For healthier, better-looking fruits, prevent common physiological problems from invading your tomato patch.
Photo by L.A. Jackson
Happy are tomato growers who begin to harvest healthy fruits, because it means they have managed to avoid the calamities often wrought by diseases and bad bugs. However, there are also physiological problems that can really mess up a patch of ’maters, and here are the top four nasties to watch for:
Blossom End Rot. This yucky, dusky spot on the bottom of an otherwise pretty tomato is usually due to a lack of the plant’s calcium uptake from the soil because of extended dry conditions. A three- to four-inch layer of mulch and regular waterings will help stabilize the ground moisture and prevent such ugliness from occurring. Occasionally spraying the leaves with a diluted solution of calcium chloride (available at most garden shops) will also aid in stopping this nastiness from besmirching tomatoes.
Cracking. Another disorder associated with uneven soil moisture. This condition creates concentric, unappetizing rings circling the stems or vertical splits along the sides of the fruits. Dry spells broken by frog-strangler rains can cause rehydrated tomatoes to grow too fast too soon and literally burst out of their skins. As with blossom end rot, mulching the plants will help steady ground moisture availability, as will regular waterings when the rains don’t come.
Sunscald. Appearing first as a yellowish, discolored spot on the top of a tomato, it then turns about as ugly as a case of blossom end rot. True to its name, the cause of this blemish is Ol’ Sol—too much sun. Sunscald usually happens to tomatoes that ripen on the upper parts of plants, which, with less shade from the foliage, can become overexposed to relentless sunrays. Conservative pruning (especially in the top branches) and using a light covering such as cheesecloth or a horticultural fabric like Reemay over the plants will help prevent the sun from doing such damage to ripening ’maters.
Catfacing. I also call this problem “early-itis” because it is the result of eager gardeners wanting to get their tomatoes growing in the very early spring when the weather is still relatively cool. Young fruits that start to develop in low temperatures are sometimes distorted into odd shapes, including—with some imagination on your part—cat faces. This disorder is only temporary because, as simmering summer temperatures take over in the veggie patch, any following fruit should be free of such weirdness.
June in the garden
• If you have holes to fill in the veggie garden, there is still time this month to plant such delectable edibles as squash, Southern peas, Swiss chard, okra, sweet potatoes, leeks, collards and mustard greens.
• A dollar doesn’t buy much these days, but in the garden, having a buck in your pocket is still worth something. The dollar bill is a shade over two-and-a-half inches wide and six inches long, so if you need to roughly measure row widths, pot diameters or planting distances and depths—and your tape measure is lost in the garage—a single note can come in handy.
Tip of the month
For better success with planters and hanging baskets this summer, keep these tips in mind: (1) Unglazed clay pots leach moisture through their sides, meaning plants in these types of containers normally have to be watered more often; (2) the smaller the pot, the quicker it will dry out; (3) trailing plants such as million bells, vinca, petunias, creeping Jenny and ornamental sweet potatoes can shade the pots’ sides to help keep plant roots cooler; and (4) the more you irrigate, the more plant nutrients are washed away, so water with a diluted liquid fertilizer at least once a month through the growing season.
L.A. Jackson is the former editor of Carolina Gardener magazine. Contact him at lajackson1@gmail.com.