Beef Eater Toms Rotting

kiwimama

I have a pretty good crop of green Beef Eater Toms on two plants but as soon as the fruit starts to ripen a rot appears from the base of the fruit where the flower was, I suspect this is Blossom End Rot but not sure how to go about actually getting these toms to rippen, I've had to take off about 4 fruit from the plant in the last few days as the rot sets in and I dont really see the point in the plant wasting its energy rippening them further - any ideas? At what stage will the fruit rippen on the window sill, would the rot still appear if I did this?

absfabs

Appearantly blossom end rot is due to high temperature fluctuation and possibly lack of feeding. Could you try feeding them a bit more? Are they in a greenhouse that gets too hot in the sun, perhaps you could ventilate more or shade them a bit (shading paint is cheap and quick)?

mcgrow

Yeah, remove the tomatoes that rot – no point spending energy on bad tomatoes. Blossom end rot is a problem with calcium absorption. There's lots of reasons why calcium in the soil isn't being absorbed though.

Is the plant in a pot or container? If so, the most likely reason is watering. You should be watering the plant regularly while there's fruit. Try not to let the soil dry out, while at the same time, don't let the pot be saturated with water for a long time.

kiwimama

There are two plants in a grow bag (a large fat tomato one) outside, not in greenhouse. Weather has been very mild last few weeks but I water every night (bag drains on to stones) and feed twice a week sometimes three times, maybe I need to do morning as well, tho my Gardners Delight have had a bumper crop with same treatment!

Lotus-eater

More than likely down to uneven watering. Larger beef steak toms and classic Italian cooking toms are more vulnerable to it than others.
You can take them off, or you can leave them on and just cut out the rotted bit at the end, when they are ripe. They do tend to ripen as smaller toms, so it's your call. You can use them in tomato sauce if you want, that's what I have done.

I would be feeding once a week at full strength, or more of the time at much reduced strength.
As with most things you have to keep an eye on the feeding and judge how you are doing.