Tomatoes

Rice

Rice

Resident Smart Arse
I tried my hand at an old skill I have not done since I 29. Wow now I think of it. Because that is when I moved to Darwin. It is impossible to grow Tomatoes (Well very hard) there for there are very bad Nematodes that kill them that live in the soil there. Well anyway. I know a bit about it as ,well I am a smart arse. So I planted out my Tomatoes with 3 varieties.
Ferline hybrid, Heritage variety Ox heart and the back up which I was going to sell Thai peach tomatoes or Luk Tor as the Thais call them. I was well versed in what could go wrong and counter measures were taken. But alas I was besieged by two blights one was that strong NE wind that blew hard for two weeks in January the second was man made. It was a constant dust storm for a week from scraping up top soil in rice fields to throw away. This will be a topic for another day.
Well with the blights the Tomatoes got stressed and what is called Blossom end rot took hold. This is generally caused by lack of Calcium in the soil. This was one of the counter measures I did account for. But alas not enough. Maybe next time, if there is a next time.
The funny thing is, is that I planted the Thai Tomatoes as I figured they would be less effected by any problems, and they were worst effected. The other two varieties did not hardly suffer.
So here is the bottom line on the bottom line.

I have buckets of Tomatoes that are still good to eat they just need the bum cut off. Great for sauce making soups or what ever. I would normally do something myself but I lack the facilities in my Bungalow in the rice fields.

So who wants them? Or they go to the Chooks.
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I regularly receive gratis tomatoes from Bob's home garden. Surprisingly good particularly as he cannot even pronounce "tomatoes".

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Fact sheet - Tomato blossom end rot (082) (pestnet.org)

There are several reasons why fruits show signs of blossom end rot. These are:

  • A lack of calcium in the soil - sandy soils lack calcium.
  • Water - if there is either too little water, or too much, plants become short of calcium. For example, when plants are grown in plastic bags or on raised beds, and given too little water, the soil around the roots dries out, then becomes water-repellent, and difficult to wet again.
  • Hot and dry - if there is increased water loss from the leaves (a process called transpiration) because it is hot and dry, then plants divert water containing calcium from the fruits, and the fruits suffer.
  • pH - if the pH of the soil is too low, calcium may be unavailable to the roots.
  • Nitrogen - too much nitrogen fertilizer makes the problem worse; this is because nitrogen stimulates rapid vegetative growth and this requires calcium for the cell walls. The result is competition between the demands of fruits and other parts of the plant.
 
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