away on its own after
affecting the first few tomatoes. By and large, its a self-correcting
condition and it/s a common occurrence in many gardens.

Not much you can do about this year -- in spite of all suggestions to the
contrary, such as adding lime, eggs shells or epsom salts, etc -- it other
than to amend your soil with compost/organic matter, correct its pH, and try
to maintain even soil moisture.
--
TQ

I & H wrote:

I have loads of beautiful green plum tomatoes just waiting to become sauce.
The first two were reddening up so I picked them yesterday, from low on the
plant, and the bottoms were completely rotted out. The same thing happened
to most of my big boys last year. As soon as they start to ripen and pink
up, they develop a area of rot/mold at the bottom. The longer I waited to
pick, the more they dissolved so that they were just half-tomatoes,
beautiful, red, half rotten tomatoes...darn. The plants are pretty crowded
in my garden, they grew full and wide rather than tall (I haven't
planted plum tomatoes before), but the plants and green tomatoes seem
healthy until they start to pink up. Is it a water problem? We've had a cool
wet season here in New England.
Please help me save my sauce.....

Also, anyone have a good recipe for pesto? My basil patch took off this year
and I have boatloads of it ready. Looks like everyone will get pesto for
Christmas this year...

-Holly

Hey Holly, everyone agrees it's blossom end rot. I've had it on some plants
some years. Then I read, and I think it was in this group, that if you push a
calcium vitamin pill into the ground when you plant out, you can prevent the
problem. I've been doing it for the past two growing seasons, one 300 mg pill
per plant, and so far, it seems to be working.

EV