You know that song, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year”? I know people think of the Christmas holiday but when August arrives and tomatoes start ripening that’s the song I hear in my head. It doesn’t get any better in the garden, or the kitchen, than the month of August when so many plants are ready for harvest.
Unless disease strikes.
I joined the Suffolk Homesteading Forum on Facebook. It’s a great group of local, like-minded individuals who have vegetable gardens and many keep chickens. It’s a great place to ask questions and be inspired toward a more self-sufficient lifestyle. Recently, a member posted a photo of a sick looking tomato that had a great big black lesion on one end and asked if it was late blight — which was recently discovered on tomatoes at a Riverhead farm.
Sometimes it can be difficult to tell which disease caused that black lesion on the tomato’s fruit, leaves or stem, but the picture clearly indicated blossom end rot, another tomato ailment that seems to strike just as the fruits are turning ripe.
Blossom end rot is not caused by a virus or fungus but rather by either a lack of sufficient calcium in the soil or drought conditions that prevent the plant from utilizing the calcium. It affects tomatoes, peppers and squash.
Just as the name suggests a dark lesion starts to form on the blossom end of the vegetable. As the vegetable ripens the spot widens and can affect up to half of the tomato. See this information sheet from Cornell University.
Unlike late blight you will not see the black lesions on the stems and leaves, however, you may see some brown spots on leaves due to the drought. Click here for some great images of late blight and imitators on tomato leaves.
While late blight is spread on the wind during cool, wet weather blossom end rot is due to insufficient calcium. Insufficient calcium can be caused by either low levels of calcium in the soil or by drought stress and inconsistent watering which prevents the plants from utilizing the calcium in the soil. The recent seven day heat wave provided conditions ripe for blossom end rot.
Regular irrigation during dry spells and mulching to conserve moisture can go a long way toward preventing blossom end rot.
Robyn Perry-Lindsay, landscape designer, recommends Rot Stop to halt blossom end rot brought on by drought stress. Rot Stop can be found at our local Talmage Farm Agway in Riverhead.
And you can take preventative measures for next year by measuring the amount of calcium in your garden’s soil. When the topic of blossom end rot and calcium deficiency came up Peter Garnham, master gardener, commercial grower, and garden writer shared “I seriously believe that any gardener who does not have their soil tested annually by a soil-testing laboratory is wasting their time and money. If they don’t know what’s present and absent in their soil, people can add unnecessary fertilizers and omit things their soil DOES need!”
Garnham recommends Logan Labs for soil testing.
I add eggshells to my compost pile and clam, oyster and mussel shells directly to my garden bed. Over a long time the calcium will leach into the soil. Bill Van Schaick, manager of Talmage Farm Agway recommends lime with a high calcium level for deficient soils. While lime can raise soil pH Van Schaick pointed out that most soil on Long Island is acidic and can tolerate some lime. Just make sure to find out the pH when you have your soil tested.
If, however, you suspect late blight or you’re not sure what infected your tomatoes put a sample of the infected part of the tomato plant in a Ziploc baggie and deliver it to Cornell Cooperative Extension, 423 Griffing Avenue, Riverhead, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday. They will test the plant and, if late blight is confirmed, inform the plant pathologists that track the spread of the disease. Once Late Blight is confirmed it is imperative that you remove the entire plant, place it in a plastic bag and let the sun kill the plant and fungus. Throw the bag in the garbage. Do not compost infected plants.
In the garden this week:
• Sow Outdoors: Beets, Carrots, Cilantro, Collards, Endive, Fennel, Kale, Kohlrabi, Lettuce, Mustard, Peas Radishes, Rutabaga, Scallion, Spinach, Turnip
• Transplant: Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower
• Weed, Weed, Weed
• Mulch, Mulch, Mulch
• Remove any spent vegetable plants and plant some cool weather vegetables.
• Deadhead roses for a fall flowering
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