Thanks for visiting Lottie ...

So I’m thinking maybe ‘hell’ was a bit harsh and that tomatoes actually like growing outside (in the current temperatures they probably hate being in a greenhouse!) ...

HElp!! we have been growing tomatoes for three years now ( starting from seed in the greenhouse and then bringing them inside) with out a problem - this year however a lot of them are getting a black bottom and going rotton Why is this and how can we prevent it from happening???

Hi,
OK ... it may sound painful but I think from what you describe you may have got ‘blossom end rot’. This isn’t incurable so you’ve no need to think you’re going to loose your hole crop. When your tomatoes get blossom end rot you tend to find that it’s only the first few trusses that are affected and that you start to see less and less fruits affected as new ones appear. And it doesn’t pass from fruit to fruit – although you might as well cut off any affected tomatoes that you get.

What usually causes this is lack of calcium – and the reason that your plants may lack this is likely to be intermittent watering. Basically the soil immediately surrounding your plants will be drying out preventing the roots from getting at the nutrients they need to produce a healthy crop.

So, what you need to try to do is keep your plants moist all the time – don’t let them dry out and then deluge them with water (like we can all do from time to time). If it’s difficult to do this manually, set up an automatic watering system – it doesn’t have to be fancy or cost a lot, just find a system that will drip water constantly to the plants (look on the Two Wests site at the Bag Drip Watering Kit for example). And you might want to give your plants a boost with a fertiliser low in nitrogen but high phosphate.

I hope this helps ... and I’m sure you’ll be getting healthy fruit later in the season.