It has once again been a banner year for our tomatoes…or at least so far it has been. We aren’t far off our 2022 numbers and we still have a few weeks of growing & then some harvesting of all our green tomatoes to ripen in the house. I think we will be at least equal with last year, if not slightly over.

That being said, we have had some challenges this year. A few of our plants have been dealing with blossom end rot. We get the odd tomato every year that has this, but this year, 2 of our plants have consistently had it since mid-summer. I have taken to picking some of the tomatoes a little early to finish getting ripe in the house as the end rot doesn’t seem to spread quite as much.

Doing some research, I think one of 2 things could be the culprit this year. Although we always add new composted soil and tomato fertilizer into our bed, we may be lacking some calcium this year. It is odd that it is just 2 of our 12 plants having this problem though. So I am a little skeptical that this may be the issue. I would think more of them would be having this issue if it was a soil issue in the bed.

So my main theory is water. Drought can apparently be a cause for blossom end rot if the tomato plants water is fluctuating, especially during the peak time that it is producing fruit. This seems more likely the case. We were in a class 4 drought when I started noticing it, and have since moved to a class 5 drought with watering restrictions. Although I drip-feed, I am wondering if the location of the 2 plants is part of the issue. They are in the corner closest to bricks on one side and rock wall on the other. The soil around the base of those 2 plants may be drying out faster than the rest of the area due to the added radiating heat from the brick wall at it’s side.

It could also be that we changed to a landscaping fabric around the tomatoes, and perhaps the water we have going to those 2 is not sufficient for the plants to produce tomatoes that don’t have end rot. It will be something that I will need to be more cognizant of in the next growing season. It is too late at this point to do anything other than catch the tomatoes early so that I can still make use of most of the tomato.

Last theory related to water is that we did not have a dripper to each tomato plant this year because the pepper sprayers were also hitting the tomatoes and we didn’t want to over-water. The 2 that are having blossom end rot issues, don’t have drippers. Next year we will definitely be going back to having a dripper for every tomato plant. The peppers will be moved somewhere else, so we won’t need to worry about those.

I am lucky, only a few have rotted on the vine and have been un-useable. Most of the tomatoes have a bit of a black end, but 90% of the tomato is still good to use in salads, soups, sauces, etc. The few that did rot on the vine, were completely ripe and the end rot just progressed too fast for me to use the rest of the tomato.

Though somewhat of an eyesore, the tomatoes are still delicious. Plus, as an added bonus, I learned a new way to make some very tasty spaghetti sauce due to these tomatoes. They are a pain to peel and just not worth the effort, but I still wanted to make a bunch of sauce. I got a couple batches made with the good tomatoes, simmered on the stove in a pot, but I had a large mixing bowl full of the end rot ones. My co-worker noted that she had done some tomato soup by roasting them with other veggies in the oven and then pureeing it. I figured if we can do soup that way, why not tomato sauce. Well, not only did it work, but I think it may be my preference now! The stove-top version is always delicious, but it is more work, and I do find I end up having to add tomato paste because I want a thicker, noodle coating, consistency. The roasted sauce ends up thick and delicious, without needing the paste!

I guess we will see how next season goes. If I end up with end rot again, it may be time to switch my roma variety. But I’m not there yet, because 2 out of 16 plants is not enough to show it is the variety being sensitive to it. All the plants we gave away this year, had great tomatoes with no signs of blossom end rot.

I think I am going to have to share my roasted spaghetti sauce recipe. Stay tuned!