How to Eliminate Blossom End Rot

The dreaded blossom end rot! You have beautiful plants flowering and setting fruit and then suddenly you notice a problem. The ends of your baby veggies are turning brown and shriveling up. Once it starts happening on one fruit, it tends to happen on them all. What’s a gardener to do? Don’t worry, here are three ways to eliminate blossom end rot and set your plants up for success.

What is Blossom End Rot?

Blossom end rot is not a plant disease. It’s a physical malformation of the fruits due to a calcium deficiency. Once the fruits are deformed, they can die and rot, but some continue to ripen with only a small blemish on the blossom end. The problem develops when the plants are not able to absorb enough calcium from the soil to meet their needs. The calcium is transported as a water-soluble salt. It can be especially bad in dry years when rain events are few and far between. Because the fruits need more calcium than the leaves, the plant may appear healthy until the fruits start showing damage.

Fix Your Watering

The first logical place to fix a nutrient transport problem is in your watering schedule. If your plants aren’t getting enough water at the right times, they don’t transport the calcium up from the roots to the fruits where they need it. The key times for watering to eliminate blossom end rot are just before the flowers have set fruits. You can also use mulch around your plants to keep the soil moist so plants can use all of the water more effectively. High temperatures can increase water loss from the leaves of the plant. This increases the calcium deposits in the leaves, not in the fruits where you need it.

For plants that set large amounts of fruit at once, like determinate tomatoes, you need to water frequently to make sure enough nutrients are flowing throughout the fruit setting period. Inconsistent watering can cause the root hairs to dry out. This makes it harder for them to absorb the calcium from the soil. Water plants in containers daily to keep the soil from completely drying out in hot weather. If you notice blossom end rot on some initial fruits, you can’t help any of the already set fruit. Improve your watering (both frequency and amount), and you may be able to get a second harvest of unaffected fruits.

Fix Your Soil

If your plants are getting enough water and you’re still having problems, you may need to get your soil tested to see if you need to add more calcium to your soil. If you go online looking for blossom end rot remedies, there are a million ways people suggest to “fix” the problem, but most of them either don’t work or may actually hurt your plants. Here’s some myth busting for you:

Antacids (like Tums) – these pills do have calcium in them and probably won’t hurt your plants, because they don’t have enough calcium to make a difference. You would need about 250 tablets per tomato plant per year to supply the calcium you need.
Egg shells – egg shells do contain calcium and can increase the amount in your soil over time. If you have access to them, they are worth adding to your compost or working into your beds each year. However, they take time to break down so they will not provide enough available calcium for this year’s plants.
Milk – the amount of calcium in a glass of milk is not enough to make a significant difference for your plant, especially diluted and sprayed over a whole bed. Also, the leaves do not absorb calcium as effectively as increasing the calcium in the soil so the plant can transport it to the fruits when needed.
Epsom salts – these products have magnesium, not calcium. It could potentially help your plants with a magnesium deficiency, but not with blossom end rot. Too much magnesium in the soil can hurt your plants.
Banana water – bananas contain potassium, not calcium. It could help your plants with a potassium deficiency, or help because it provides more water, but it won’t improve the amount of calcium in your soil.

So what does work? If you’ve tested your soil and found that you have a calcium deficiency, then garden lime is the quickest way to fix it. You can also use dolomite lime which contains both calcium and magnesium if that’s what is available in your area. The package should provide some advice on how much to mix in for the area you want to treat. However, it can be difficult to add to planted beds without damaging their roots. There are also concentrated calcium sprays you can use to try to help existing plants without disturbing the soil.

Pick the Right Varieties

If you’ve gotten your water and soil right but are still having problems with blossom end rot, you may need to consider planting a different variety. There are varieties of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, squash, and melons that are less prone to the problem. Checking your seed catalog carefully can help you find options that may work better for your garden. This won’t help you fix a current problem, but it may help you eliminate blossom end rot from your garden in the future.

Not sure you are dealing with blossom end rot, but your plants have some sort of problem? Check out my blog post on Is It A Disease or A Deficiency to learn the three questions you need to ask to help diagnose your garden problems.

Ready to start a container garden for your veggies but not sure where to start? I can help! My Crazy Easy Containers guide has everything you need to get started. Enjoy!