One of my tomato plants is named Brer. You will notice the 2, count 'em TWO letter r's in this word. Like Brer Rabbit. If you take away one of the r's, you are left with what? BER. Which, as I have come to learn in gardening, stands for Blossom End Rot. As in black dot from hell. As in trials and tribulations of a new gardener. As in ruining my tomatoes and not appreciating this one bit!!! As in, totally my fault. Oops.
Yesterday, I came upon this disturbing scene:
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| An unsightly mess in my precious garden. Today, I spent some time doing a thorough inspection of my plants. First, I very sadly cut off the one rotten tomato - let me remind you it was my only beefsteak heirloom tomato that has grown so far. There are several new blossoms on that plant which is hopeful, but it's already August and I don't know how much time the plant needs to make the other tomatoes fully develop. Which means there is a chance that I won't taste an heirloom tomato this season. That's just so wrong! |
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| Looks like 2 tomatoes were growing into 1. It would have been an awesome Monster-Mater! Ack! |
Next, I discovered this less gruesome but still totally depressing situation on Shaq, the tall Big Boy hybrid.
So, of my 3 tomato plants (Shaq, Brer, and TBD), only Brer was untouched (so far). Maybe having that extra R in the name really is key. Having 2 specimens with black dots made me think that some horrible disease was quickly spreading and would take all of my plants away, next moving onto humans in the form of a flesh eating disease, causing mass Queens/Manhattan exodus. The truth, while clearly not as dramatic, is no less sad because it turns out I am the culprit. And any harm caused by me and that could have been avoided is almost on the same scale. You see that, right?
BER is usually caused by 1 or 2 things: calcium deficiency (I put crushed up egg shells in the soil several weeks ago, but maybe not enough?) and uneven watering. Ah. Okay. Effect noted, cause found. Me. I have been a bit lax in my watering lately. Did I mention I'm not a morning person? But when I have a day when I didn't water in the morning, I made up for it by either watering in the evening or, if it was a weekend, watering whenever I got up, say around noon-ish. Guess when they said that you should water in the morning, what they meant was: "You should water in the morning, idiot!"
Heard the message. Loud and clear. Lesson learned.
And so I plead with the Big Gardener in the Sky, "Save my plants and I promise to water in the mornings when I'm supposed to, even if I head straight back to bed afterwards and complain the whole time about having to get up to water these stupid things!" There. That should do it.
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| Black dot from hell. (While we mourn Shaq's otherwise beautiful child, please do take note of my cool purple gloves. Jealous much?) |
So, of my 3 tomato plants (Shaq, Brer, and TBD), only Brer was untouched (so far). Maybe having that extra R in the name really is key. Having 2 specimens with black dots made me think that some horrible disease was quickly spreading and would take all of my plants away, next moving onto humans in the form of a flesh eating disease, causing mass Queens/Manhattan exodus. The truth, while clearly not as dramatic, is no less sad because it turns out I am the culprit. And any harm caused by me and that could have been avoided is almost on the same scale. You see that, right?
BER is usually caused by 1 or 2 things: calcium deficiency (I put crushed up egg shells in the soil several weeks ago, but maybe not enough?) and uneven watering. Ah. Okay. Effect noted, cause found. Me. I have been a bit lax in my watering lately. Did I mention I'm not a morning person? But when I have a day when I didn't water in the morning, I made up for it by either watering in the evening or, if it was a weekend, watering whenever I got up, say around noon-ish. Guess when they said that you should water in the morning, what they meant was: "You should water in the morning, idiot!"
Heard the message. Loud and clear. Lesson learned.
And so I plead with the Big Gardener in the Sky, "Save my plants and I promise to water in the mornings when I'm supposed to, even if I head straight back to bed afterwards and complain the whole time about having to get up to water these stupid things!" There. That should do it.
A pox on black dots! Who knew this would be so complicated!
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